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Five years ago, the world was brought to its knees by a virus. COVID-19 was a textbook case of how a new infectious disease could emerge, rapidly spread and, within a matter of weeks, cause dramatic loss of life, widespread human suffering and incalculable economic damage across the globe.

More than 7 million deaths are directly attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection as of February 2025, with more than one million deaths in the United States alone. But taking into account likely COVID-related deaths – what epidemiologists designate as “excess deaths” – data suggest that the pandemic may have caused between 19.1 and 36 million deaths (as of January 2023).

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The economic consequences of the pandemic are no less startling. When considering direct costs plus the value of the loss of health and life, experts estimate the financial fallout of the pandemic to have been on the order of $16 trillion.

Whether measured in lives or dollars, the COVID-19 pandemic exacted an unprecedented toll on the world. And given our understanding of just how severe the consequences were, it would be reasonable to think that we would have learned the hard lessons from that pandemic and that we would now be working in a coordinated and deliberate manner to ensure that we are better prepared to meet the next one.

But five years on, our memory of what we all suffered through seems to have dimmed.

How could we forget the ambulance sirens shrieking round the clock in New York City, the refrigerator trucks stationed outside hospitals to serve as morgues, the fear of getting too close to people in public or to expose family members to the deadly virus, the silent and dark streets, the banging of pots and pans at sunset to acknowledge the brave health workers, the admiration for the selfless essential workers, the terror whenever another variant was identified on the other side of the globe, the joy that followed the........

© Times Union