Reflecting on Two Years of COVID-19 | Newsroom – UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine

Today we are marking the completion of our second full year of living and working through the COVID-19 pandemic. We have shared this experience, but we will remember it in ways that are unique to each of us.

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Dear School of Medicine Colleagues,

Please take a moment to read the below message from Wesley. We are at an important reflection point and transition period in this shared experience, and we should take time to process what we have been through and think about where we are going. I truly hope we will soon enter a period of healing. We all desperately need that.

Earlier this year, I shared that one of the ways I maintain a positive outlook is to remember how inspiring it is to work in a place that is making an incredible impact in research, clinical care, and education. This work is challenging and exhausting, but we are fortunate to do it alongside our colleagues who we would do anything to support.

Thank you for everything you do each day and everything that you will do as we continue to work together.

Sincerely,

Cristy

Cristy Page, MD, MPH

Executive Dean, UNC School of Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

Today we are marking the completion of our second full year of living and working through the COVID-19 pandemic. We have shared this experience, but we will remember it in ways that are unique to each of us.

In the future as we tell our personal stories of the pandemic, the exact number of months, weeks, and days will fade. We will never forget though the loss of family members, friends, and colleagues. Or, the time that passed between seeing grandchildren. The birthdays and holidays we missed. The year of virtual school. The anxiety of waiting for test results, the nights wondering if we will feel better in the morning, and the elation of vaccines.

Each of you will tell a story of doing work you never imagined building a field hospital, staffing a mobile vaccine unit, coordinating parking and logistics for testing and mass vaccine clinics. Sequencing hundreds of thousands of tests, managing vaccine trials, delivering infusions of monoclonal antibodies. These were projects without precedent. I hope we never have to do it again. Nevertheless, it is reassuring to know that we can.

We have learned enduring lessons and formed bonds that will carry through the rest of our careers. But, as we conclude our second full COVID year, its also natural to wish those lessons could have come through less painful means. The last two years have been hard. Physically, emotionally, morally, and spiritually. Youve worked too many hours, forgoing days off and vacations. Youve done it under unrelenting stress. Youve had conversations with patients that feel so unnatural to us as caregivers. We will wear these moral scars for years to come. This time has changed us all in ways that we dont yet understand.

In the present moment, we find ourselves in another time of transition. The mountainous peak of cases and hospitalizations caused by Omicron has fortunately declined. We are beginning to see a relaxation of many of the restrictions that have defined our daily lives throughout the pandemic. While many will rush to declare the pandemic over, you will still be working tirelessly as you have done for the last 730 days to care for very sick patients. Thankfully, we have new tools and treatments, but this is still exhausting work. While it feels like others are moving on, know that we will always do everything possible to support you.

Ill never forget the countless instances of empathy and small moments of grace that have defined the last two years. This pandemic has proven repeatedly that there is no way to predict what is coming next. Whatever that is, however, we will face it just as we have every other challenge. Day by day. Together.

Sincerely,

Wesley

Wesley Burks, MDDean, UNC School of MedicineCEO, UNC Health

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Reflecting on Two Years of COVID-19 | Newsroom - UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine