I Was There: An Infection Preventionist on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Remembering the COVID-19 Lockdown

(Adobe Stock)

On April 20, 2025, Infection Control Today^® (ICT^®) posted an article titled, “I Was There: A Public Health Worker’s Response to the COVID.gov Rewrite,” by Heather Stoltzfus, MPH, RN, CIC, a member of ICT’s Editorial Advisory Board, on the COVID-19 pandemic and her response to the change made to the COVID.gov website.

A few days later, ICT received a submission from Carmen Duke, MPH, CIC, quality improvement specialist in the Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention (HAIP) Division at Pennsylvania's Department of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology, in response to Stoltzfus's article.

ICT is honored to publish this poem.

I Was There - Inspired by Heather Stoltzfus, MPH, RN, CIC

I was there, watching the pandemic spread

I was there, shouting identify, isolate, inform

I was there, notifying our hospital that it was imminent

I was there, fumbling through forms to test the first PUI

I was there, walking the first sample to the lab to be sent out

I was there, checking for results to come back hour after hour

I was there, praying we had a few more weeks

I was there, showing how to wear PPE

I was there, hearing we were running out

I was there, teaching how to reuse

I was there, worrying if we had enough

I was there, 7 days a week

I was there, staying up to date as we learned more

I was there, translating new guidelines to practice

I was there, enforcing rules that caused people to die alone

I was there, receiving their angry punches

I was there, sharing grief and knowledge with my fellow IPs

I was there, tearful over stories of handmade masks for residents

I was there, relying on local Epi to take all my calls

I was there, drowning as we all neared the breaking point

I was there, excitedly planning a vaccine clinic

I was there, hopeful, knowing the vaccine had arrived

I was there, dumbfounded, we had an empty clinic

I was there, broken, that people chose death

I was there, watching the sun rise as I passed the temporary morgue

I was there, reporting, planning, preventing

I was there, reading each chart, lab, diagnosis

I was there, notifying the state, the nation, the world of each new positive

I was there, praying as another gurney passed

I was there, instead of with my family

I was there, doing everything I could for the public's health

I was there, and most never noticed or cared

I was there, burnt out, with no more to give

Carmen Duke, MPH, CIC

Quality Improvement Specialist | Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention (HAIP) Division

Department of Health | Bureau of Epidemiology

(ICT accepts manuscript submissions--clinical, opinion, or art--throughout the year. Please send to tmartonicz@mjhlifesciences.com.)