COVID five year anniversary: Reflecting on pandemic years later

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - March 11 marks five years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

The Pew Research Center did a recent study of Americans looking back at the pandemic on how it affected them, who was most affected, and their perspective on how it was handled.

"You can start in a place like schools. Very challenging time to be a parent or a student in K-12 schools. Some faced closures and disruptions to learning. The data suggests that in many ways, we're still working our way back when it comes to some of those math and reading scores, so it's something that’s ongoing," said Pew Research Center Associate Director of Research Alec Tyson.

Pew Research says 40% of Americans say the country would do better in responding to a future health emergency compared with our response to COVID-19.

"They're also pretty positive about the public health system in this country generally, so if you put that together, local community and the health system, two areas of optimism when it comes to American's outlook for the future," said Tyson.