COVID-19’s impact in the Valley two years later
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – It was two years ago this week that our lives as we knew them changed abruptly as COVID-19 spread like wildfire around the globe.
Some of those changes are here to stay, while others have come and gone.
Over the last few days, Valley News Live spoke with educators, health care workers and the travel industry on how they’re pushing through the ripple effects the pandemic has left and the many takeaways and lessons to be learned.
To some, March 2020 feels like yesterday. To others, it’s like a different era in time.
“The first couple months were very anxiety provoking,” Dr. Avish Nagpal, an infectious disease specialist at Sanford Health said.
Hospitals and clinics became the last place anyone wanted to be in fear of catching the virus. Meanwhile those working inside were on edge as the CDC’s rollout of covid testing was a slow and rocky process.
“And that was creating a lot of anxiety because deep inside we knew the strain was circulating in our community already and we couldn’t plan anything because the testing was lagging,” Nagpal said.
Thousands of North Dakotans and Minnesotas have since died from coronavirus, but even more are still dealing with the damaging effects of it.
“By far the most challenging part was seeing anybody, but especially young people, who came in super sick,” Dr. Bill Heegaard, an emergency medicine physician at Essentia Health said.
While masks and telemedicine are the obvious long-term changes in health care, both doctors say one reality their pre-covid selves would have never expected is the distrust of science and vaccines.
“We have seen our vaccination rates decrease quite a bit unfortunately in all vaccines. We do think the coming few months or years are going to be hard in terms of we may see some resurgence of vaccine-preventable disease,” Nagpal said.
“It has been a very demanding two years and there is burnout. Just the divisive nature of this covid, that is really documented as a cause for people having burnout,” Heegaard said.
“You look at what’s going on in the school board meetings, significant push back on public health measures. That makes me a little worried. Covid will come and pass, but how we have a debate in our society, that’s a little worrisome,” Nagpal said.
COVID-19′s clear change in the classroom was the push to virtual learning which has been both a blessing and a curse.
The bright side: Districts like Fargo and Grand Forks were able to get a device with free Wi-Fi to each and every student. It also allows for the show to go on when quarantine rules and sickness come into play, as well as to reach those who would have otherwise been left out.
“It’s been one of the greatest progresses toward equity that I’ve ever seen in closing the digital divide. It allowed all of our students and families, not only to receive an education in a remote environment, but it provided some families that otherwise wouldn’t have had internet access, for just general communication and to keep up with the news as we go through a global pandemic,” Dr. Rupak Gandhi, Superintendent of Fargo Public Schools said.
“We’ve actually had asymptomatic teachers who had to be home for five days and they just taught from their homes and we just supervised their classrooms,” Dr. Terry Brenner, Superintendent of Grand Forks Public Schools said.
“Our school psychology program was redesigned to hybrid and online and now we’re reaching rural school districts who want some of their employees to be school psychologists that help out with some of the mental health issues that happen at some of the elementary schools and junior high schools. They were isolated at one time, but now they can actually get here, get the credentials they need and then serve the students in their region,” Arrick Jackson, MSUM Provost and Senior Vice President said.
However, educators say they found teaching and communicating through a small screen every day, and sometimes not even in real time, can mean a lot of things go unnoticed.
“There were students who slipped into the cracks. The isolation was difficult,” Stacy Duffield, NDSU’s Director, Office of Teaching & Learning said.
“Sometimes we can’t see that a student may need help. In a classroom, you can see how they come in and how they’re dressed, but in this format you can’t really do that so some things get lost,” Jackson said.
Another downfall of the new, virtual world is the negative impact it’s had on airports, and experts say they don’t foresee that changing any time soon.
“Our business traffic isn’t coming back across the country. They have obviously adopted Zoom and Teams and the other virtual meeting components, which for the airline industry, that typically would provide about 80% of their revenue. That’s just not happening now,” Shawn Dobberstein, Executive Director of Fargo’s Airport Authority said.
He adds, like most other industries, staffing shortages continue to hit the airline industry hard. At the same time, Dobberstein says near-record breaking travel numbers board out of Hector International Airport each month.
“We would have significantly more flights operating in Fargo right now if there were more pilots available and flight crews,” he said.
All seven people we spoke with emphasize it’s not all doom and gloom. Instead, they say while some of the last two years has been trying and dark, they’re all grateful for the hard lessons learned and hopeful for what’s next.
“We always talked about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It feels like we’ve made it through the tunnel,” Brenner said.
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