King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin held a public briefing on February 3, 2022, answering questions from the news media and members of the community.

Dr. Duchin discussed where we are in the pandemic overall:

COVID-19 is clearly not over, but we are heading in the right direction. So, for now and for the coming weeks, this means keep doing what works. Get vaccinated and boosted. Improve indoor air quality. Use high quality face masks and respirators in public spaces. Limit gatherings in crowded and poorly ventilated indoor spaces. And isolate and test, if possible, when you have symptoms.

…Over time, population immunity from vaccination plus natural infection should lessen the impact of COVID-19 significantly. Increasing access to improved treatments will also help a lot.

…But there’s no guarantee that future variants will be mild. So for this reason, we need to build COVID resilience and better future preparedness for COVID-19.

The long term trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic will bend towards something we can manage successfully as part of our routine lives. But exactly how long it takes to get there and what unanticipated bumps in the road might lie ahead remain uncertain. I hope the next time we meet with additional progress and experience, we can give a little bit more certainty to these forecasts.

DR. JEFF DUCHIN, HEALTH OFFICER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH – SEATTLE & KING COUNTY

Thanks to feedback from many of you, we’re now providing transcripts of Dr. Duchin’s media briefings.

Originally published February 4, 2022