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For almost a year, it was the global epicenter of the pandemic.
The numbers of deaths and new cases of coronavirus in the United States, as is still the case in most Latin American countries, have piled up in dismal tolls that have added new records every day.
The reality there, however, is now completely different.
In recent months, high doses of immunization have led to a marked decrease in infections and deaths.
And as a result, for the first time in over a year, in most of the country, they have stopped requiring the wearing of masks, parties and concerts are held, restaurants and planes are full and Hospital covid rooms are starting to empty or shut down.
But how has this changed people’s daily lives? How are some of those who have seen their lives and their work on the brink now in the most difficult times of the pandemic?
At BBC Mundo, we tell you the stories of three of them, which perhaps could be that of many other countries as vaccination progresses.
Craig Spencer, emergency physician and global health expert at Columbia Medical Center in New York
Craig Spencer is director of global health in emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.
I’m a doctor in an emergency room in New York and haven’t seen a covid-19 patient for over a month. I can’t remember when was the last time a coronavirus patient died while on one of my shifts.
It’s great when my job goes back to what it used to be.
Before we had the first case of coronavirus in March 2020, we thought we knew what was coming. We had seen what was happening in China, what was happening in Italy… And we were trying to prepare.
Now that I look at it in perspective, there was no way we could really prepare for what was going to hit our emergency room, first here in New York, then across the country.
On March 1, 2020, I remember there was only one case and a week later almost all of the cases that arrived were due to the coronavirus.
We still didn’t have enough tests to do and we had this huge, incredible mass of patients coming in minute by minute, hour by hour.
In most cases, in an emergency room, it’s usually rare for someone to die on you. Most of the time at work I didn’t have to turn on a ventilator and intubate a patient.
But during the coronavirus, it happened every time I went to work. I had five or six people in shifts who died in the ER and you didn’t have time to treat because so many serious patients were coming in that you couldn’t stop.
We worked to save lives, we did everything we could, but during those weeks in New York there were so many cases and patients so serious that many times our efforts were in vain.
For us it was very exhausting, both physically and mentally. And it went like that in teams and in teams for weeks and weeks. Sometimes I walked to work and felt like I was walking towards the apocalypse.
The pandemic has destroyed businesses, such as theaters and restaurants, which employed about a fifth of New York’s workforce.
Now everything has changed.
The cases that happen to the emergency room are more of the kind of things we are used to seeing: sprained ankles, stroke, heart attack …
I know this is not the end of covid, there is no doubt about it. We will have more cases and deaths. There are new varieties … but nothing we saw last year is going to happen again.
Now we know the disease better, we are better prepared and we have the vaccines. I am also vaccinated, so the risk for me is also lower.
What if my job is more boring now? I would say it’s back to normal, like before.
And it’s good. This is what we are used to. That’s the way I like it.
Yuan-Qing Yu, Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist and music professor at Northwestern University
Yuan-Qing Yu also conducts a chamber music ensemble called Civitas Ensemble.
My name is Yuan-Qing Yu. I am a violinist and teacher and my first concert after the coronavirus was last week: it had been 460 days since I had played for a live audience.
I still remember the start of confinement.
We had a concert planned that night with a great program at the Chicago Symphony. I was leaving the house when a colleague called me and told me the concert had been canceled.
Since then my life has been interrupted, everything I do, the cinemas I have been to, the events I have attended have been canceled.
I also had to go through the process of teaching the courses online, trying to find ways to keep my students glued to a screen.
It wasn’t easy at all. I spent several weeks adjusting mentally.
The return to live music is gradual. A few months later, we were able to play again, but it was online concerts, each from their home.
At the end of the year, we were able to play all the musicians together again, very distant and with a mask, but without an audience. And it felt good, because I was with my colleagues, but I didn’t have the opportunity to play for my audience.
Last week when I replayed it was a monumental occasion for me …
When you have an audience in front of you, you focus not only on the precision, but on the energy and excitement of the nature of the live concert.
When you perform in front of an audience, as a musician, you feel the energy of the people watching you. Even if in our concerts the public will only listen, the musicians feel their presence, we feel their breath, how they react to the intensity of certain movements.
The first time we rehearsed with the orchestra for this concert, it was not very memorable. I thought it was going to be a very dramatic moment after all this time …
It was actually something very common: it was a program that we were all familiar with and I didn’t feel or nothing extraordinary happened: it was as it should have been, normal, natural.
But then I realized that there was something wonderful going on here: I hadn’t known what it was to feel something normal, something like before for a long time.
The highlight for me was when we came back to play for the audience.
It was a different gig: although all tickets sold out within an hour, many seats were empty to allow physical distancing in the audience.
The musicians were further away than usual and we were all wearing masks. When the lights went out, something happened that will always stay in my memory.
Usually, we musicians get applause at the end of movements or songs, but on this day the recording that usually greets and asks the audience to turn off their cell phones begins by saying, “welcome”.
And people started to applaud with incredible emotion.
It was a beautiful moment for me. I remember I smiled. I felt welcome.
I felt those of us who were there were lucky. Fortunately to be there. Fortunately because despite everything, a year later, we are alive.
Leandro Parreira, commissioner of an American airline.
Leandro Parreira is from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
For 11 years I started working as a flight marshal in my country, Brazil, and three years ago I realized my dream of joining one of the major airlines in the United States.
It was a great opportunity to meet new places, new people, new cultures, to practice new languages, to be in a different place every day, with different people …
A little over a year later, the pandemic began.
When you work in this industry, you know that there is a daily and timeless threat: from a plane crash to a terrorist attack, a person or group trying to hijack your plane … But you never imagine that something as small as a virus could turn the world – and your work – the other way around.
At the start of the pandemic, it was very rare to fly to our destinations. The planes were practically empty: the passengers, who are our reason for working, were not on board. Many times we were just crew members.
It was just the start. Many flights were canceled, many countries closed their borders and there too began the fear of losing our jobs.
I did not fly until last June. I was working as a driver for Uber or Lyft, trying to study for other things … I didn’t know if I could get on the plane.
But this bad stage has passed.
I’m already working again and people fill planes, travel on vacation and party. Flights and airports are crowded again
It’s so good to fly again. I feel so free. My life has taken on meaning.
The pandemic seems to be behind us. You must always wear masks on flights and it is uncomfortable for everyone.
But after what we’ve been through, it’s now the least important.
.
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