March 11, 2020, marked the start of a period that has changed the world in myriad ways. The immediate effects, for example lockdowns, closed schools, and vaccinations, are indelibly marked in our memories. But we know that many deep changes are only now becoming apparent, and these extend far beyond health matters—into politics, economic structures, and culture. Striking are 30 Charts That Show How COVID Changed Everything, published two days ago by the New York Times, that illustrate dramatic changes linked to the pandemic.
The five-year anniversary evokes memories of those days when the pandemic burst into our lives. At the Berkley Center, we were meeting that day to explore how to respond to the shadowy specter that we knew was approaching, asking, as we always do, how it was related to aspects of religion. With two other organizations—the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) and the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities—and David Robinson, a colleague from World Vision, we agreed to launch a tracking process, though we had little inkling of what lay ahead. That day Georgetown University started to shut down and a global emergency was declared.
We had termed the March 11, 2020 meeting a “Consultation on COVID-19: Exploring Faith Dimensions.” There were about 20 representatives of faith-inspired organizations, public health experts, and development practitioners. We agreed that it was vitally important to explore how religious institutions, beliefs, leaders, and practices could contribute—positively and negatively—to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and response. We recall a robust, if somewhat bemused, conversation (the uncertainties then were enormous), focused on the likely roles that religious organizations and leaders might to play during the pandemic that was fast unfolding. Our sense that the need was urgent reflected our common experience during the Ebola and HIV-AIDS pandemics.
Working from home and via Zoom, the new partnership took rapid form. The first commitment was to collect all the information we could and to provide regular updates to our respective networks. From the outset, we were convinced that we needed a consistently curious and widely searching effort to learn from experience and to support responses in any way possible. As we adjusted to working from home, frequent consultations on Zoom, and balancing the “new normal,” the joint project moved ahead.
A week after Georgetown University made the decision to shut down temporarily, March 18, the first “Daily Highlight” email was sent out to our networks. We maintained a daily rhythm through July—113 updates in total—then moved to a weekly schedule through October 2022 (totaling 225 emails). With the support of a small grant from GIZ (the German development agency), we set up a Faith and COVID-19: Resource Repository Website to “collect information on how different faith actors have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and broader emergencies. The goal has been to: (a) link actors and observers focused on religious responses to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis to broader policy and practice communities in global health and development; and (b) center attention on the communities facing the most vulnerabilities due to discrimination and inequalities. The project is summarized in an article by Katherine Marshall: "COVID-19 and Religion: Pandemic Lessons and Legacies" in the December 2022 issue of The Review of Faith and International Affairs.
Looking back, how do we see major lessons? These involved direct health dimensions—service delivery and health behaviors, notably—but also the remarkable mobilization of social and economic support to those affected, especially those who were most vulnerable. From the outset and throughout, we were concerned by the tensions and conflicts that were bound to arise (and surely did). We also were buoyed by hopes that the sense of common destiny and purpose would bring communities together. And, given our focus on religious ecosystems, we sought (and did see) a growing awareness of the complex and vital roles of religious institutions and ideas in healthcare.
A parallel development related to the very human and social impacts of the pandemic. Katherine taught four successive fall courses focused on the pandemic to groups of freshmen at Georgetown. The discussions highlighted the intertwined issues of information, leadership, suffering, and hope, with striking differences in how each year’s cohort experienced and responded to the changes that came with the pandemic era. Olivia conducted research with faith-linked organizations on their pandemic experiences, which underlined the importance of partnerships with local faith actors who were at the frontlines of response. Wilma, focused on West Africa, was keenly aware of how the crisis demanded a constant rethinking of core objectives as well as ways of working.
A constant and recurring theme through the pandemic was the central importance of trust and, sadly, the impact of mistrust. Individuals and communities turned to religious institutions for information on the pandemic as well as for comfort and support. As more information emerged on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, policies and guidance changed to reflect new knowledge. The impact of small, but vocal, communities that played negative roles eroded trust in public health authorities. Some, though certainly not all, were tied to religious ecosystems.
The issue of trust highlighted religious roles in significant ways. Community surveys and qualitative studies pointed again to a longstanding insight, that religious leaders were often the group that communities trusted more than almost any other. Health authorities rushed to partnerships with religious actors to disseminate public health messaging, but this was another arena in which trust and mistrust was part. Partnerships started in the first few months of the pandemic were rarely built on trust and were prone to instrumentalization and misunderstanding.
The pandemic underlined the need for long-term, trusting partnerships between health and faith actors to be established before crises occur. It was nonetheless both heartening and a harbinger of what might come that, facing the complexities of public health messaging, organizations including the WHO and UNICEF worked throughout the pandemic with religious leaders to promote vaccines, dispel myths, and share information (collaboration with both was an integral part of the project). An important new partnership, Faiths4Vaccines, emerged with a United States focus, again showing what could be done with will and a sense of commitment and urgency.
Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic were a factor in the establishment of the Georgetown Commission on Faith, Trust, and Health, housed in the Georgetown University Global Health Institute’s Faith and Global Health Initiative (where Olivia Wilkinson now serves as senior fellow). Lessons from the COVID-19 era continue to emerge, but the central and intricate roles of religious actors at each level and across different sectors stand out. This five-year experience changed many of the ways we work and interact. We have learned much about pandemics, trust, and religious roles in public health. But we are, as we look back, keenly aware of how much we still have to learn and thus the need to sustain our commitment to reaching beyond our institutional, intellectual, and cultural boundaries.
