Is the coronavirus pandemic over? With most regulations and restrictions lifted and UO courses having few remote options, it appears as though COVID-19 has become a part of history. This is far from the truth. Though not as pertinent, the virus is still affecting the UO and Lane County community, with new cases still being recorded daily in Lane County. The week of Jan 15, there were 217 reported new cases. Rather than questioning whether it continues, the better question might be how COVID-19 should be handled in a post-pandemic setting.
Lane County: post-pandemic
Though vaccinations and preventative actions heavily diminish the impact of COVID-19, there is still no known cure. Because of this suppressed impact, Lane County removed social restrictions—mask and distancing regulations for indoor spaces—as of March 15, 2022, putting the responsibility of community safety on the individuals within it. Consequently, more than a year of isolation potentially weakened immune systems just in time for flu season. Also, the unpredictability of COVID-19 sheds light on the importance of “health literacy” and trust in public health officials. Ultimately, it is important to keep learning from the pandemic.
“COVID and infectious diseases are not something our current technology will allow us to conquer, we have to live with them,” Jason Davis, a public information officer for Lane County Health and Human Services and lead spokesperson for its COVID-19 response, said. “Part in living with it is reacting rather than controlling.”
While Lane County Public Health currently mandates no regulations or restrictions in response to COVID-19, there are suggested actions, getting vaccinated, staying home when sick and washing your hands, in order to keep the community healthy
UO: post-pandemic
The University of Oregon provides similar suggestions to the county, including symptom checks, ensuring the availability of masks and washing hands. However, the lack of concrete restrictions entails an individual choice of action. Still, it’s essential for individuals to care for their health in order to not endanger the community.
Some students feel that COVID-19 precautions are less relevant in the wake of vaccines. UO junior Mackenzie Garner said she doesn’t wear her mask anymore, but when feeling sick she tests and either stays home or wears a mask to class if she is not positive for COVID-19. “I still think it’s important to be aware, but if you’re vaccinated there shouldn’t be much concern,” Garner, an art and technology major, said.
Camilla Kim, a UO senior majoring in architecture and art and technology, felt similarly. “I think people should still wear masks when sick, especially in class since it’s such a closed area,” Kim said.
While student behavior is crucial to the safety of the UO community, students are not the only ones affected by COVID-19. Instructors also had to adapt to changes after more than a year of virtual learning. With restrictions being lifted as of March 19, 2022, and classes becoming predominantly in-person, many instructors were put in limbo.
“I’m relieved, I feel like I can teach better now,” Yoko O’Brien, a UO Japanese senior instructor, said. “[But] every week I get emails from students: ‘I got COVID,’” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said language teaching is heavily communication-based. Now that classes are in-person and mask-free, she feels as though students can learn to the best of their abilities.
“I’m really happy for them to freely participate in class activities,” O’Brien said.
However, since language courses typically have fewer students and rely on conversation amongst peers, O’Brien shared the importance of her health in the learning of her students. She feels a responsibility to her students to wear a mask and take precautions to avoid a return to virtual learning.
“I don’t like masks, trust me, I don’t want to teach in the class with a mask because I have to shout, but if I get COVID, all the class becomes Zoom, that’s why I’m really worried,” O’Brien said. “That’s a whole week of everything becoming Zoom, and I really want to avoid that as much as I can.”
While COVID-19 certainly brought adversity for students and instructors, there were some net positives to virtual learning during the pandemic.
As a UO student who has experienced an 8 a.m. class, Kim has an appreciation for Zoom options. “I like online classes; you don’t have to get up early, get ready, find parking,” Kim said. “I feel like they should have online options, especially during summer.”
Garner had experience with online courses before COVID-19. She felt like Zoom wasn’t the best option for learning online and offered an alternative solution. “It definitely would’ve helped if it was a different sort of software,” Garner said. “Blackboard Collaborate and it was specifically for teaching and all these interactive tools and stuff, and I think something more akin to that would’ve been a lot more beneficial.”
Without prior knowledge of Zoom, O’Brien didn’t know if it would be possible for her to do virtual learning. Despite the struggle, O’Brien didn’t stay defeated. “I learned how to do the option with Zoom,” O’Brien said. “Now, I have that skill for meeting with students and staff and such.”
COVID-19’s uncertain future
COVID-19 has yet to “settle into a season,” according to Davis, so it is unpredictable in its effects on communities. Rather, COVID-19 peaks based on the ways different communities interact and socialize.
“COVID is part of living together. It is a symptom of what population growth and decreasing space between humans is going to result in,” Davis said.
After more than a year of limited socialization, people could build what is called a “naive” immune system, Davis said.
“Your body is constantly learning new viruses and new bacteria and how to respond to them,” Davis said. “If you reduce that by like 10%, it has a huge impact on your immune system. It’s coming into contact with fewer viruses, fewer bacteria and more often.”
Additionally, the Hygiene Hypothesis suggests childhood exposure to viruses and germs benefits the immune system. Current studies surround asthma, but there is curiosity about a possible link to the pandemic lockdown possibly affecting immune systems.
Rapid re-socialization after the lifting of mandates and the potential cultivation of “naive” immune systems created an environment for a particularly infectious flu season.
Flu Bites, the Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) influenza surveillance report, corroborated this. They perform weekly reports of Oregon’s influenza rates, hospitalizations, etc. For the first full week of December 2022, the OHA reported 32.3% positive influenza tests while in December 2021 it was only 0.6%.
Presumably, this is due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and the minimal socialization, but the report of December 2018 was only 8.4% positive influenza tests, pointing to a possible change in immune system health after re-socialization.
For Lane County it was the “worst flu season since 2017,” Davis said. He said influenza vaccination rates for adults were down 10-15% this season which didn’t help the already unfavorable conditions.
Although there are no longer official regulations and the “imminent” danger of COVID-19 has somewhat subsided, Davis said individuals should start being more community-minded in their approach to COVID-19. “Your health has an impact on all those communities you interact with,” Davis said.
Davis highlighted the importance of “health literacy” in communities and at large. Health literacy is defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention—updated in August 2020—to “emphasize people’s ability to use health information rather than just understand it.” Trust between health officials and citizens is necessary for the usage of health literacy. The mistrust during the pandemic made the sheer impact of COVID-19 unpredictable.
As of August 2022, 21% of people in Oregon have yet to receive one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. That is 702,630 people unvaccinated in Oregon. 60% of people in Oregon haven’t gotten a booster shot.
“Yeah, it might get here, it’s a coronavirus, it’s like the common cold,” Davis explained health officials’ thoughts in January 2020. This insinuation was based on trust that clearly was not present.
He feels that it “really falls on the shoulders of public health” to have better-prepared people on the possibilities of COVID-19 which could have “circumvented” a lot of the impact. It was the responsibility of health experts to build trust with people.
“Typically you trust the experts, and we didn’t see that sort of just general trust in our experts on the government levels and even community level,” said Davis.
It is crucial for people to adapt to more safe and more conscious lifestyles. COVID-19 quickly became one of the worst things to affect society because of the widespread lack of preparation. If people make efforts to take care of their own health and learn from it, communities will be able to move forward in healthier ways.
“It’s impacting us in a different way, but it is still very much here, and it’s ingrained and a part of who we are,” Davis said. “COVID is absolutely one of those things that we must learn from and that we must evolve from.”
