Exactly 4 years after the pandemic began, some aspects of that time remain in Kern County, for better and for worse
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – COVID-19 has not gone away and it never truly will, but exactly four years after the pandemic officially arrived, we can look back and evaluate how we have and haven’t changed.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic upon us, and four years of headlines, restrictions and breakthroughs ensued.
Two days later, on March 13, 2020, President Donald Trump declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency. It all came to an end, in a sense, on March 10, 2024, when the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center stopped collecting data for its famous COVID-19 dashboard.
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Four years of paranoia, and frustration, but also four years of community. Kimberly Hernandez of the Kern County Department of Public Health saw it all transpire.
“We really saw our community come together,” she said, “and really help — and help each other on a large scale, help each other on that small neighborly scale where (you’re) checking with your neighbor: ‘You need something? I’m going to the grocery store.’ I think that’s something we may not have appreciated before COVID-19.”
She saw the dark side, too, reporting the at-times ghoulish toll. After four years, 327,163 local cases, 9,920 hospitalizations, and 2,676 deaths. Not just numbers, people.
The pandemic interfered with the little things. LeeAnna Calderon got cheated out of a cap and gown.
“I was actually in the class of 2020 so I didn’t get to graduate,” she said.
Britnee White couldn’t share the initial joy of childbirth with loved ones.
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“It was just me and then the partner, that’s it, and then the nurses of course,” she said. “My grandma, the aunties and stuff, they couldn’t come visit.”
Restaurants learned how to serve outdoors or face extinction. Music venues suffered and so did churches. Steven Yeary, pastor of Family Community Fellowship, said he is filling about 60 percent of his pre-pandemic pews.
“There’s nothing the same about leading a church anymore, because we taught people how to stay home,” he said. “(People are) believing that they could have the same type of (worship experience) online, rather than meeting together. That actually defeats the purpose of what the scripture says we’re supposed to do, which is to be together. They’re more than content to stay home and watch it online.”
But as Pastor Yeary notes, families developed a new sense of closeness during the pandemic.
Consumers suddenly appreciated truck drivers, farmworkers, grocery clerks and delivery drivers. Suddenly they were essential workers too. And nurses got the recognition as heroes most have always deserved.
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Social distancing rules are a thing of the past, but hand sanitizer, Zoom calls and, to a lesser extent, face masks are still part of our world.
But there are the negatives. Lingering distrust of the government. Downward trends in vaccinations, even the widely accepted kind, like measles. Lapses in prenatal care.
We’ve got a ways to go. Four short years and so many lessons.
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