King County health officer Dr. Jeff Duchin gave an optimistic tone on Friday, predicting that the region could have the worst of the pandemic in a matter of months, if not weeks.
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Dr. Duchin cited a number of reasons for his positive outlook, including declining case and hospitalization rates, increased vaccine distribution and an additional Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine that could be approved by the FDA as early as next week.
“We have many reasons to be encouraged as a community,” he said. “Complacency now would be a big mistake, but we are in a much better place today than we were a month ago, and we are approaching a possible return to normalcy in a few months.”
“With a few more weeks of serious caution and vigilance, we may be able to leave the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic behind,” he added. “We are getting close to putting this in the rearview mirror.”
Duchin also praised the fact that last week was the first time in the course of the entire pandemic that King County has not seen a single new COVID-19 case in a long-term facility.
In the coming days, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may be essential to speed up the county and state schedule to end the pandemic. That vaccine overcame a major hurdle on Friday after an FDA panel unanimously recommended it for emergency use.
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The vaccine also has significant advantages over those manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna.
“This is a very good vaccine,” said Dr. Duchin. “It has some very attractive features: it is a single dose, very easy to store, it is highly effective and potentially has fewer side effects.”
Even so, he also emphasized that people should get any vaccine available and that all three are “highly effective” in preventing severe symptoms of COVID-19.
“The real advice is: if there is a vaccine available for you, take it,” he advised. “We can say with great confidence that all of these vaccines are highly protective against serious illness, hospitalization and death.”