Health, community leaders gather to reflect on COVID-19 experiences
Event description
Five years ago – in December 2020 – the U.S. was averaging around 2,400 COVID-19 deaths per day. Health care workers wore pictures of themselves because patients couldn’t see their mask-covered faces. More than 15 million people had contracted COVID in the U.S. since the beginning of the pandemic.
A symposium hosted by UIC Nursing’s Midwest Nursing History Research Center last month marked the fifth anniversary of COVID-19, by both recalling those dark days and by encouraging healing, growth and understanding in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Organized by center director Karen Flynn and assistant director Shannon Simonovich, the symposium brought together community representatives and health experts to the college’s Third Floor Event Center on Nov. 15.
“The symposium offers an opportunity to reflect on what we have endured, to honor those we have lost, and to celebrate the resilience, compassion, and commitment that have guided us forward,” Flynn said in her opening remarks.
In attendance were UIC Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda, vice chancellor for health affairs Robert Barish, Mile Square Health Center director Karriem Watson, UIC Nursing Dean Eileen Collins, as well as community leaders and elected and appointed officials.
About the keynote
Unequal impact
Olusimo Ige, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, delivered the keynote address, after an introduction from UIC Nursing alumna and assistant director of the Illinois Department of Public Health Janice Phillips, PhD ‘93.
In her address, Ige noted that 2020 saw the largest single drop in life expectancy since 1918. Death rates among young adults aged 18 to 44 increased by almost 50%. COVID-19 led to 4,000 deaths in the city of Chicago in one year.
And while every community was affected, Ige said “COVID-19 did not have equal impact,” hitting the South and West sides of Chicago hardest. Life expectancy for Black Chicagoans dropped to less than 70 years old.
“This is a virus,” Ige said. “It was not discriminatory, but the impact of the virus was discriminatory.”
The pandemic led to social and financial consequences, Ige said, including people losing income because they couldn’t work, and increases in gun-related violence, motor vehicle accidents, and drug overdose fatalities.
Ige also emphasized the effect that vaccines had on changing “the trajectory of the pandemic,” noting a dramatic decrease in deaths between 2022 and 2023 after almost 90% of Chicagoans had gotten vaccinated.
“COVID vaccines were a success story,” Ige said. “I don’t want us to ever forget it; 4,000 people [in Chicago] were dying a year until we got vaccines in the mix.”
COVID-19 perspectives
Voices of the community
Janet Lin, who is a UIC professor of emergency medicine and chief strategy officer at UI Health, spoke about the continued impact of COVID, including long COVID. She is investigator for several COVID-19-related studies, one of which is RECOVER, a study which seeks to understand, treat and prevent long COVID.
Lin noted the importance of reflecting on COVID-19 experiences.
“History can give us the tools to analyze and explain the problems in the past, such that we can actually see patterns that might otherwise be invisible … to help with solving our current problems and our future problems,” she said.
The program also featured spoken word poetry from Tawana Robinson and included a panel of perspectives from leaders representing Chicago communities hit hardest by COVID-19. This included Omar Aquino, Illinois state senator; Rev. Johnny Harris, Major Adams Community Committee; RoxAnne LaVaille-Unabia, statewide manager of Native American Diversity & Inclusion; Raul Maldonado, Howard Brown Health; and alumna Beena Peters, DNP ’17, MS ’94, Cook County Health System chief nursing executive.
Proclamations from the Office of the Mayor Brandon Johnson (Chicago), the Cook County Board of Commissioners and the Office of Governor JB Pritzker, which declared Nov. 15, 2025, as COVID-19 Commemoration Day, were also read.
Collins delivered the concluding remarks, recalling the emotional response some people had when they first received the COVID-19 vaccine.
“The COVID crisis did leave some scars for many of us,” she said. “It was a time of profound loss for many of us, but I personally believe it also brought out the best in us. It brought out the community. It brought out people stepping up to respond to the crisis and, instead of saying, ‘where can I hide?’ they said, ‘what can I do?’”