What a difference five years makes. It was this week when Illinois went into sleep mode as COVID-19 spread across the state.

Who remembers the stress from vying for at-home working space with their students learning remotely and their bosses requiring Zoom meetings? How about social distancing? Lathered up with hand sanitizers?

Ah, the good old scary days of a spreading illness.

Gov. JB Pritzker ordered schools, businesses, restaurants, movie theaters and more closed on March 21, 2020, because of the coronavirus outbreak. That was after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in Chicago on Jan. 24, and the first Lake County case marked on March 11.

Health officials urged vaccinations and recommended avoiding large gatherings, like Easter. As the outbreak continued, Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations, along with vacations, were canceled.

Temperature screenings were in vogue at various locations, hospitals and urgent care centers. Six Flags Great America postponed its summer season, reopening in spring 2021 for thrill-seekers. Waukegan’s annual Polar Bear Plunge became a virtual event.

Mask-wearing in public was considered the smart thing to do if you left the safety of your home. Inventive folks sewed masks sporting Cubs and Bears logos, along with other offerings for fashionistas who eschewed the standard blue-and-yellow masks, or those industrial-type N95 models.

Governmental units held remote sessions. Sales tax revenue dropped statewide, and the federal government poured billions of dollars into Illinois and Lake County with funds to be dedicated to one-time expenses.

Federal prosecutors continue to find nefarious schemes by those who took criminal advantage of the pandemic, making fraudulent requests for fake companies and individuals. That was the greedy flip side of the government’s response to the outbreak.

The pandemic finally was brought under control thanks to a combination of mass vaccinations and crowd immunity. Many didn’t trust the government’s vaccination program, the largest since the days of the first Salk and Sabin polio vaccines of the 1950s and ’60s.

Still, thousands lined up during the initial days of the pandemic at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Grayslake to help vax-proof the county with free vaccinations and boosters. Lake County registered 201,227 cases of COVID-19, with 1,499 deaths by the time the pandemic was declared over in May 2023.

“Follow the science” was the rallying cry as the pandemic ran rampant and serum skeptics continued to doubt the safety of vaccinations.

Folks turned down getting inoculated, contending the shots contained government tracking devices or that the contents would alter DNA and the building blocks of our bodies. Yet, more than half of county residents eventually became vaccinated, with more than 84% of Lake County senior citizens receiving the shots.

Statewide, Illinois recorded an estimated 4.1 million coronavirus cases and 42,033 deaths, according to the state Health Department. Nationwide, an estimated 100 million Americans came down with COVID-19 with 1.1 million deaths. Globally, more than 687 million cases were estimated with 6.86 million deaths.

Even with the pandemic in the rearview mirror, health officials still recommend vaccinations for morphing strains of COVID-19 which are still among us. Most of us haven’t had recent jabs to combat the virus.

As of March 8, 1.35% of hospital admissions in the state were attributed to COVID-19, according to the Illinois Department of Health. By comparison, 2.36% of hospital stays were caused by seasonal influenza.

Most of us dodged that COVID bullet, or if we contracted the virus it was tempered by being vaccinated. That despite arguments to the contrary by stubborn anti-vax proponents.

That brings up a move by the administration of President Donald Trump, who was in his first term in office in the midst of the last pandemic. We also have a secretary of health and human services who in the past has sowed doubts about vaccines.

Last week, officials decided to cancel studies about ways to improve vaccine trust and access, the Associated Press reported. That comes during an outbreak of measles, declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 because of effective vaccination programs.

Lagging vaccination rates due to decreasing trust in the government has led to nearly 260 measles cases in Texas and the death of one child, with about 15 states finding upticks in the childhood disease. Apparently, we didn’t learn from the experience five years back and don’t seem to worry about the national response to the next pandemic which eventually will come.

Many of us believe that will happen sooner than later. A recent Gallup Poll showed 58% of those polled are worried another pandemic will occur in their lifetimes.

Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.

sellenews@gmail.comX @sellenews