As we close out 2024, we look back at a very important reminder of how far we've come. Exactly five years ago today, the World Health Organization first learned about a cluster of viral pneumonia cases in China. In the years since, COVID-19 forever changed our lives.
On Dec 31, 2019, the World Health Organization received the first reports of a viral zoonotic disease. Investigators traced the epicenter to a seafood market in Wuhan, China.
"We had a virus. We knew what the virus was, but we really didn't have effective treatments," said Infectious Disease specialist Dr. David Bronstein with Kaiser Permanente Antelope Valley. He said within weeks, the novel coronavirus now known as COVID-19 spread to several countries. The first U.S. case confirmed in Washington on January 20, 2020. Within a year, Los Angeles County became the first in the nation to record a million confirmed cases.
"We've lost 7 million people in the world, 1.2 million in the United States. It's been absolutely tragic," Bronstein said.
Among them, 42-year-old Tony Damian, brother of Baldwin Park Mayor Pro-Tempore Daniel Damian
"Ended up in the hospital for two weeks with COVID pneumonia and that's unfortunately what ended his life. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about my brother," Damian said.
In December 2020, a game changer. The FDA issued emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. In its first year, scientists estimate vaccines saved 15 to 20 million lives worldwide.
"It feels like the virus really has become endemic at this point. But I think it's still important to realize that the virus is still out there," said Bronstein.
In May 2023, the global Public Health Emergency ends. COVID cases and deaths have dropped dramatically since the pandemic, but Dr. Bronstein says we can't forget the lessons learned.
"Last year, for example, about 70-thousand plus people in the U.S. still passed away from COVID, and yet the number of us who are vaccinating ourselves has gotten quite a bit lower than it needs to be," he said.
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