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LCHC Nurse Practitioner Julie Chan makes a young patient laugh to put him at ease before administering a COVID-19 test at LCHC's testing facility on Buffum Street in Lynn. (5/13/2020) (Spenser Hasak) Purchase this photo

Hasak: A look back at the pandemic, five years later

Spenser Hasak

by

It feels like a lifetime ago, yet here we are, five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I’ll never forget the dramatic shift that life took. It was like someone hit the reset button on a video game; everything came to a halt — everything, that is, except for my job. There is no such thing as working remotely as a photojournalist; drone technology was not and is still not advanced enough for me to cover assignments from the comfort of my couch. No, while most of the world switched to working from home, I was out in the Item’s communities every day, covering the stories that needed to be told.

Loretta Surette of Lynn waves to a Lynn Police officer as he drives in a parade to wish her a happy 91st birthday on Saturday. (4/25/2020)

My role was nowhere near as important as the doctors and nurses tending to the sick, or police, firefighters, and EMTs keeping the community safe, and the countless other essential workers, but I felt the obligation to keep the communities we cover informed with my visuals in a very scary and uncertain time.

With the goal of giving passersby some inspiration and hope, from left, Richard and Glynis Madaglia, Joan Myette, and Rick Myette, not pictured, all of Lynn, put on their inflatable dinosaur costumes and made their way through City Hall Square on Saturday afternoon. (5/2/2020)
Dan Spicer of Pelham N.H., an EMT with Armstrong Ambulance Service in Saugus, reads “How Not to Die,” while on break on Friday. “Overall it’s been stressful,” says Spicer as he spoke about being on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. (4/10/2020)

I covered numerous food drives, drive-by birthday celebrations, safety protocols followed by paramedics, outdoor graduations, curbside delivery of everything one would need for a lobster bake, the return to in-person schooling, the first vaccines being administered to medical staff, and so many things in between. 

Many of my assignments were serious, meant to inform the public about resources available to them, how they were being kept safe, and how they could get help if they needed it. But among all that seriousness, there were slices of humor and lightheartedness. I photographed a group of people wearing inflatable dinosaur costumes, an artist creating messages for heroes, and a stunning dance performance (outdoors). These types of assignments, paired with seeing how people would step up for others in their community, would never fail to put a much-needed smile on my face.

Forty Steps Dance Company members, from left, Teresa Tobin, Lauren Beck, Alana Comeau, and Chelsea Zawadzki, perform “Missing Pieces” during a performance at Bailey’s Hill in Nahant on Saturday. (9/19/2020)

I hope we never see anything like this again in the future, but my main takeaway from working through the pandemic was to appreciate the little things in life that can put a smile on your face; those smiles certainly helped get me through that stressful time.

