Looking back and ahead: How outlooks have changed since talks of the pandemic started in Central Florida

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — It’s been one year since COVID-19 was first talked about in Central Florida.

A year ago Friday was the first time Channel 9 ran a local story about the impact of the virus. At the time, we interviewed James Kuhl at Walt Disney World about his thoughts.

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Back then, he said the virus was on his mind, but that he wasn’t taking precautions because no cases had been found in the state.

In the year since then, Kuhl got laid off from his job at the theme parks and caught the virus himself.

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Epidemiologist Alvina Chu with the Orange County Health Department said he was thinking differently about the pandemic a year ago as well.

“I think we were hoping it would be something shorter, and that we would be able to get a handle on it early on to be able to prevent the spread,” she said.

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A year later, she said the department is optimistic that the end is near, and that anyone who wants a vaccine will likely be able to get one by April.