The pandemic has had a profound impact upon so many, including healthcare workers, who have seen the fight firsthand.

“I made a phone call one night with a family member and said, 'It doesn’t look good. We’re going to have to make this goodbye phone call,'" Rachel Bellamy said. "They didn’t end up passing away on my shift, but shortly after I left. That wasn’t fun."

Bellamy, who has worked as a nurse for the last 16 years, said that moment is now seared into her memory. 

When the pandemic began, her hospital ICU was quickly converted into a COVID floor; for six weeks they scaled up operations from 20 to 40 beds, preparing to take the sickest of the sick virus patients.

Bellamy and her colleagues soon developed a new routine, changing into their scrubs and "bunny suits" at the hospital and donning masks and shields. At the end of her shift, Bellamy would strip in her garage, hop in the shower and scrub down, desperately trying to keep from touching anything in her family home.

“I’m thinking I have to do this and I have a family to protect and we don’t know how long this is going to be. Super scary," she said. “Yes, we lose patients in the ICU, but not to this extent, when patients are by themselves.”

Dr. Shakil Ahmed, too, saw what it was like on the frontlines.

Each weekend, the American Muslim Community Center Clinic would take their mobile clinic on the road, setting up shop in front of halfway houses, shelters and in church parking lots. They treated and tested those in Seminole County who were in desperate need, and at one point, had between 300 and 600 people show up in a single day.

"It humbled me," Ahmed said. "When you see death all around you, then you see the reality of life. We had a good team of volunteers who were enthusiastic, they wanted to help.

"It was the time quite a few doctors shut their offices and weren’t seeing patients.”

PANDEMIC EXPERIENCE AND VOTING PLANS

But, while Ahmed was proud of his team, the doctor and clinic volunteer felt dismayed by the initial government response to the pandemic, which he said caused undue loss of human life.

“We were underfunded, underprepared and chaotic," he said, describing the approach as "haphazard."

Now as the doctor sees his patients at the clinic in Longwood, he stresses basic CDC guidelines, such as masks, social distancing and judicious hand washing.

He plans to vote and sees the election as an opportunity to elect leaders who support, "scientific and evidence-based approaches to overcome the pandemic."

“Our leadership, especially higher leadership continues with mixed messages about the safety," he said. "If they’re talking about the pandemic, I think the message should be scientific. I think our politicians have a responsibility."

He also thinks masks should be mandatory and said that he would support a mask-wearing mandate.

“If our leaders are not wearing masks and coming out in the public, and doing the press conferences, that’s the message people are going to get and disregard safety precautions," he said.

Bellamy, meanwhile, said that she has voted in the past, plans to vote once again, but has never based her vote on her healthcare experience. 

She said she felt her hospital was equipped, ready for COVID-19 patients and never overwhelmed. She also felt supported her role as a nurse, her manager even making pins for her floor to keep as momentos of a time that will one day fill the pages of history books.

Bellamy said that she only wishes those outside the hospital doors could more intimately understood what's on the line.

“I think there are still some people who are like, 'Eh, it’s not bad,’ because they haven’t been affected. But it’s real. It’s affecting a lot of people," she said. "You have to look at it like you’re still a caring human being ... Now we’re thinking, 'Are we going to have the flu worse or get another wave of COVID?' We’re not sure, so wear your mask a little bit longer."