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Five years ago, schools were moved to Zoom, restaurants closed and businesses laid off employees at record rates. Business owners had to adapt to the changing conditions, and health care workers had to navigate a rapidly changing public health crisis.
Five years later, the health care industry and restaurants are still feeling ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the biggest challenges for restaurant owners during the pandemic was finding ways to adapt and rethinking their business models to survive. One change was an added emphasis on delivery services.
Ian Cookson, the owner of Downtown Fresno’s Libelula restaurant, said he had to make the switch to operating through delivery apps.
“Before COVID, we didn’t even really do “to go” very often, so we had to pivot to that extent,” Cookson said. “The only one that actually made us any business was DoorDash.”
Beyond delivery, restaurants also changed their physical spaces, making them more takeout-friendly or adjusting for outdoor seating where possible. Yet, even with these changes, the financial challenges were immense.
“The biggest hurdle was just being able to be open,” Cookson said. “We had to fight tooth and nail just to be able to operate because everything was shutting down.”
Libelula was one of several businesses that had to make the tough decision to lay off employees.
“We just couldn’t afford to pay people because it was an immediate drop in business, not to mention the fact of everybody getting sick or contaminating people,” Cookson said.
According to the Employment Development Department, unemployment rates in Fresno County hit a high of 17.4% in April 2020. The annual average in 2020 was 11.6%. Since then, the average decreased to 9.1% and 6.5% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The past two years have seen that number increase to 7.5% in 2023 and 8.1% in 2024.
Five years later, restaurant owners still struggle with pandemic-induced financial strain and an unstable supply chain.
“Prices have skyrocketed, and now there’s so much variation,” Cookson said. “For a long time, things stayed in a similar price range, but now we’re seeing spikes out of nowhere.”
Cookson said that one of the lone positives from the pandemic was the benefit of sourcing local ingredients.
“When you buy local, you know where it came from, and the farms are more controlled,” Cookson said. “Smaller farms take care of their products because it’s their livelihood, whereas big commercial producers just care about selling.”
Cookson shared what advice he would give to restaurant owners if they were ever in an unfamiliar situation like they were with the pandemic.
“You can’t be complacent and think what you’re doing will work forever. You have to offer something different or be better than everyone else,” he said.
While the food industry was severely affected, no industry felt a more significant impact than the health care workers.
The pandemic singlehandedly changed the way medical professionals approached viruses, vaccines and public health communication.
One major lesson was the importance of rapid vaccine development.
“We now have the capability to develop vaccines relatively quickly using newer biogenetic techniques,” Dr. John Zweifler, a Public Health Physician, said.
However, public trust in vaccines has become a more complex issue. While COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduced hospitalization and death rates, the handling of the pandemic led to backlash.
“Our approach became very controversial,” Zweifler said. “There’s now a lot of vaccine resistance, which is why we’re seeing diseases like measles re-emerge, even though they were eradicated in the U.S. 25 years ago.”
On Wednesday, Fresno County health officials confirmed a second case of measles in an unvaccinated adult.
Beyond vaccines, COVID-19 reinforced several key health habits that remain relevant five years later.
“No. 1 is staying up to date on vaccines — not just for COVID, but also for the flu and measles,” Zweifler advised. “We saw a big spike in flu cases this year, which is largely preventable with vaccination.”
The pandemic also changed the doctor-patient relationship.
“Patients would interact more over the phone through telehealth,” Zweifler said. “If there were any good consequences of COVID, it would be that it opened that door to look at other ways that individuals can access health care services.”
Zweifler added that COVID also reminded people to pick up habits they were taught when they were kids, such as covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze and washing your hands.
With all of the recent government cuts in the health department, Zweifler said that he isn’t sure how the health care industry would be able to handle another global pandemic.
“The impact of COVID highlighted the importance of having a strong public health infrastructure and being able to respond and address outbreaks when they occur,” he said. “But the suspicion regarding the response and health care providers has also had a negative impact.”
The Trump administration has targeted many federal agencies for dramatic funding drawbacks.
“We see that playing out at the federal level now, where very esteemed entities such as the Centers for Disease Control are now being undercut. If we stop investing in public health infrastructure, our ability to respond quickly will diminish.”