- At least 49 public health officials have been fired as fired during the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported.
- Many attributed a politicized response to the pandemic, such as disputes over masked condemnations and exaggeration as a reason for their departure.
- Some dropped out due to criticism that they did not handle the pandemic response properly.
- Experts told the AP that this only means a less coherent response to the progress of the pandemic.
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At least 49 public health officials in 23 states have been fired or fired in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic since April, the Associated Press reported.
According to the AP disputes over mask ordinances and a political response to the pandemic, most layoffs and fires.
The latest official to resign is Sonia Angell, the now former director of public health in California, The Independent reported. Angell resigned after a glitch caused the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange to lag behind by 30,000 records and coronavirus cases were underreported.
According to the AP, that system is used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools in the state.
New York City Health Commissioner Dr Oxiris Barbot resigned last week as well, WHTC reported. Barbot stepped down because she felt the health department’s expertise was not “accustomed to the degree it could have been.”
Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the AP that these public health leaders are stepping down because of a mix of factors including burnout, and attacks on high-ranking public health officials, including President Donald Trump.
“The general tone towards public health in the US is so hostile that it has the kind of people to make these attacks,” Frieden said.
Some officials have even received death threats and Ohio State Health Director Dr. Amy Acton stepped down after armed protesters appeared at her home.
While some officials resigned for family-related reasons, to take other jobs, or because they were criticized for bad decisions, others said they resigned because they “worked too hard, were underpaid, unappreciated, or in a pressure cooker environment. stabbed, “the AP reported.
“For me, a lot of the divisiveness and the stress and the redundancy that is happening right and left, is the result of the lack of a truly national response plan,” Drs. Matt Willis, health officer for Marin County in Northern California, the AP. “And we are all left scrambling at the local and state levels to raise resources and improvise solutions … in a fractured health care system, in an under-resourceceed system of public health.”
Theresa Anselmo of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials told the AP that the removal of public health officials from their positions would only make the fight to contain the virus harder.
“It will certainly slow down the response of the pandemic and be less coordinated,” she told the AP. “Who will want to take over this career if you are confronted with the kinds of political problems that arise?”
The US currently has more than 5 million coronavirus cases and registered more than 163,000 deaths.
