March 13, 2025, is the Fifth Anniversary of the Global Response to the Novel Coronavirus Infectious Disease of 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 13, 2025

This week, as the world reaches the fifth anniversary of its collective response to the novel Coronavirus Infectious Disease of 2019 (c/k/a, "Covid-19"), we at Hof are taking a pause to reflect deeply. Our company and firm joins so many others in contemplating the immeasurable weight of these past five years—what was lost, what was learned, and what we can do to learn from the shared experience to build a better future.

On March 13, 2020, the world as we knew it changed. Borders closed. Streets emptied. The steady hum of human activity—commerce, travel, celebration, and togetherness—fell into an eerie stillness. The days that followed were marked by personal anguish, strife, tumult, and confrontation. Families grieved. Businesses shuttered. Fear gripped every conversation, every decision, every breath. And yet, in time, there came something else—something more powerful than even the despair that once defined those days: resilience, and so much more.

For each of us who endured that era, Covid-19 was no mere footnote in history. It was, and remains, an era-defining event, a time when humanity stood at the precipice of something greater than itself and was forced to collectively confront our individual fragility.

The Times recently published an article that included several charts depicting many facets of everyday life—things such as unemployment claims, resignations, money spent on food, oil prices, distance traveled, alcohol sales, share of women in the American labor force, business applications and average income—reflecting a world that appears, in large part, to have resumed pre-pandemic trajectories, as if the pandemic never occurred. However, charts do not capture our feelings of silent moments of loss, dining outside while masked, the businesses that never reopened, or the emotional toll of the cost of deferred dreams. As a result of our pandemic feelings and sentiment, we still spend more time alone than pre-pandemic levels forecasted.

Additionally, America has a staggering debt problem, according to warnings from many thought leaders, such as Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates.

To future generations, Covid-19 may seem like a blip—an anomaly in the steady march of history. But to us, it was, and remains, deeply personal. It is the reason we wept. The reason we fought. The reason we stood six feet apart from the ones we loved most in this world, and, ultimately, it is the reason we must now come together.

The global experience of Covid-19 was not merely one of suffering, but of unity. It has bound us together in ways that few other events in modern history have. And now, that shared experience must serve a greater purpose. The same collective will that once mobilized the world against an invisible virus must now be harnessed to confront the visible plagues that still haunt us—disease, famine, poverty, and war.

This moment, this anniversary, is not merely an occasion to remember. It is a call to action. From the highest levels of government, to the smallest gatherings of friends in bars and restaurants, we are faced with an opportunity—to take what we endured and leverage our shared experience to work together to build a better future for all peoples.

Let us seize it together.

Joe

The articles and individuals referenced in this statement were not consulted during the drafting of this statement, and their inclusion serves to provide convenient hyperlinking for readers and to illustrate that the assertions made herein are not formed in isolation but are supported by broader discourse and analysis.

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