Published Monday, Aug. 10, 2020 | 3:57 p.m.
Updated 16 minutes ago
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases suffering from burnout, dozens of state and local public health leaders around the U.S. have resigned or have been fired amid the coronavirus outbreak, a testament to how politically combustible masks, lockdowns and infection data have become.
One of the latest departures came Sunday, when California's public health director, Dr. Sonia Angell, was ousted following a technical glitch that caused a delay in reporting hundreds of thousands of virus test results information used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools.
Last week, New York Citys health commissioner was replaced after months of friction with the Police Department and City Hall.
A review by the Kaiser Health News service and The Associated Press finds at least 49 state and local public health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 23 states. The list has grown by more than 20 people since the AP and KHN started keeping track in June.
Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the numbers stunning. He said they reflect burnout, as well as attacks on public health experts and institutions from the highest levels of government, including from President Donald Trump, who has sidelined the CDC during the pandemic.
"The overall tone toward public health in the U.S. is so hostile that it has kind of emboldened people to make these attacks, Frieden said.
The cuts come at a time when public health expertise is needed more than ever, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Were moving at breakneck speed here to stop a pandemic, and you cant afford to hit the pause button and say, Were going to change the leadership around here and well get back to you after we hire somebody," Freeman said.
As of Monday, confirmed infections in the United States stood at over 5 million, with deaths topping 163,000, the highest in the world, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Many of the firings and resignations have to do with conflicts over mask orders or social distancing shutdowns, Freeman said. Despite the scientific evidence, many politicians and others have argued that such measures are not needed, no matter what health experts tell them.
Its not a health divide; its a political divide, Freeman said.
Some health officials said they were stepping down for family reasons, and some left for jobs at other agencies, such as the CDC. Some, like Angell, were ousted because of what higher-ups said was poor leadership or a failure to do their job.
Others have complained that they were overworked, underpaid, unappreciated or thrust into a pressure-cooker environment.
To me, a lot of the divisiveness and the stress and the resignations that are happening right and left are the consequence of the lack of a real national response plan," said Dr. Matt Willis, health officer for Marin County in Northern California. "And were all left scrambling at the local and state level to extract resources and improvise solutions ... in a fractured health care system, in an under-resourced public health system.
Public health leaders from Dr. Anthony Fauci down to officials in small communities have reported death threats and intimidation. Some have seen their home addresses published or been the subject of sexist attacks on social media. Fauci has said his wife and daughters have received threats.
In Ohio, the state's health director, Dr. Amy Acton, resigned in June after months of pressure during which Republican lawmakers tried to strip her of her authority and armed protesters showed up at her house.
It was on Acton's advice that GOP Gov. Mike DeWine became the first governor to shut down schools statewide. Acton also called off the states presidential primary in March just hours before polls were to open, angering those who saw it as an overreaction.
The executive director of Las Animas-Huerfano Counties District Health Department in Colorado found her car vandalized twice, and a group called Colorado Counties for Freedom ran a radio ad demanding that her authority be reduced. Kim Gonzales has remained on the job.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice forced the resignation of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Cathy Slemp in June over what he said were discrepancies in the data. Slemp said the department's work had been hurt by outdated technology like fax machines and slow computer networks.
We are driving a great aunts Pinto when what you need is to be driving a Ferrari, Slemp said.
Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins, was critical of Slemp's firing and said it was deeply concerning that public health officials who told uncomfortable truths to political leaders had been removed.
Thats terrible for the national response because what we need for getting through this, first of all, is the truth. We need data, and we need people to interpret the data and help political leaders make good judgments," Inglesby said.
Since 2010, spending on state public health departments has dropped 16% per capita, and the amount devoted to local health departments has fallen 18%, according to a KHN and AP analysis. At least 38,000 state and local public health jobs have disappeared since the 2008 recession, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the worlds top public health systems.
Another sudden departure came Monday along the Texas border. Dr. Jose Vazquez, the Starr County health authority, resigned after a proposal to increase his pay from $500 to $10,000 a month was rejected by county commissioners.
Starr County Judge Eloy Vera said Vazquez had been working 60 hours per week in the county, one of the poorest in the U.S. and recently one of those hit hardest by the virus.
He felt it was an insult, Vera said.
In Oklahoma, both the state health commissioner and state epidemiologist have been replaced since the outbreak began in March.
In rural Colorado, Emily Brown was fired in late May as director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department after clashing with county commissioners over reopening recommendations. The person who replaced her resigned July 9.
Brown said she knows many public health department leaders who are considering resigning or retiring because of the strain.
The months of nonstop and often unappreciated work are prompting many public health workers to leave, said Theresa Anselmo of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials.
It will certainly slow down the pandemic response and become less coordinated, she said. Whos going to want to take on this career if youre confronted with the kinds of political issues that are coming up?
Weber reported from St. Louis. Associated Press writers Paul Weber, Sean Murphy and Janie Har, and KHN writer Anna Maria Barry-Jester contributed reporting.
