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New technology, and mistrust, is legacy of Covid-19 for Vermont public health
https://vtdigger.org/2025/03/14/new-technology-and-mistrust-is-legacy-of-covid-19-for-vermont-public-health/The pandemic left the state with a variety of tools to help conquer public health challenges. However, experts are concerned about the gaps in federal leadership for future crises.
by Erin Petenko March 14, 2025, 6:55 am
Health care workers wheel a Covid-19 patient through a hallway at the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington on Dec. 13, 2021. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Five years ago, Vermont health officials announced the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the state.
Since then, 1,200 Vermonters died from Covid, countless residents were infected and hundreds of thousands of Covid jabs were put in the arms of Vermonters.
Last month, the health department announced that it would stop publishing Covid death and case data after years of daily and weekly tracking. The change is the latest shift in how Vermont now views Covid as an “endemic” disease, more like the flu or other seasonal illnesses than a pandemic that stands as the forefront of public health priorities.
Vermonters have gotten older, but has the state gotten wiser? Are officials better and more prepared to tackle public health crises as they arise? Or is Vermont primed to repeat a cycle of needless suffering and death?
The legacy of Covid goes well beyond the impact of the virus itself. Covid has left Vermont with tools that could help address longtime public health challenges along with emerging threats — and with vulnerabilities in public trust and health systems.
Officials at the Vermont Department of Health say that Covid was the most daunting challenge they have ever faced, but it left them with new tools and structures that they have implemented in their day-to-day work.
. . .
Since then, 1,200 Vermonters died from Covid, countless residents were infected and hundreds of thousands of Covid jabs were put in the arms of Vermonters.
Last month, the health department announced that it would stop publishing Covid death and case data after years of daily and weekly tracking. The change is the latest shift in how Vermont now views Covid as an “endemic” disease, more like the flu or other seasonal illnesses than a pandemic that stands as the forefront of public health priorities.
Vermonters have gotten older, but has the state gotten wiser? Are officials better and more prepared to tackle public health crises as they arise? Or is Vermont primed to repeat a cycle of needless suffering and death?
The legacy of Covid goes well beyond the impact of the virus itself. Covid has left Vermont with tools that could help address longtime public health challenges along with emerging threats — and with vulnerabilities in public trust and health systems.
Officials at the Vermont Department of Health say that Covid was the most daunting challenge they have ever faced, but it left them with new tools and structures that they have implemented in their day-to-day work.
. . .