Dear Editor,

The air is heavy with remembrance, as five years have passed since the world came to a standstill, held captive by an invisible force that reshaped humanity. COVID-19, a whisper in late 2019, became a deafening roar by March 2020, dismantling the everyday and erecting a monument to uncertainty.

The losses were incalculable, not just in lives but in moments stolen — graduations uncelebrated, embraces left hanging in the space between caution and longing, and voices that never got to say goodbye. Families still light candles, whispering names into the void as they gather in silent reflection, bound by shared grief and the weight of absence.

In Jamaica, the weight of sacrifice has taken form, chiselled into permanence. A monument now stands, its stone unyielding, in honour of the fallen health-care workers who, clad in armor of scrubs and masks, stood at the front lines fighting for breath against an enemy unseen.

It is a solemn tribute, a testament to those who held hands through latex barriers, whispered reassurances through muffled voices, and gave everything so others might endure. Their names are etched into history, unforgotten. This is more than stone and steel, it is a promise, an oath that their sacrifices were not in vain.

Yet, across the ocean, where the first embers of the outbreak were kindled, silence hangs in the air. In China, where the first official death was recorded, the fifth anniversary is met with quiet restraint, a muted acknowledgment rather than a public reckoning.

No grand memorials, no processions, just a subdued nod to a past too raw and too complex to fully embrace. The streets of Wuhan, once ghostly in their abandonment, now pulse with life again, yet an unspoken tension lingers in the spaces between. The world moves forward, but the echoes of sirens still haunt the night.

From the wreckage of despair, something remarkable has taken root. Science, galvanised by urgency, soared to unprecedented heights. The pandemic forced the hand of innovation, and from that pressure breakthroughs emerged.

The rapid development of mRNA vaccines, once a theoretical marvel, became reality, saving millions. The very technology that shielded humanity from COVID-19 now stands as a beacon of hope for diseases long deemed untouchable.

Researchers now wield mRNA not just as a shield but as a sword against genetic disorders, cancers, and even the flu. The door has been flung open to a future in which the body’s own mechanisms can be guided to heal from within.

The pandemic, too, accelerated the rise of gene-editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9, a tool once reserved for the realm of science fiction. The approval of gene therapies, such as Casgevy and Lyfgenia for sickle cell disease, demonstrates the profound impact of this era of innovation.

The urgency of the COVID-19 crisis forced regulatory bodies to rethink the pace of approval, laying the groundwork for more efficient pathways to lifesaving treatments. What was once a moonshot is now a tangible reality, with scientists envisioning a world in which inherited diseases are no longer life sentences.

Yet progress is not without its ghosts. The urgency that fuelled these medical advances also left behind questions about trust, about oversight, about the fine line between necessity and recklessness. Critics argue that the pandemic response revealed cracks in the foundations of public trust, with rushed timelines and shifting narratives sowing seeds of doubt.

The phrase “Trust the Science” became a rallying cry, yet trust is fragile, and blind faith is not the same as informed belief. Science, at its core, is not infallible, it is a process of learning, of adapting, of refining. The lessons of the pandemic are not just in medicine but in communication, in governance, in the delicate dance between transparency and urgency.

So here we stand, five years on, looking back at a world unravelled and reassembled. The scars remain, etched into memory and stone, but so too does the resilience. The pandemic was a thief, a teacher, a catalyst, and a reckoning. From its shadow we have emerged — not unscathed, but undeniably changed.

The future it has birthed is one of potential, one where disease is met with innovation, where loss is met with tribute, and where the voices of those we lost are carried forward in the breath of those who remain.

Horatio Deer

horatiodeer2357@gmail.com