Weber is a reporter with Kaiser Health News. This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and KHN, which is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
See the article here:
Health officials are quitting or getting fired amid outbreak - Las Vegas Sun
- Electronic Materials Company Cambrios Announces Closing $14.5 Million Round - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Europe's 'Extreme light infrastructure' project gears up for launch - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Industrial nanotechnology processes getting closer - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Konsultation zum Austria Nano-Aktionsplan - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Bewegungen von Viren auf Membranen live verfolgen - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Thailand Nanotechnology Conference on health, energy, environment - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Samsung Intensifies Advanced Foundry Logic Process Development with New Semiconductor Research Center - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Infineon and TSMC to Jointly Develop 65nm Embedded Flash Process Technology For Automotive and Chip Card Applications - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Abraxis Health Dedicates State of the Art Nanotechnology and Biologics Facility in Phoenix, Arizona - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Beneq Announces The First Continous Mode Atomic Layer Deposition Research Tool - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- An electron microscope with glasses - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Give your opinion on the Nanotechnology Research Code of Conduct - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Presentations from the OECD Conference on the Potential Environmental Benefits of Nanotechnology - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- DFI Nanotechnology Expands Into China With Strategic Alliance in Hong Kong - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Pre-announcement: Call for proposals within 'Energy Efficiency with Nanotechnology' - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- This week in nanotechnology - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New funding for development and deployment of UAlbany nanofabrication strategies - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Applied Materials Acquires the Assets of Advent Solar - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Advanced Researcher Grant 2009 an Nanowissenschaftlerin Luisa de Cola - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ocean Optics Launches Dedicated OEM Website - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New synthetic molecules trigger immune response to HIV and prostate cancer - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Computer predicts reactions between molecules and surfaces, with 'chemical precision' - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Austria showcases its nanotechnology initiative - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Nanocapsules for artificial photosynthesis - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Work begins on laboratory for world's strongest microscope - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New cancer detection method with fluorescent silica beads - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Die Magnetisierung einzelner Atome manipulieren - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Novel nanoparticles could become a safer alternative to gene therapy delivered by viruses - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- DOE awards Argonne, partners more than $7 million for solar energy-related research projects - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Magnetic nanoparticles to simultaneously diagnose, monitor and treat - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Study of ultracold atoms proves theory about universal quantum mechanism - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- RUSNANO Supervisory Council approves nanostructured non-metallic coatings project - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Julian Wess Award for outstanding achievements in elementary particle and astroparticle physics - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- New Pegasus300 Sold to Leading French Research Institute for CMOS Packaging - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Soitec Expands Into the Fast Growing Solar Energy Market With the Acquisition of Concentrix Solar - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Students send microbe nanobiotechnology experiment on Space Shuttle Atlantis - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Photovoltaic cells to power biological nanorobots inside the body - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Environmental and human health impacts of nanotechnology - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Elusive 'hot' electrons captured in ultra-thin solar cells - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Light-generating transistors to power labs on chips - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Combining rare-earth clusters with traditional metal catalysts reveals secrets of chemical transformation - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Hexagon Expands Its Offering in the Vision Metrology Business - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Azaya Therapeutics Receives FDA Authorization to Start Phase I Cancer Trial - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Researchers engineer bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Argonne creates green home for world-class nanotechnology research - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The mechanism behind superinsulation may lead to new types of electronics - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Biosensors change color when they detect specific neural messages - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- First measurement of cancer biomarkers in whole blood - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Nanoprobes hit targets in tumors, could lessen chemo side effects - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- EYP/energy group joins UAlbany NanoCollege's National Institute for Sustainable Energy - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Scientists isolate new antifreeze molecule in Alaska beetle - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Ocean Optics XR-Series Spectrometers Cover 200-1050 nm Wavelengths - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- All-in-one cancer-killing nanoparticle can be tracked in real time with MRI - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Nanobodies modifizieren die Form und Funktion von Proteinen - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. to Join Leica Microsystems' Parent Company Board of Directors - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- France to invest billions in nanotechnology - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- AlphaRx Appoints President for its China Operations - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Vistec Enters Into Electron-Beam Lithograpy Project With Moscow University - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Record-breaking ultrasensitive spectrometer identifies trace gases in real time - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- NanoMech Receives Navy Contract to Develop Nanotechnology Lubricant - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Heart cells display a behavior-guiding 'nanosense' on new lab-on-a-chip - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- New curriculum mixes nanotechnology and skiing - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Rexahn and TheraTarget Form Nanotechnology Research Collaboration - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Unidym Enters Agreement to Integrate Carbon Nanotube Films Into LCDs - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Carl Zeiss Meditec Closes Financial Year on a High - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- The Scott Partnership Appointed to Launch Innovative New Printed Electronics Business - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- New Centre for Molecular Epidemiology to put bacteria on the world map - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- New nanotechnology association established to address 21st century natural resource and energy security challenges - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Analysis of information gathering initiatives on manufactured nanomaterials - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- OECD publishes manufactured nanomaterials roadmap 2010 - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- New imaging technique allows quick evaluation of graphene sheets - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- National Institute of Standards and Technology invests up to $71 million in new manufacturing, infrastructure research and development - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Southwest Nanotechnologies Recieves Two Prestigious Research Grants To Deveop A New Generation of Carbon Nanotubes - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Nanolithographic technique allows multiple chemicals on a single chip - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Study documents puzzling movement of electricity-producing bacteria near energy sources - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Erstmals Daten aus lebenden Zellen: Optisches Verfahren misst molekulare Reaktionszeiten - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- New Constant Diameter NeedleProbes with Unique Ability to Measure Liquid Surface Properties by AFM - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Chemical Nanotechnology Talks X: Green nano - challenges of sustainability - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Patents Issued for Licensed PAL-M Super-resolution Technology - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- International Network CONTACT researches the use of carbon nanotubes in various applications - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]