25-02-2025
COVID hit Nashville five years ago. Here's how the city responded and rebounded.
On March 6, 2020, a Nashvillian in her 40s wasn't feeling well. She had just returned from a conference in Boston and sought care from her healthcare provider.
Recognizing something unusual, that provider tested her for a virus we were only beginning to understand. The results came back late on March 7. By March 8, life in our city had changed forever.
We emerged from the pandemic transformed. It exposed our deepest vulnerabilities but also revealed our greatest strengths. The question now is: What did we learn? And will we be ready next time?
As a surgeon, my work is about making order out of chaos and restoring what is broken. But in 2020, I faced something no medical training had prepared me for – a city shattered by the worst health crisis of our time.
As the then chair of the Metro Nashville Board of Health, I was asked to lead the city's COVID-19 Task Force. We were unprepared for the scale of the unknown, but we anchored ourselves to a simple, unwavering principle: experts would lead, science would guide us and transparency would be our foundation.
Looking back, the pandemic exposed both our strengths and our shortcomings. It laid bare systemic disparities and deep national divides. Yet, despite these challenges, Nashville pressed forward, determined to protect what mattered most.
At the height of the crisis, I saw people set aside self-interest to confront challenges together. The pandemic taught us an undeniable truth: whether we like it or not, we are all in the same boat. Each of us has the power to either right the boat – or capsize it.
By March 2021, a year into the pandemic, more than 90,000 Nashvillians had tested positive, and 839 had died. We lost neighbors, colleagues, and community leaders – including former Metro Council Member Tony Tenpenny, ICU nurse Gary Woodward, and 30-year-old entrepreneur Darius Settles. We also lost John Prine, whose music defined generations.
Yet, even amid these heartbreaking losses, Nashville achieved remarkable successes. Our mortality rate was among the lowest in the Southeast. Our vaccination efforts outpaced many peer cities. We administered over 400,000 PCR tests and 25,000 vaccines at the three community sites operated by Meharry Medical College, vaccinated 10,000 people in a single day at Nissan Stadium, and converted Music City Center into a high-volume vaccination hub.
We made the tough decisions necessary to protect both public health and economic stability – understanding that one could not recover without the other. Nashville's unemployment rate, which peaked at 15.3% in April 2020, fell below 3% by mid-2021 – one of the fastest recoveries in the nation.
Opinion: Dolly Parton and Tennessee senators show why Trump must stop public health chaos
Our regional economy, which lost $25.8 billion in 2020, rebounded. By 2022, we ranked among the top U.S. cities for business growth. By 2023, downtown Nashville became the only major U.S. city to fully return to pre-pandemic levels, with its resident, worker, and visitor populations reaching 100% recovery.
When the Delta variant surged in 2021, overwhelming rural hospitals, Nashville was ready. Our three major health systems – Ascension Saint Thomas, HCA Tristar, and VUMC – set aside competition to create a regional transfer center, ensuring that no patient in Middle Tennessee went without care.
In just three months, 700 critically ill patients were transferred for treatment. This collective effort saved lives.
The pandemic also forced us to reassess our values. I witnessed a profound shift in how we cared for our elderly. Nashvillians went to extraordinary lengths to protect their older relatives and neighbors.
In a society that often prizes youth and independence, we paused to honor and safeguard our most vulnerable. It was a reminder that interdependence – not rugged individualism – is what sustains us in times of crisis.
As a trauma surgeon, I know that survival depends on how well we prepare for the next crisis. One of the reasons Nashville succeeded in navigating the pandemic was the deep alignment and partnership between the public and private sectors, the nonprofit and philanthropic communities, and the strong working relationship between city and state leadership. These partnerships didn't happen by chance – they were built through commitment, transparency, and a shared purpose.
The next crisis will come – whether it's another public health emergency, an economic shock, or a threat to public safety. But if we apply the same lessons – collaboration over division, facts over speculation, and action over complacency – Nashville will once again emerge stronger.
The time to strengthen these bonds isn't when the storm arrives, but now. Let's commit to working together today to build a more resilient, prepared, and unified city for tomorrow.
Dr. Alex Jahangir is an orthopaedic trauma surgeon and public health leader who chaired the Nashville COVID-19 Task Force and the Metropolitan Board of Health. He is the author of 'Hotspot: A Doctor's Diary From the Pandemic,' which chronicles Nashville's response and the lessons learned.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville learned lessons from COVID to fight future crises | Opinion
