Four years ago today, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the state was starting to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was the beginning of a public health emergency. Businesses shut down, students learned from home and hospitals across the state were overrun.

So how far have we come since then? Presbyterian’s medical director has a positive outlook. Dr. Denise A. Gonzales says in 2020, no one knew what the virus was. But now, they have the tools and knowledge needed that make fighting COVID easier.

“Society has changed. I think in general, it’s changed for the better,” Gonzales said. “Things were able to really take a turn but it was a gradual turn over many years. But only because, A, we knew more about what the virus does, B, we had effective treatments. And most importantly, I think, the vaccine.”

Certain practices were also made more common.

“I practiced telemedicine before the pandemic and it was very slow going,” Gonzales said. “Not a lot of people were adopting it. But now everybody’s doing it! And patients really benefit from it cause it increases access and it takes out the hassle factor.”

While she said she likes to stay optimistic, Gonzales also wants to make it clear — if you were scared or anxious in 2020, you weren’t alone. Doctors like her were going through this for the first time in their lives too.

“I was scared in 2020, thinking back to four years ago. I wasn’t sure if I was going to die. I wasn’t sure who was going to take care of my family if I did. But I knew that I had to work and take care of New Mexicans,” she said.

Unfortunately, viruses like COVID are going to stick around.

“Respiratory viruses in general are never going away,” Gonzales said. “We’re always going to have the ones that we’ve had before, and we may get new ones like COVID. But it’s important to do things like quarantine appropriately when you’re sick with a virus. At least a day after your last fever.”

Gonzales also said that washing your hands and wearing a mask when you’re sick or if you’re immunocompromised will also help prevent you from getting any virus, not just COVID. She also added that if there’s a vaccine available for any illness, you should get it.