WORCESTER, Mass. - It’s been five years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and one of the people who helped guide Worcester through it is reflecting on the chaos, uncertainty and unity seen in those early days.

Dr. Michael Hirsh, medical director for the Worcester Department of Public Health, recalls a meeting shortly after Massachusetts declared a state of emergency.

“I kind of looked over at the city manager, and he came up with the immortal words ‘We’re building the plane as we’re flying it,” Hirsh said.

Doubling as the city’s chief pandemic information officer, Hirsh spent the first few months of the shutdown trying to protect the elderly, nurses, essential workers, students and the homeless population from a virus the medical community didn’t have much information about at the time.

Simply put, some days could be quite frightening.

“We were just trying to figure out how we could support our two big hospital systems, Saint Vincent and UMass Memorial, and we were also trying to see how we could calm the community,” Hirsh said. “Everybody was pretty freaked out by the images of New York City, corpses in plastic bags. It was a very, very scary time.”

But through this uncertainty, Hirsh noticed a building sense of unity in Worcester. He credits community-wide volunteer efforts for giving people a spark of hope as 2020 wore on, and a return to normalcy was still many months away.

“We had all these people delivering food and making sure the elderly were taken care of, we had medical students helping the students that weren’t so adept at using computers,” Hirsh said. “Hundreds of students and volunteers calling seniors to make sure they’re okay, helping them arrange for food deliveries at home. I mean, these are the things that just filled me with great pride.”

Looking back, Hirsh wonders whether the same level of cooperation would happen if another outbreak occurs. He worries for many, the response to the pandemic deepened their distrust in public health.

“I think people just have to understand that we’re only trying to do the best for the greatest number,” Hirsh said. “That’s why my hat says ‘Keep Calm and Public Health On’. That’s what we plan on doing.”

Hirsh added that he understands there has been fatigue about the pandemic and people want to move on with their lives, but feels COVID-19 was an important lesson in staying vigilant.

To date, more than 3,000 people in Worcester County have died from the virus, according to state data.