One year. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted so much of our lives since March 2020, when University Hospital first started taking care of patients sick with the virus.
Before that moment, the threat of COVID-19 felt somehow abstract—far away and surely not a threat to our normal routines. Since then, those routines have been upended so radically it’s hard to even tally the losses. Weddings and graduations gone uncelebrated. Bills left unpaid. Jobs lost, vacations scrapped, dreams deferred, friendships put on hold—and, in the most devastating of cases, more than half a million unexpected deaths across the Untied States mourned painfully alone.
But there’s another side to the tragedy of COVID-19. A story of resilience and fortitude told every day at University of Utah Health: frontline workers, essential employees, and Utahns coming together to save lives and virtually connect in a time of crisis. A research community answering history’s most pressing call to arms by conducting 200+ projects here at University of Utah while scientists around the world developed safe, effective vaccines in record time. Utahns from all walks of life becoming a bit more attuned to life’s unexpected upheavals—and the empathy required to live through them.
That’s the year U of U Health sees when we look backward: 12 months to learn from, 52 weeks to remember, and 365 days to commemorate, one pivotal event at a time. Our new interactive timeline takes a look back at a year of adversity and accomplishments: through photos, videos, data visualizations, and personal stories, we can explore just how far we’ve all come.