ATLANTA — Georgia's top doctor is predicting a milder COVID-19 season through the holidays this year, if vaccinations continue. Dr. Kathleen Toomey, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, spoke one-on-one with 11Alive's Joe Ripley about the state of COVID, one year after vaccines were first rolled out across the state.
The Peach State received its first shipment of COVID vaccines on December 14, 2020. Dr. Toomey remembered the day well.
"I remember how excited I was, because to me, light was at the end of the tunnel, and we were going to be able to stop this pandemic," Dr. Toomey said. "The year did not unfold the way I expected.”
Instead, Georgia experienced two major COVID surges last winter and again in late summer this year. Dr. Toomey tied the surge to people's reluctance to get the vaccine, stemming from social media myths and major breakdowns in communication at every level of government between officials and the public.
“Initially, it was very difficult because we had so little vaccine," Dr. Toomey said. "We weren’t able to adequately message to the public how vaccine availability was so limited. There was just a lot of misinformation, and you had the hostility that emerged because we couldn’t get a vaccine, but also hostility about even recommending the vaccine or recommending other mitigation measures.”
Dr. Toomey said she felt comfortable with how the rollout unfolded, pointing to how Georgia officials used science to make the vaccine available to the most vulnerable groups before gradually expanding eligibility.
In Georgia, 52-percent of people are fully vaccinated, while 59-percent have had at least one dose, according to state data. Of the 5.4 million Georgians fully vaccinated, about 25-percent have gotten boosters, according to Dr. Toomey. Georgia has had 6.3-percent of all COVID cases occur in people who were vaccinated.
There are currently about 1.3 million COVID cases in Georgia. There are nearly 91,000 hospitalizations and almost 26,000 deaths statewide due to coronavirus.
"If you’re vaccinated, and particularly boosted, you’re less likely to experience a serious case or complication of hospitalization," Dr. Toomey said. "Whether it’s omicron or delta, please consider getting your booster. Consider getting your first vaccination if you haven’t because that will make a difference.”
While the past year has seen advancements in the fight against COVID-19 in the form of antibody treatments and a new antiviral pill in the works by Pfizer and Merck, Dr. Toomey called vaccinations the best and most effective way to combat COVID-19. She expected this winter season to yield milder COVID numbers compared to last year, since more people had either been infected with COVID or have been vaccinated.
"This is the right thing to do, getting vaccinated," Dr. Toomey said. "It’s safe, it’s effective, and it protects our whole community and our family members. That’s how we’re going to have a safe and happy holiday and going back to doing the things we love to do. I think it will become, perhaps, a seasonal respiratory disease just like influenza, and we’ll be able to get our influenza and COVID shot every year, and we will move on with our lives.”