Doctor who treated first US COVID-19 case weighs in 4 years later

The World Health Organization declared the global COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

It’s been four years since the World Health Organization formally declared the global COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

Two days later, then-President Donald Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic severe enough to issue an emergency declaration for the country.

COVID-19 temporarily shut down businesses and daily life in 2020, changing how we operated and interacted with others. In May 2023, the WHO declared the end of the pandemic.

So what now?

“It feels like the pandemic is starting to wind down a little bit. The current circulating strains aren't quite as deadly as they were,” said Dr. George Diaz, the chief of medicine at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett and an infectious disease specialist.