While the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic has waned for many since the disease first took hold of the world three years ago, its grasp remains strong for those dealing with the lingering effects of the virus.
Three years ago on March 15, then-Gov. Charlie Baker announced the imminent three-week closure of public schools in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The decision followed his declaration on March 10 that Massachusetts, officially, was in a state of emergency. Greenfield followed suit on March 13 with a local state of emergency.
“I walked out of my office one day and didn’t come back,” said Franklin Regional Council of Governments Director of Community Services Phoebe Walker. “I worked 12-hour days, seven days a week for a long time.”
What was initially expected to last a few weeks became a years-long pandemic, shuttering businesses and redefining business models; forcing students and teachers to adjust to a new way of learning; and changing the way communities saw the role of public health.
“I remember being pulled immediately into conversations with the command center about how to get funding and staffing for contact tracing to every town in the state as soon as possible,” Walker recalled. “We pivoted incredibly quickly to identify people who could join our one public health nurse as part-time contact tracers for the 15 towns FRCOG serves as a health department, and took on a number of additional towns temporarily as well.”
In addition to setting up a comprehensive system for contact tracing, public health officials paid close attention to guidance on masking and social distancing. They also were tasked with figuring out how to best manage the anxiety and panic caused by the pandemic. And in early 2021, vaccine clinics, largely organized by local public health officials, began popping up around the county.
“I think Franklin County can be very proud of how well we all worked together with our public health officials, town governments, businesses, health care institutions, schools and human service providers,” Walker said. “While we had many heartbreaking losses of beloved friends, family and neighbors, we also had some of the lowest infection rates in the commonwealth.”
On June 15, 2021, Baker lifted the state of emergency. President Joe Biden plans to lift the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies on May 11.
In the last three years, there have been as many 199,934 probable cases of COVID-19 in the state, and the disease has claimed the lives of a reported 22,365 Massachusetts residents, according to the latest data available from the Department of Public Health. In Greenfield, there has been a total of 5,178 lab-confirmed cases since January 2020, according to the Health Department.
For some, the virus resulted in minor, flu-like symptoms, often paired with a loss of smell or taste, that resolved within a week or two, while for others, symptoms were more severe and lasted longer. The most severe cases led to hospitalization.
For others, still, COVID-19’s impact extended beyond the initial infection or original symptoms.
“My initial symptoms resolved in a week,” recalled Julie Fallon, who said she experienced mild symptoms of COVID-19 in March 2020. “I thought, ‘This wasn’t so bad,’ and resumed my work trying to learn remote teaching. … In the months that followed, I experienced dozens of bizarre, disabling and terrifying symptoms. No one knew about Long COVID at that time, so I had no idea what was happening to me.”
Fallon, a Colrain resident and former public school teacher, said she experienced “crushing exhaustion and fatigue” during the first year while performing simple tasks like household chores.
“I would lay down on the couch and then realize I had been asleep for hours,” she said. “I couldn’t read or use a computer. Any tasks requiring concentration would make me feel sick and exhausted.”
In the fall of that year, she was referred to neuropathy, which helped to clear the brain fog, Fallon said, though she still has occasional relapses. Other symptoms she’s experienced include fluctuating blood pressure and heart rate as well as headaches, depression and anxiety.
Fallon is not alone. Roughly 1 in 13 adults, or 7.5%, nationwide have “Long COVID” symptoms, which are defined as symptoms lasting three or more months after first contracting the virus, according to data from the Household Pulse Survey, which works in partnership with the Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal agencies.
“It can happen to anyone,” said Maureen O’Reilly, a health care educator and epidemiologist at FRCOG. “For some people, Long COVID lasts for a while and then improves; for others, there are people who got sick in March of 2020 and are still experiencing symptoms.”
As of July 2021, Long COVID can be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
O’Reilly said there are resources for symptom management of Long COVID-19, including the Massachusetts General Hospital COVID-19 Survivors Clinic, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital’s COVID Rehabilitation Program and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital COVID Recovery Center.
“When we talk about resources, there’s the medical side of things, but I think people are finding help in support groups for people with Long COVID,” O’Reilly said.
Fallon — who recently returned home from Chicago, where she visited the Neurology COVID Clinic at Loyola Medicine and where she’ll return for treatment — said she has found “a lifeline” in the COVID-19 online support group, Body Politic.
“I think people are used to being sick with just one illness, like the flu, so it is hard for people to understand what it is to live with a multi-systemic illness,” Fallon said. “It’s complicated and complex. It’s like a game of Whac-a-Mole with different symptoms popping up all the time. There is currently no prognosis or cure, and any emotional, physical or mental situation that is overwhelming and stressful can bring on symptoms and lead to relapse.”
A list of resources can be found on Northampton’s website at bit.ly/3Tb4Nic. A list of upcoming vaccine clinics — one of the best protections against Long COVID, according to Walker — can be found on FRCOG’s website at frcog.org/project/vaccine-information.
“We have a long ways to go in terms of booster coverage in this county,” Walker said. “We’re really good on the basic vaccination, but there’s still a number of people who haven’t gotten the booster. … I think people have not understood that not getting COVID is not the goal of the booster; it’s to make sure you have a mild case when you inevitably get it, and that it doesn’t lead to Long COVID.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.