Josie Smith Malave was one of the first COVID cases in South Florida – years later, she talks to NBC6 about all that has changed and all that’s stayed the same since the pandemic.
It’s been five years since the coronavirus pandemic changed the lives of millions of people in the U.S. It might have impacted your career, your life, and your health.
NBC6 had the chance to speak to one woman who was one of the first COVID cases in South Florida on all that has changed and all that’s stayed the same since COVID-19.
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WATCH HERE“I’m creating this life as I want to live it, and if anything, that COVID taught me it’s that. I should have done it then, so I am doing it now,” Josie Smith Malave said.
The 50-year-old loves life, but five years ago, she found herself in a different situation.
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“I was stressed out, needless to say, it was this moment for me this come to Jesus moment. I came in, I get diagnosed with COVID, and I feel like I got hit by a truck and I just remember asking myself is this it? Is this how I go out?" she recalled.
Josie was one of many who experienced long COVID, getting a negative test 65 days after her initial diagnosis. Forty-five of those days, the chef couldn’t taste, and her days were spent feeling weak.
Fast forward to today, some symptoms still linger.
“I feel healthy. I still have always had a little bit of respiratory issues. They are very sensitive in spaces,” she said. “I guess you can say anytime I feel short of breath I feel like, oh, that’s that COVID.”
Once Josie got the all-clear, her focus changed from her health to her business, Bubbles and Pearls in Wilton Manors.
“I had to spend all this money in putting these Plexi-glass barriers everywhere just to be open. People don’t understand that whatever business survived during that time, we didn’t survive. We just did our best,” she said.
COVID: 5 years later
According to a study by the University of West Florida, businesses in food and accommodation services were closed for roughly 12.6 weeks with a loss of revenue of 64.5%.
After being closed for four months, Josie, her ex-wife and a friend were the only employees for roughly six months. Some COVID restrictions were lifted, and when people were finally able to go out, her restaurant reaped the benefits.
“Honestly as a business owner, I thought that was going to be the new norm, but it wasn’t. That was just excitement. That was just a season, a year,” Josie said.
In the years after, profit margins were never what they once were. Josie says they were barely able to break even.
“That was hard, that was really hard," she said.
Some reasons Josie thinks the restaurant industry never fully recovered were due to employees looking for jobs in other industries or relocating.
She also believes that for younger staff, the pandemic brought them new, better-paying opportunities
“When they work at a restaurant, they make X amount of dollars. But now they can work at home and make 25 an hour in their PJs, behind a computer and they never have to talk to another person again. And then they get to spend so much time with their families and no stress. I mean, I wouldn’t want to come back to this industry either!” she said with a laugh.
She also thinks the old business model no longer worked.
It’s something the study from the University of West Florida also found – 46.5% of Florida businesses had to change their business model, 59.4% of businesses had to take on extra costs to combat public safety risks, and 85.1% of businesses experienced a loss in revenue.
In the state, while 69% of businesses were able to reopen, roughly 40% of businesses had to close their doors because of COVID-19.
Josie’s brick-and-mortar had been successful for five years before the pandemic closed its doors in October of 2024. But Josie said if there’s one thing the pandemic taught her is that there is no rush, only time.
And her focus five years after her diagnosis is on being present in a new way. She started an immersive private dinner club experience called Joy Provisions.
And it’s joy that Josie says looking back, is what COVID-19 brought her.
“I’m grateful for all of the challenges and struggles that occurred because of this moment," she said. “I learned so much it was like a masterclass of life at that time, and I guess you could say now looking back, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
