R E F L E C T I O N S
Steve Zylius / UCI
Lessons From the Longest Year ..............................................................................................................
T
By Bernadette Boden-Albala
his is not my first epidemic. Indeed, it was in the early days of HIV/AIDS, in a series of life-changing circumstances, that I was inspired to leave a planned career as bench scientist in cell physiology and embrace the study of public health. Partially motivated by tensions between the government and
communities seeking answers to and urgent treatments for a devastating disease, and partially motivated by my growing interest in the social interplay of behavior and virus, public health became my “cause,” and I have never looked back. There is no doubt that life as we know it has changed drastically in the last year. For most of us, COVID-19 will be one of the most impactful events of our life. After this sobering year, we will never again take healthcare providers and first responders for granted. We will forever honor those who have suffered and died. But I also promise that there will come a day when we’ll look back
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and talk about the year we all gained weight, endured toilet paper shortages, held virtual cocktail parties and made every recipe in the cookbook. We will even smile as we remember some of the more bizarre Zoom backgrounds and laugh as we recall the Zoom interruptions by children, animals and partners during the most critical of meetings.
