When Anahid Akkam joined the Public Relations department at the Ministry of Health last Spring, there was no way she could have anticipated that just under a year later she would be working behind the scenes on one of the largest public health crises in modern history.
Ahahid, or Annie, moved to Armenia from UAE in 2008, later earning a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism from the Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences. She was drawn to a career in Public Health because “there’s always something new to learn.” The past few weeks have proven that more than ever.
Through all of the chaos and confusion sweeping the globe, Annie is confident about Armenia’s response to the Coronavirus. She and her team have abandoned their 9-6 schedules and are working around the clock: “we have always been unified, but now more than ever. We each have our assignments and are always helping each other work faster and productively. Every single person is sacrificing from their personal time to work.” Beyond her office, she couldn’t be prouder of the Armenian community’s response to the ordeal: “when we posted about recruiting volunteers, so many people were eager to sign up that we had more than enough people (2,000!) in only a few hours.”

When asked what the best course of action is through all of this, Annie asserts that the key point to remember is “don’t panic, but be alert,” and follow the guidelines of self-isolation provided by the WHO and the Ministry of Health. Making sure that you and your loved ones are well informed and taking the necessary precautions is the best defense.

When she’s not sharing the latest developments across relevant Facebook networks, self-proclaimed “memeologist” Annie is known to embrace humor through the Pandemic: “the first memes created were about how ridiculous COVID-19 was. Later, these memes evolved into zombie apocalypse and ‘end of the world’ memes. Now that people are taking it more seriously, memes have become a funny way to follow WHO's guidelines and cope while you're in self-isolation.”

As Annie phrases it, “this is one of the only times we can save the world by being at home in our PJs.” Let’s all do our part.