© 2025 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY
WECS · WEDW-FM · WNPR · WPKT · WRLI-FM · WVOF
Public Files Contact · ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Frontline workers remember five years since COVID-19 outbreak

FILE: Clinical staff members in the hot zone complete the registration of patients in their cars at Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center drive-through mobile center before a COVID-19 test is administered on March 18, 2020 in Hartford, Connecticut.
Joe Amon
/
Connecticut Public
FILE: Clinical staff members in the hot zone complete the registration of patients in their cars at Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center drive-through mobile center before a COVID-19 test is administered on March 18, 2020 in Hartford, Connecticut.

It’s been five years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

What began as a mysterious “flu-like” illness spread rapidly, killing over one million people in the United States and over seven million worldwide. That’s according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

And while half a decade has passed, many frontline workers remember the months of fear and uncertainty as though it was yesterday.

This hour, hospital workers and a grocery store worker reflect on how the pandemic forever changed their jobs, what lessons they continue to carry forward today, and how they resist “collective forgetting” when it feels like the world has moved on.

GUESTS:

  • Sarah Peltier: Grocery at Stop & Shop in Simsbury, CT
  • Audrey Silver: Senior Clinical Operations Manager at Hartford Healthcare
  • Chaplain Rolando Hernandez Lizcano: Chaplain, Hartford Hospital

Where We Live is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

Stay Connected
Chloe Wynne is a producer for 'The Wheelhouse' and 'Where We Live.' She previously worked as a producer and reporter for the investigative podcast series, 'Admissible: Shreds of Evidence,' which was co-produced by VPM and Story Mechanics and distributed by iHeartRadio. She began her journalism career at inewsource, an investigative newsroom in San Diego, Calif., where she covered housing, education and crime. She earned her master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School in 2021, where she focused on audio storytelling.<br/>
Catherine is the Host of Connecticut Public’s morning talk show and podcast, Where We Live. Catherine and the WWL team focus on going beyond the headlines to bring in meaningful conversations that put Connecticut in context.