Three years ago the World Health Organization declared that SARS-CoV-2 had triggered a pandemic -- a declaration that is still in effect.
The date was March 11. I remember when NPR sent us all to do our jobs from home that month. A colleague said, "See you in June." I answered: "Probably more like September.”
The pandemic has taken an incredible toll since then and COVID-19 is still a grim reaper. In the U.S. alone, some 400 people a week die from an infection with the virus.
To mark this sobering anniversary, we’ve compiled 13 photos and 24 quotes from political and medical leaders from the weeks leading up to the pandemic declaration. On Jan. 22, then-President Trump stated: "We have it under control." Meanwhile, on Feb. 11, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, made this prescient observation: "If the world doesn't want to wake up and consider this enemy virus as public enemy number one, I don't think we will learn our lessons."
One of the most emotional comments came from Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist in Wuhan, who sounded the alarm over the new virus and was forced by Chinese authorities to sign a statement that he'd spread a rumor. "Obviously I had been acting out of good will,” Li said via an online post. “I felt very sad seeing so many people losing their loved ones. If the officials had disclosed information about the epidemic earlier, I think it would have been a lot better." He died of COVID-19 on Feb. 7, 2020.
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