Five years. 

The first two when the COVID-19 pandemic broke in March 2020 introduced us to new vocabulary: Zoom, app used for virtual meetings since students could no longer meet in person at school. 

Distancing, six feet apart to prevent spread of the virus. 

Masks, not the ones children and teens wear to go trick or treating for Halloween. 

What began as an outbreak overseas soon led to similar illnesses among the elderly in the United States.

And within those first two years, many in the nation faced domestic global shortages of toilet paper, bottled water and masks as several states went into lockdown mode. 

Starting in the third year from 2022- 2023, especially in California, state officials ended their health and safety mandates. The next word became recovery, the mental, emotional and academic aspects.

2023-2024 and 2024-2025: Many have moved on from the challenges they faced, but some wonder whether government and health officials have fully understood how the pandemic started and whether the health and safety protocols were necessary to prevent the spread of the disease. Only this month did California Gov. Gavin Newsom issue a mandate requiring state workers to return to their offices for at least four days a week by July 1.

ZOOMING INTO THE ONLINE WORLD

The biggest shift in the lives of students and teachers was the move to online learning on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meets. 

Senior Christopher Kozlova said the shift to remote education brought new challenges with technology and changed his overall learning experience. 

“Before COVID, there was a lot more energy in the atmosphere, and as soon as COVID arrived, everything kind of shifted,” Kozlova said. “Zoom was very difficult because we didn’t use these online resources before, and it took time to get used to the new learning environment at home.”

Few recall anything positive from their remote learning experiences. 

“Shifting to online learning was really hard because none of my teachers really knew how to use technology,” senior Jackson Martinez said. “It was just kind of like teaching yourself, and I’m not really good at teaching myself; it was a rough transition.” 

Former English teacher Tom Wiegman, who retired in the previous school year only to return last month as English instructor Teresa McCarty’s long-term substitute instructor, agreed. 

“Online learning was awful, and it was not a good experience,” said Wiegman, who taught Advanced Placement [AP] Literature during the lockdown. “I couldn’t talk to students [during Zoom sessions], and some would just show the tops of their heads; I remember one student who put his Chromebook camera down, and he had Xbox and PlayStation controllers in front of him.” 

However, some students believe this shift to online learning was beneficial.

“I think the shift to using digital resources for learning would have came anyways,” senior Elijah Chou said. “COVID just made the process faster and it way I think the pandemic was kind of helpful.” 

Senior Layla Andre, who was in seventh grade in 2020, isn’t surprised she and her peers started finding something else to keep them occupied since their instructors had no way to monitor their students from home. 

If it wasn’t video games, then it was social media. 

“It wasn’t until COVID started that I joined TikTok and also X,” Andre said. “My screen time went up by at least two hours [compared to pre-COVID].”

SIX-FEET RULE: FACT OR MYTH? 

The first step to recovery was figuring out a safe way to interact with one another in public. This included methods like maintaining a six-foot distance from one another and wearing masks and gloves, presented by organizations such as the American Red Cross and emphasized by federal officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci. 

Though the protocols were followed, a June 2024 Washington Post article did not find scientific evidence to prove their effectiveness in preventing the spread of the virus.

Martinez doesn’t mind that six wasn’t really the magic number after all. 

“I know there is no scientific evidence, but I still think the farther away you are from other people, you feel better because the odds of bumping into them or touching them is higher when closer together,” he said. “It still helped us get in the mindset of ‘This is a pandemic.’” 

VACCINES 

It wasn’t until July 8, 2022, when the federal Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, that people had an option to seek medical treatment to give them some hope of avoiding the coronavirus. 

But some, including sports figures like tennis champion Novak Djokovic and Dallas Mavericks basketball point guard Kyrie Irving refused such an option. 

The most common reason behind the hesitancy came from concerns over how safe the vaccine was since it was produced in a rush. Sunny Hills science teacher Kelly Kim, who was among those who trusted such a medical option, said vaccines are an important factor in preventing the wider spread of prevalent diseases. 

“I know some people are still arguing that vaccines don’t work, but I think they definitely helped change some things in regard to preventing the spread of COVID-19,” Kim said. “At that time especially, it was very helpful that you got vaccinated.” 

Lohuwa Mamudu, assistant professor at California State University of Fullerton [CSUF] in the Department of Public Health, took part in a research that explored the perceived likelihood of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine among the U.S. population. 