Charles DeVirgilio of Lynn, an instructor at Zhen Ren Chuan Martial Arts in Arlington, practices his technique for a Bagua Walking Circle, which is meant to develop your internal energy. (12/9/2020)
Ryan Goodwin, a Lynn Fire paramedic, sits in the back of Medic 1 and shows the safety protocal that the department is following amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All of the cabinets in Medic 1 are covered with plastic to prevent splatter contamination, a pump and new device that creates an aerosal decontaminate are used to spray down all of the surfaces in the unit and paramedics are required to dress in head-to-toe PPE when handling a high-risk patient. (4/3/2020)
A man rides his bike along a new path on Lynn Shore Drive, formed when the parking spots along the ocean were coned off to limit the amount of people parking and walking along the seawall to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (4/4/2020)
“I’m not having contact with any of my customers anymore pretty much ringing the bells, leaving the package and walking away. No physical contact, no face-to-face contact, I feel like a ghost now,” said Nate Young, a Lynn UPS Delivery Driver who was photographed for a series entitled “The Essentials.” (4/7/2020)
Nicole McClain, a member of the North Shore Juneteenth Association, carries bags full of groceries to her car before delivering them to families who are confined to their homes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (4/9/2020)
A swing is wrapped around the crossbeam at a playground in Nahant to prevent children from using equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. (4/15/2020)
Ray Parker of Peabody loads a box of food into the trunk of a veteran’s waiting car as Bob Ingraham of Beverly holds the door open during the food distribution for veterans organized by Veterans Northeast Outreach Center Inc. at the Danvers campus of NSCC on Wednesday. (4/29/2020)
Chris Porter, owner of Patriot Seafoods in Salem, waves to a customer as he carries a to-go order to her car on Friday. (5/1/2020)
Maria Cesar of Peabody, field operation support assistant with Cuffe-McGinn Funeral Home in Lynn, sanitizes chairs in the chapel following a service on Friday. (5/8/2020)
Leon Armstrong of Florida speaks during a rally calling for the end of the shutdown in Massachusetts. (5/16/2020)
Mohamed Ndiaye receives his diploma from principal Emily DoBell during KIPP’s outdoor graduation ceremony. (5/27/2020)
Jenna Castaletto, a stylist with Spinale & Company Hair Design, checks on her client, Sam Maxted of Swampscott Friday afternoon. In an effort to maintain social distancing and keep the maximum capacity of 10 people in the salon, clients are asked to sit outside while waiting for certain processes to finish. “The heat from the sun helps develop [the coloring],” says salon co-owner Lisa Spinale. (5/29/2020)
Lynnfield High School senior Maddie Burke takes a selfie as she accepts her diploma during the school’s drive-through graduation ceremony on Friday. (6/5/2020)
A couple speaks to eachother from socially-distant voting booths as they take part in Lynnfield town election at the high school Saturday morning. (6/13/2020)
From socially distant seating on the football field of Lynnfield High School, town residents approve Article 5 during Town Meeting on Saturday. (6/20/2020)
Peabody varsity soccer players Amber Kiricoples, left, and Aja Alimonti hold signs as they protest against the Northeastern Conference’s decision to postpone fall sports until November due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (8/28/2020)
Sewell-Anderson Elementary School Kindergarten teacher Janet MacDonald, right, and paraprofessional Mary Martin, right, help Marleny Chavez register her son, Eddys, for kindergarten as Eddys, 5, and Maylin, 2, look on. (9/16/2020)
From behind a plexiglass divider, June Mascianica, of Lynnfield, works out on an elliptical at the Torigian Family YMCA in Peabody. “They take such good precautions, I feel safer here than at a grocery store,” says Mascianica. (9/25/2020)
Johnson School kindergartener Charlie Dam creates an owl by using leaves gathered from the surrounds of the school during an outdoor art class on Friday. (10/23/2020_
Lynn City Hall custodian Israel Diaz uses a Victory Innovations electrostatic sprayer to sanitize the voting stations after early voting closed at city hall on Friday amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (10/23/2020)
Swampscott election official Agatha Marano sanitizes a voting booth as she works the Swampscott High School polling station Tuesday evening. (11/3/2020)
Math teacher Jamie McLeod helps freshman Stephen Faulkner with an equation during class at Swampscott High School. (11/6/2020)
“Our biggest thing throughout all of this and the reason we are essential is because of the election,” says Jill Lewis, a special clerk at Abbot Hall, right. “It was a real test of our teamwork, lots of learning on the fly and changes. Keeping everybody safe was very important,” said Lewis. “Overall, we’re glad to have been here to be able to provide that service,” adds fellow special clerk, Jen Glavin. “And we couldn’t have gotten through it without a huge team of volunteers that we had throughout this whole process. They’re our heroes,” says Lewis as the two speak from behind the plexiglassed windows of the Town Clerk office. (11/10/2020)
GALA artist Emmanuelle Le Gal has installed positive messages all across Lynn. “Dream” can be found on Federal Street. (11/21/2020)
Billy Avalos of Dorchester, a COVID-19 test specialist with Atlantic and Cataldo EMS, administers a coronavirus test during the Swampscott resident drive-thru COVID-19 testing at the Swampscott Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse. (12/8/2020)
A masked pedestrian walks past a sign calling on people to wear masks at an MBTA bus stop in Central Square on Thursday. (12/10/2020)
Registered nurse Michele Hnath of Peabody, who works in the ICU at NSMC Salem Hospital, looks on as Clinical Nurse Educator Tiffany Diaz Bercy, MSN, RN, of Lynn administers the first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the hospital on Wednesday. (12/16/2020)
Registered nurse Cristian Marichal Ogando of Lynn looks on as Clinical Nurse Educator Tiffany Diaz Bercy, MSN, RN, of Lynn administers the first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the NSMC Salem Hospital on Wednesday. (12/16/2020)

  • Spenser Hasak is the creative director and lead staff photographer for the Daily Item. Prior to joining the photo staff in April of 2017 he was the newspaper’s editorial art director. When not taking photos for the Item and various other Essex Media Group publications, Hasak enjoys taking minimal and abstract photos and he is also a proud plant parent to more than 100 houseplants and Kodak's dad.

    View all posts Creative Director/Lead Staff Photographer

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