Commissioners shares what was learned during COVID-19 pandemic
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson Rotary Club held a meeting at the First United Methodist Church on Wednesday, discussing the aftermath of the pandemic.
Their guest speaker, Lisa Piercey, spoke about her experience during the pandemic as a Commissioner of Health and what lessons were learned since then.
“I’m here today in Jackson speaking about lessons that we’ve learned in COVID. And when people think about that, they think about masks and vaccines. But we’re really talking about the bigger lessons like the importance of mental health, and maybe, how the workforce has changed,” Piercey said.
Although the pandemic was unfortunate for all of us, it is important to see the positive side to it.
“A lot of people say, ‘You really got unlucky to be the Commissioner of Health during a pandemic.’ And while I understand why people say that, I really feel like it was a big blessing because that’s what doctors want to do – they want to serve during a time of need. And undoubtedly, it was a very difficult time, but it was a special time and it was an honor for me,” Piercey said.
Piercey says we can all learn from this and prepare ourselves to handle any future events.
“Whereas we don’t ever want to see another pandemic ever in our lifetime, the reality is we are going to be faced with some kind of crisis in the future. So, hopefully, as we start to wind down from this pandemic, we look – like we’re doing today – at the things that we’ve learned and how we can set measures in place where we can be better prepared next time,” Piercey said.
It’s important to trust health professionals during times of crisis and trust that the information given is factual.
“Definitely the experience was one that I don’t think can be replicated anywhere else. It was the most rapid fire, heavy information that was coming at us all day long, and it required constant decision making. And it was one of those things where you have to make the best decisions you can at the time with the information that you have, and that means you have to have a great team around you,” Piercey said.
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