This week marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the COVID pandemic — can you believe it? — and the University of Pennsylvania’s Mütter Museum is marking the moment by opening a new exhibition tomorrow: “Trusted Messengers: Community, Confidence, and COVID-19.”
The exhibit, in the museum’s Thomson Gallery, celebrates the community members and healthcare workers who helped spread confidence in vaccinations and medical institutions during a time of crisis.
“The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped Philadelphia in profound ways,” said Museum and Library Executive Director Kate Quinn. “It tested our resilience, deepened disparities and forced us to confront difficult questions about trust — trust in science, public health, institutions and each other.”
Trusted messengers
The exhibition is all in one open room, meant for reflection. Its four walls contain information on the pandemic, from its early impact to the invention of the first vaccine and more. A timeline printed on the floor leads visitors through events that followed the initial outbreak and quarantine period.
“Amid the widespread chaos of a pandemic, a different threat loomed: a flood of too much information,” one wall reads in bold lettering. Underneath are photographs of “trusted messengers” in the community, people who helped inform the public about health and public safety.
The images range from a healthcare worker protesting in the street, urging people to stay home to government officials, and public figures like Bill Nye the Science Guy. Even Flyers mascot Gritty makes an appearance, holding a sign that asks “Have you taken your shot?”
Next to the second wall, there is a glass case with pipettes, test tubes and tube racks from the University of Pennsylvania’s Weissman Lab, which helped develop the first vaccine.
“The breakthrough in mRNA happened here,” Quinn explained. “The material from the Weissman lab, I’m very excited to be able to bring to the public.”
“If we didn’t have the COVID vaccine, we’d have millions of people dead,” said René Najera, DrPH, the Susan and Stanley Plotkin Chair in Public Health at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and editor of History of Vaccines. “It would be the pandemic nonstop, because the virus just keeps mutating, just keeps changing, and so we would be getting it over and over and over and over again.”
The third wall contains artistic posters from Philly groups and creatives with public health information. One is an attempt to reach unhoused Philadelphians, asking “how do you ‘shelter in place’ when you don’t have a home?” Another calls for the protection of elderly Philadelphians.
Regaining public support
Najera worked as an epidemiologist at the Fairfax County Health Department in Virginia during the height of the pandemic. He said that he can understand why parts of the public have a distrust in modern medicine and government health initiatives.
“You have people who remember the Tuskegee experiment,” he said, referring to a nonconsensual U.S. Public Health Service study in which Black syphilis patients weren’t offered treatment even after it was readily available. “You have people from Central America that suffered some harm from other experiments from pharmaceutical companies.”
Najera met a variety of people and patients during the pandemic, including a woman who survived the 1918 influenza pandemic.
“She was 100 and some years old, and she joked with us … ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I end up dying for this?’ ” he said.
Although Najara told this patient that he would work to keep her safe, she died because of COVID-19. “She lived through the advent of antibiotics, the vaccines, and now, she reached this other end of the story,” he said.
Both Najera and Quinn stress the importance of listening to patients and treating those who feel hesitant about vaccines with understanding.
“In times of crisis, we turn to those who we trust: our doctors, community leaders, faith leaders, family and friends,” Quinn said. “Here in Philadelphia, trusted messengers stepped out in ways that made all the difference — reaching people where they were, providing clarity in uncertainty and countering misinformation with empathy and lived experience.”
The last wall at the exhibition features portraits of pandemic nurses from photographer Kyle Cassidy.
Many of the nurses in the photos stare directly at the camera, standing outside wearing their scrubs and N95 face masks. Some photos are in color and many are in black and white. The artwork is an undeniable display of the mental-health impact that this virus took on the medical community. Cassidy is currently retaking photos of the women to reflect on the pandemic’s five-year legacy.
Looking ahead
The College of Physicians staff takes a forward-looking view, understanding there are still serious challenges ahead.
“The college has been around since the late 1700s and we’ll continue to be around for the next pandemic, because there will be a next pandemic,” Najera said.
And although the exhibition is a reflection on the past, in many ways its message is still relevant. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health recently issued a warning concerning measles exposure.
“People are still getting COVID,” said Dr. Larry Kaiser, President and CEO of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. “Yes, we have a vaccine, but are people getting vaccinated? And now the concern is with measles, and especially with some of the talk about not vaccinating.”
Quinn has faith that whatever the future holds, trusted messengers will be there for the Philly community.
“We did make it through the pandemic, and we did it together, and we did it depending upon each other,” Quinn said. “And we can do that again, when and if we need to.”
Trusted Messengers: Community, Confidence, and COVID-19 opens Saturday, March 15, and will run through Feb. 2, 2026.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
