With the U.S. crossing a symbolic milestone of one million COVID deaths in the country, Santa Clara County's top doctor is looking back on how far we've come in the battle against coronavirus.
More than two years ago, Dr. Cody came out and announced the county's first COVID case and today, she tells NBC Bay Area she never imagined this virus would kill one million people in such a short time.
"That's the same number of people who live in San Jose," she says. "Imagine the entire city of San Jose gone to a single disease."
More than two years later, the county is now experiencing yet another surge in cases.
"There's always a threshold where we would have to consider mandates again," she explains. "For example, what if we had a variant where young people were dying or more people were dying."
She says she understands people are experiencing pandemic fatigue, and is worried that might impact COVID cases in the future.
"I think the great challenge in this pandemic is the duration," she says, "how long its going on and I worry if another variant that's more severe comes along and people are so tired, it will be more challenging to be productive."
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.