On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

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Community transmission of COVID-19 was first detected in the United States in February 2020. By mid-March, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, New York City, and four U.S. territories had reported cases of COVID-19.

The first COVID case was detected in our Metro on March 7th, 2020. That was someone who had traveled to the Northeast US.

My husband (who is an executive for a major research hospital system) started to work remotely after March 9th. Being self-employed, I chose to limit my all of my own away-from-home activities a week earlier. This came after I reluctantly had earlier cancelled my early February to late March extended trip to Australia & New Zealand. Seeing what was happening in China, I had an unsettling gut feeling about what was about to happen elsewhere. However, what actually occurred during these past 2 years has gone far beyond my worst fears.

At first, the novel coronavirus didn’t seem like a threat to the U.S. In late January 2020 - with fewer than 100 cases and no deaths outside China (where it was first identified) - the WHO was calling the new virus a “global health emergency". However, by March 11, 2020, the virus had grown to more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people had died. That's when the "health emergency" changed to being a "pandemic." On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced on March 12, 2020, that a Wyandotte County man in his 70s was the state’s first resident to die from the virus. At the time, the man’s death was the first reported in either Kansas or Missouri as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was a senior confined to a nursing home. Therefore, it was evident that his illness & death was the result of the virus already circulating within the Metro. Fast forward: according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment data the first Kansas death related to COVID-19 is now known to have actually occurred as early as January 2020 – not March of the same year, as previously reported. An individual in Leavenworth County died Jan. 9, 2020, followed by a Hamilton County resident on Jan. 15, 2020.


As much as we wish it not to be true, COVID-19 still remains a world pandemic: even two years later. This pandemic has taken far too many lives & is still continuing to take lives. At this point, the pandemic seems to have no true end in sight. Nevertheless, as U.S. coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have dropped from record highs, all US states have now eliminated their mask-wearing mandates. Diseases statistics (that were once considered horrifying) are now considered "acceptable" and the "new normal". Meanwhile, one state, Hawaii, says that wearing “a mask in public is still strongly recommended for people over 65, those who are immunocompromised, and unvaccinated people". Although the US and Europe may currently be treating the virus as now being “endemic”, SARS-CoV-2 around the world has not yet reached that point.

Reported COVID cases and deaths are declining worldwide, and several countries have lifted travel and indoor public-health restrictions. Nevertheless, “the pandemic is far from over, and it will not be over anywhere until it’s over everywhere,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Hospitalization and death are not the only negative SARS-CoV-2 consequences. There is also the matter of LONG COVID: a disabling combo of a myriad of horrible, long-lasting symptoms. This can surprisingly come on months after the virus itself has actively left the body. Long COVID can affect young and old alike. It can affect even those who may have only experienced asymptomatic or very mild COVID. Although there are now medical clinics especially designed to try to help those with Long COVID, no one yet fully understands the syndrome. The only thing that is 100% clear is that having had COVID opens the door to a long list of serious, long lasting health issues that currently have no cure.

As of now, more than 452.6 million cases of Covid-19 have been identified globally, and the U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases, with 18%, or 79.4 million, despite having only 4% of the world’s population. Oddly, most Americans seem to find this all as being "acceptable."