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For over a decade, Heather LaGarde has been the driving force behind the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw —a small, beloved music venue that has hosted big names like St. Vincent and Jason Isbell. In the final installment of Echoes of the Pandemic, she reflects on ways the virus reshaped the music industry and how, for the first time in years, live shows finally feel normal again.

At Forsyth County's COVID-19 mass vaccination site at the Winston-Salem fairgrounds, nearly 100,000 people received their shots in a tightly run operation staffed largely by the National Guard. At the helm of it all was the county’s Public Health Director Joshua Swift. He reflects on what he learned in this episode of Echoes of the Pandemic.

When the first case of COVID-19 arrived in Guilford County, former Public Health Director Dr. Iulia Vann was very new to the job. After a wave of fear and anxiety, she says something else quickly followed: determination. In the latest installment of Echoes of the Pandemic, Vann describes working with her team to meet unexpected challenges, and moments when the intensity of it all set in. 

If you lived in North Carolina during the pandemic, Mike Sprayberry’s voice may sound familiar. As the state director of emergency management, he spoke alongside then-Governor Roy Cooper at hundreds of COVID-19 press conferences. In this installment of Echoes of the Pandemic, he reflects on the challenges state officials faced and why he stayed calm when the stakes were high.

At the start of COVID-19, Novant Health's Dr. David Priest listed his biggest concerns in his notebook: no tests, no treatment, no vaccine. In Echoes of the Pandemic, he reflects on the uncertainty, the sacrifices of ICU nurses, and why we can’t wait another 100 years to prepare for the next crisis.

Five years ago, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Chief Academic Officer Paula Wilkins was faced with one of the biggest questions of her career: How do you keep a school afloat through a pandemic? She shares lessons in this installment of Echoes of the Pandemic.

In 2020, Duke Emergency Medicine Specialist Dr. JJ Hoff was still in training, working as a resident in the ER. In our new series, he shares stories about the cases that have stayed with him, and how health care workers have coped with a once unthinkable crisis.