🔒This pandemic is about people

The announcement on Nov. 13 of the scheduled reopening of the UMass Memorial DCU Center Field Hospital gave me a deja vu moment: Here we go again. The truth is hospital and state leaders anticipated we would once again need the field hospital, but I was hopeful we would have turned the corner by now and be advancing toward the old normal. We are now in the process of recruiting caregivers to help staff the field hospital and to care for patients living with COVID-19 (if you would like to join the efforts at the field hospital visit www.umassmemorialresponds.com and apply). 

Massachusetts has lost 10,000 people to this virus and as of this writing more than 750 people are hospitalized. This war with COVID-19 is about people. The people who have succumbed to the virus, those who have beaten it back, and those currently struggling with this coronavirus. It is also about the people who feel their lives have not been touched in any way by the virus. Many of these people scoff at mask mandates and at crowd restrictions – some even refuse to believe this pandemic is real. The pandemic is about the people who have faithfully followed the advice and guidance of medical experts and scientists and are doing their best to protect themselves and the people they interact with daily.

Over the past eight months, we have shared powerful stories of people and their personal battles with COVID-19. There was the story about the UMass Memorial nurse practitioner who had not eaten dinner with his wife and kids for weeks because he was serving on a COVID-19 unit and wanted to protect them. I will never forget the story of the woman who was COVID-positive, gave birth and was only able to see her newborn after spending more than a month in the intensive care unit. We told the story of a patient who spent more than two months in an ICU bed at our hospital. His discharge was roundly celebrated by our caregivers.

Whether or not we are successful in preserving life and getting back to the old normal, where schools are open, weekend hockey games are a thing, and the Patriots have thousands of screaming fans urging them on at Gillette Stadium, is also about people and it always has been. It seems we have let our collective guards down and allowed the pandemic to creep into our lives once again. To be sure, the virus has never really left us completely, but we had momentum and the numbers were dwindling all across the state. We are now witnessing an upswing in the opposite direction. People must remember to do the things that helped us weather the first surge: wear a mask, wash your hands, practice social distancing and get a flu shot. How long we remain in the grips of COVID-19 depends on our willingness and patience to follow the rules. To keep businesses open and people working, we all have to make these sacrifices.

Tony Berry is the senior director of media and public relations at UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester.