King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin held a media briefing on August 9, 2022, to share information about local outbreaks of monkeypox and COVID-19.

A transcript of the briefing is now available, and the video of the briefing is below.

Dr. Duchin spoke to the cumulative impacts of experiencing multiple communicable disease outbreaks: “I know the community is very fatigued and strained by the cumulative stress and repercussions, both physical and emotional and social and economic, of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Thankfully, monkeypox is not going to be as pervasive as COVID-19, but for the community that is impacted, it’s just as bad in many ways. And, you know, we need to take it just as seriously. But as far as how widespread it will be, it’s not going to be as bad as COVID-19. But our health care community, our public health community and those folks are feeling it, you know, are really feeling it. So my hat’s off to all of you.”

Originally published August 10, 2022.