Mary Robbins administers a COVID-19 vaccine to Caron Chess during an immunization clinic on Peaks Island on Feb. 14, 2021. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Wednesday marks five years since Maine recorded its first presumptive case of COVID-19, just a day after the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic.

For some, the shift to a “new normal” — masking and avoiding crowds when sick, working and socializing from home — uprooted nearly every aspect of life, from how we work, to where we eat, to how we interact with the public. But just how lasting were the pandemic-era changes, and where does coronavirus now stand in Maine?

“The biggest thing, of course, is that we are no longer in this panic mode that we were at that time,” said Dr. James Jarvis at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center. “It has moved from the realm of being something that can be completely devastating to a population to being something that we see on a regular basis.”

Maine still sees a handful of COVID-19 deaths each week, with a relative high of 12 deaths reported the week of Jan. 5, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Roughly three years earlier, the week of Jan. 23, 2022, Maine saw 80 deaths — the most reported in a seven-day period.

The latest morbidity figures track much closer to influenza-associated deaths, of which there have been 64 this season, as of March 8, according to Maine DHHS data.

Critical and overall hospitalizations are also well below their pandemic-era peaks. Maine had 35 hospitalized COVID-19 patients as of March 4, the latest available data; only three were in critical care and one on a ventilator.

“Mainers in general still trust the health care profession,” Jarvis said. “We get along, we know each other. Our neighbors are our friends. We don’t let the political divide stop us.”

From right, Brie Colville, a pharmacist, Nick Bloom and Hollie Maloney, both certified pharmacy technicians, prep syringes of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine before opening the doors on the first day of the Northern Light Mercy Hospital mass vaccination clinic at the Portland Expo on March 2, 2021. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Jarvis said the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of transparency, trust in government and communication between officials, health care systems and citizens for ensuring public health.

But he said some Mainers appear to have already forgotten the lessons of five years ago.

LESSONS LEARNED – AND FORGOTTEN

Jarvis said there were missteps in early pandemic policy and scientific advice, as researchers struggled to learn about the disease as quickly as it spread. He worries about how the pandemic is being remembered, and whether those policy shortcomings — despite being guided by good intentions based in the best available science — could be cherry-picked to serve other agendas.

“We still hear a lot of misinformation out there about how safe vaccines are, whether or not masking and social distancing works,” Jarvis said. “We’ve kind of regressed back into the silos that we had before, so communication isn’t quite as robust as it was and had to be during that time frame.”

Matthew Wellington, associate director of the Maine Public Health Association, credited Maine’s higher-than-average vaccination rates and lower-than-average mortality to its being a “big small town.” He said misinformation about vaccines and the disease itself was offset by Mainers’ general willingness to listen to friends and family, and trusted physicians and clinicians.

But Wellington said that Maine, like many states, relies on data from agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to plan their local work.

“We need a strong, robust public health workforce nationally,” Wellington said. “We need partnership and support from the federal government when we talk about responding to future pandemics — and ideally preparing for future pandemics.”

Before the crowds arrive in the morning, a sign encourages visitors to Old Orchard Beach to wear a mask on July 13, 2020. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

Federal agencies collected and disseminated state-level information during the coronavirus pandemic, helping stitch together a broad understanding of the disease and its path through the country. But established communication networks could be threatened as part of the current whirlwind effort to cut costs in the federal government, including the termination of career public health employees.

In the last few weeks, CDC datasets, including some that track HIV and adolescent well being, have been temporarily taken offline and only partially restored, and federal workers, including those who track public health data, are being offered buyouts or terminated outright, The Associated Press reported. Without federal backing, Maine’s capacity to handle or prevent public health incidents is significantly limited, Wellington said.

Jarvis said his colleagues at the University of New England and the University of Maine in Orono have also expressed “strong concerns” about cuts at the federal level and what their downstream impacts could be.

Wellington stressed that no single state can effectively manage an outbreak if disease carriers are traveling across state lines. He said that without a federal commitment Maine is “less prepared now than we were two or three months ago for the next pandemic.”

“We aren’t an island. Diseases don’t follow state borders,” Wellington said. “If you look at something like bird flu, we need to know what’s happening in other states and in the national context. It’s not something that we are equipped to do or have the resources to do on our own.”

CHANGES IN BEHAVIOR

With stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines in place, the pandemic brought a new rhythm to American life. People were picking up takeout instead of dining at restaurants. Celebrations happened on Zoom instead of in person. Students attended virtual school.

Five years later, some aspects of American life — like some employees’ new hybrid schedules — remain changed.

The majority of workers whose jobs allow telecommuting continue to work from home at least some of the time, according to the Pew Research Center, which found that 43% of workers work remotely most or some of the time compared to 23% prepandemic.

Prepandemic, 63% of U.S. workers rarely or never worked remotely, while 25% now fall into that category, according to the research.

The ability to work remotely also drove many newcomers to Maine during the pandemic. Native Mainers had mixed reactions to the arrival of an influx of newcomers, said Quixada Moore-Vissing, a Thomaston-based civic health researcher and fellow at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy.

In a survey of Mainers last year, Moore-Vissing found that 46% of people felt the arrival of newcomers was both good and bad, 35% saw it as just good and 18% perceive it as just bad. People’s feelings tended to be driven by concerns about the increases in housing prices and worry that the culture of Maine will change, Moore-Vissing said.

From left, Dr. James Riddleberger, registered nurse Lacey Lamson, medical assistant Victoria Best, nurse practitioner Anne Thomas and Dr. Brad Huot stand for a portrait in front of the Martin’s Point Health Care drive-thru COVID-19 testing site on April 24, 2020. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Nearly half of adults say the pandemic changed the way they use technology, according to the Pew Research Center. In April 2021, 90% of Americans said the internet was important to their life at the time, including 58% who said it was essential.

That reliance on new technology changed social interactions significantly, said Julie Longua Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of New England.

“During the pandemic, people were forced to find alternative ways of socially interacting with people that they weren’t living with or bubbled with,” she said. But, she added, “no amount of virtual interaction can replace the deeply held human need for face-to-face contact and connection.”

The impact of that loss of face-to-face interaction is particularly noticeable with Gen Zers, who are substantially more introverted and shy than Millennials. Peterson said Gen Z still relies more heavily on virtual interactions than other generations because that’s what they have practice in.

“It’s probably not surprising that the impact of COVID had lasting implications on mental health, particularly among adolescents and early and emerging adults,” she said.

Moore-Vissing worries about the level of social isolation in Maine that was exacerbated by the pandemic and the lasting impacts on mental, physical and civic health.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic created some bad habits,” she said. “People are engaging less than they used to. I do think it’s a threat to civic health in Maine.”