Gov. Andy Beshear places a white rose at the COVID-19 Memorial on the Capitol grounds on the fifth anniversary of the virus hitting Kentucky. March 6, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)
FRANKFORT — Prisha Hedau was in fourth grade when Kentucky got its first case of COVID-19.
She recalls laughing with her friends at school one moment and being whisked away by her mother the next back in March 2020.
“I really regret the fact that I wasn’t even able to say a proper goodbye to so many of my childhood friends that I’d grown up with,” said Hedau, who went on to write the book “PANDEMIC 2020 – A 9 Year Old’s Perspective” from note cards she kept during lockdown.
Hedau was one of the Kentuckians gathered in the Capitol rotunda Thursday to mark the fifth anniversary of the state’s first reported case of COVID-19. Several donned green clothes and compassion pins.
“In division there is unity, in chaos there is community,” said Hedau in an impassioned speech. “Despite isolation, we are never alone.”
Gov. Andy Beshear promised to “always push back on disinformation and misinformation we continue to see” about public health and vaccines following the COVID-related deaths of about 20,450 Kentuckians.
“You don’t suffer that level of loss and not feel it deeply,” Beshear said, urging people to not let “the politics of the day change the sacrifice that was made yesterday and in the years that we had to battle this virus.”
“As we mark this fifth anniversary of COVID-19 in Kentucky, let us commit to honoring it on the sixth anniversary and the seventh and the eight … not letting people rewrite our history… not letting people forget what actually happened during this time,” Beshear said.
Before the ceremony, in keeping with tradition, Kandie Adkinson rang a bell to honor the people who died from the virus, as she did during the pandemic lockdowns. Sandra Williams’ voice filled the rotunda as she sang “Amazing Grace” and selections of other songs, letting each word hang in the air.
Rabbi David Wirtschafter of Temple Adath Israel, in a benediction near the close of the hour-long ceremony, said that remembering those lost to COVID-19 is “our sacred obligation; forgetting is not an option.”
“The poet warned us long ago that ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,’” said Wirtschafter. “For the sake of those whose names we bear, those who perished and those who survived the last pandemic, let us insist on leadership that declares vaccination to be a matter of personal duty and that health care is a human right.”
After the ceremony, attendees — including the Beshears — placed white roses, symbols of unity, before the COVID-19 Memorial on the Capitol grounds.
