Pandemic hits 'stop button,' but for some life is forever changed
The end of the U.S. COVID public health emergency on May 11 comes with a set of policy changes, and it also brings a sense of closure to an extraordinarily difficult time. But for many people, life before and after COVID are markedly different.
As NPR reporters have covered the twists and turns of the pandemic, they have talked to hundreds of people – local public health workers, long COVID patients and people who lost loved ones to COVID, among many others. NPR called several of the people interviewed over the past three years back this week to ask for their reflections and hear how the end of the public health emergency strikes them.
The Bereaved Son
Miguel Lerma, 33, Los Angeles, California
In March 2021, Miguel Lerma had just lost two granduncles to COVID. It followed the death of his grandfather, Jose Aldaco, also of COVID. For the Aldaco family of Phoenix, Ariz., these three deaths – within six months of each other – shattered a generation of men.
More tragedy followed for Miguel Lerma. Last May, Jose's wife, Virginia, – Lerma's grandmother – died after a series of strokes. Lerma was raised by his grandparents and refers to them as "mom" and "dad."
"That was the last parent that we had left after the pandemic took away our dad from us," he says. "We really weren't prepared for that as we were still dealing with losing my dad." Virginia had recovered from a severe case of COVID for which she'd been hospitalized, and Lerma's family wonders if the strokes may have been a post-COVID complication.
Before the pandemic, Lerma was a high school dance teacher. He loves dancing and teaching but during the pandemic, the job was not the same. After a period of virtual schooling, the return to in-person learning was rough. "The students didn't have any motivation or
