'YOLO', 'WFH', Zoom -- Bay Area Marks 2-Year Anniversary Of COVID Forced Exodus From Offices
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- When the vast majority of San Francisco Bay Area workers were driven from their offices by the COVID outbreak two years ago, few knew Zoom was a messaging platform, work from home was an option for just a select number of tech workers and the phrase 'You Only Live Once' was more likely to be a catchy name for a game show.
Life has certainly changed since March 12, 2020. But with new cases tumbling and the delta and omicron surges at bay, there has been somewhat a return to normal.
The once-ever-present masks can be ditched and will slowly be disappearing from classrooms. Weekly test requirements have been eased, air travel has rebounded and BART trains and Muni and VTA buses are crowded again during the commute hour.
In her State of the City address Wednesday, Mayor London Breed was ready to celebrate the new freedoms.
"We announce we are ending vaccine mandates for businesses," Breed said. "You guys all seem very enthusiastic about that. (Laughter) I for one am. I look forward to going to a club to have a good time without my mask. It's time...It's time to open up our eyes, it's time to open up our city. It's time to enjoy our lives after everything we've experienced, to see not just the challenges we face but the opportunities before us. To feel the pride in what our city has done and can do."
It was March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization issued its declaration of a pandemic, driving home the severity of the threat faced by a virus that at that point had wreaked havoc primarily in Italy and China.
The U.S. had 38 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 1,300 cases nationwide on that date, but reality was starting to sink in: stocks tanked, classrooms started closing and people began donning masks. In a matter of hours, the NBA was canceling games, Chicago's huge St. Patrick's Day parade was scuttled, and late-night comedians began filming from empty studios — or even their homes.
Since then, more than six million people have died globally, nearly 1 million in the U.S. and nearly 58,000 in the Bay Area. The emergence of the vaccine in December 2021 saved countless lives but political divisions, hesitancy and inequality in health systems have kept millions of people around the world from getting inoculated, prolonging the pandemic.
"The vaccine was really amazing," said UCSF infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. "It's a testament to where we've been in science."
But he's been surprised about how politics have played a role in the COVID battle.
"The way that a single mask would have become a political symbol when in health care it is such a normal way to protect yourself," Chin-Hong said.
"But with these successes, I think there have been many down points," he added.
Julie Kim, chief nursing officer at Providence St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, gets emotional when she recalls the bleakest days of the pandemic when doctors and nurses worked around the clock and didn't go home because they were afraid of bringing the virus back with them.
At one point during the summer 2020 spike, there were 250 COVID-19 patients in the hospital licensed for 320 beds and the hospital had to use offices for overflow bed space.
The pandemic has eased to the point that as of Tuesday, there were just four COVID-19 patients at the hospital, Kim said, and medical staff feels more prepared to treat the disease with the knowledge gained in those darkest days. Still, many are traumatized by the raw memories of the past two years and will never be the same, she said.
"It's hard to use the word 'normal,' because I don't think we will ever get back to a pre-COVID state. We are adapting and we are moving forward," Kim said. "This has had a toll on many of us. Some people are moving forward and some people are still having a hard time dealing with it all."
© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.