In this study, Mamudu said certain groups of people — such as younger adults, individuals with lower income and education and those with a lower perceived risk of infection — were more likely to show signs of vaccine hesitancy and decline. 

“We found out that individuals of ages between 18 and 49 were less likely to perceive getting the COVID-19 vaccine,” said the assistant professor, who has been teaching at CSUF since 2021. 

Over the past two and a half years, 81% of the U.S. population received at least one dose, and 70% of the population has become fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

LESSONS LEARNED 

It doesn’t come as a surprise that many question the U.S. government’s early actions at the start of the viral outbreak. The last worldwide health scare, besides the one that hit Asia, was the Spanish flu in 1918.

“At the start of the pandemic, the government did not handle the virus very well,” Andre said. “However, over time, when the government started to take more action and precautions and people started to get vaccinated, we were able to recover to where it’s not a big deal anymore to get COVID.” 

Wiegman also questioned California leaders in their approach to the viral outbreak. 

“California was one of the last states to open back up, so we waited too long,” he said. “I was not a fan of some of the rules that the government put in place, and the people who were in the least danger were young people, while for old people, it was very difficult.” 

Although the vaccination and reopening of public places were implemented, hesitation and carefulness still remained with the country. 

“I remember when the lockdown was over, I started going out more,” Chou said. “But I had my mask on all the time and I was really cautious.” 

AUDIO CUTLINE: Spotlight magazine editor senior Angelina Jeong interviews Lohuwa Mamudu, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health at California State University, Fullerton, about how the world was impacted and recovered from COVID-19 in the last five years. Mamudu explains how the unexpected strike of the pandemic opened the eyes of the public on how to handle diseases and raised awareness of obtaining news from reliable sources. 

PUSH FOR MORE WELLNESS SERVICES 

Wellness centers, especially in the public school setting, were barely existent before the pandemic struck. 

Jake Gutierrez has been filling in for mental health specialist Staci Balliet over the past eight months while Balliet’s been out for maternity leave. Gutierrez said COVID-19 may not have directly affected the coming of Sunny Spot, but it did influence mental health awareness in general.

“The Sunny Spot opening on campus because of COVID may be unsure, but mental health has definitely been talked about and more normalized ever since COVID,” he said. “I think having more sources to get mental health help may have been the district’s way of helping students who were just coming back from online learning so they can better adjust and get help when needed.” 

It was officially reported back in 2022 from the WHO that the first year of the pandemic lockdown resulted in a 25% increase in the number of people globally with anxiety and depression. 

Mamudu said his research confirmed the need for wellness services, especially among teens. 

“We took a look at the general population before COVID-19 and after COVID-19 and how it affected depression and anxiety levels,” he said. “The results showed that after the occurrence of COVID-19, there was an increase in the number of people who had mental disorders such as depression and anxiety that went from 29.9%-32.2%.” 

WHAT NOW? 

Kim said she has become more optimistic as to whether the government will be prepared should another outbreak occur in the future. 

“I think that over the last five years, we learned to be more responsible, especially when it came to handling sicknesses in general,” she said. “Before COVID, when we got sick, we weren’t as cautious or considerate as to how the sickness can spread, but now, everyone wears a mask when [they’re] sick and stays home.” 

Some students still need more time for healing. 

“COVID affected my work ethic because I remember before COVID, I was more used to doing my homework right when I got home,” sophomore Valerie Miranda said. “After getting used to staying home for school, I started procrastinating regularly.”

Martinez said going through the pandemic changed his mindset, and he feels that the togetherness in the community grew stronger. 

“COVID brought everyone together because even though it physically put people apart, we all worked toward the goal of reaching the end of the pandemic,” the senior said. “It also made me more aware of my actions and care about how I can affect those around me, since before, I didn’t care about how everyone’s doing and what’s going on around us.” 

Mamudu said he believes the way we obtain our information is important when navigating through times of struggle like the pandemic.

“Although this virus was a shock to everyone, it has also come to open the eyes of the world on how to deal with strong infectious diseases like COVID-19,” he said. “More importantly, I think knowing and being careful of where you are getting the true information is key.” 

Looking back at the five years, Mamudu said the world has come a long way to form the recovered world we have today. 

“Right now, the evidence is clear that we have made good progress,” the assistant professor said. “There was a total decline in the death mortality rate as well as the number of infected individuals, which shows how we have made really great progress as the world as a whole.”