Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, many challenges remain

March 11th, 2022

carlos del rio lynn paxton jacob eichenberger — Friday marks two years since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 crisis a global health pandemic. Dr. Carlos del Rio, a distinguished professor of medicine and the executive associate dean of Emory University School of Medicine at Grady Health System; Dr. Lynn Paxton, the district health director at the Fulton Board of Health; and Dr. Jacob Eichenberger, a pediatrician at Augusta University Medical Center, talked with “Closer Look” program host Rose Scott about the past, present and future of combating the coronavirus. (Photos courtesy of the guests listed above)

Two years ago, the World Health Organization declared the rapidly-intensifying coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

In the time since, millions of people around the world have lost their lives to wave after wave of infection, and nearly every aspect of everyday life has been changed in some way.

“Although reported cases and deaths are declining globally, and several countries have lifted restrictions, the pandemic is far from over and it will not be over anywhere until it’s over everywhere,” said WHO head Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press briefing this week.

There are many ongoing challenges, he said — surging cases in some parts of the world, threats posed by new variants and barriers to getting vaccines, tests and treatments to populations that need them.

“This disease continues to spread and will be around with us, and we cannot consider ourselves done with it until we really have done what we need to do to control it globally,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious diseases expert at Emory University, during Friday’s edition of “Closer Look with Rose Scott.”

He participated in a roundtable on the current state of the pandemic featuring Dr. Lynn Paxton, head of the Fulton Board of Health, and Dr. Jacob Eichenberger, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta.

According to the state Department of Public Health, COVID-19 has claimed more than 6 million lives around the world.

That includes at least 30,000 deaths in Georgia.

Figures that large can be hard to comprehend, but behind each number is a life lived, and an Atlanta-area artist is helping families work through their grief one work at a time.

Leslie Murphy has created dozens of portraits of those lost to COVID-19. They’re made entirely of text and are inspired by the words of friends and family members.

For the second half of the program, Murphy and Caitlin Doyle, whose father, Sean, died in early 2021 after contracting COVID-19, talked with Rose about the grieving process and the importance of honoring the lives of COVID victims.

Leslie Murphy, Murphy’s portrait of Sean Doyle and Caitlin Doyle. (Photos and art courtesy of Murphy and Doyle)

“I couldn’t think of a better way to memorialize someone like my dad who was so into the arts and literature than with a portrait made out of words,” said Doyle.

“It’s a remarkable thing from an artistic point of view, and then just the level of personal meaning to it is really hard to even put into words,” she continued.