A colleague texted Dr. Erica Pan, Alameda County Health Officer, with a photo of the yard sign. It showed a photo of her with the words “Financially Destroyed Families and Businesses” and “# A – holeMD”.
“I’m getting antagonism in all sorts of ways,” said Dr. Pan, who has been trolled on social media, received threats to come to his home, and was vilified on websites that rate doctors. “These things distract from the important public health work I need to do to protect the community; that’s my job. What bothers me is if it tries to invade my personal and family life. I really don’t want my family to be dragged into this. “
She is not alone. Across California and the country, public health officials have become the target of protests, intimidation, and even death threats from people who resent mandates to curb the spread of the coronavirus by taking refuge in place, closing businesses, and using More expensive.
Health officials, who are physicians appointed by elected boards of supervisors, are generally low-profile public officials. But during the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic, by law they are the highest authorities behind radical orders that have transformed the daily lives of millions of people.
While polls show that most Californians support pandemic prevention measures, a vocal minority expresses opposition by harassing health officials.
In the Bay Area, protesters have mobilized outside the homes of health officials in Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties with signs like “God hates liars.” The threats against Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County Health Officer, are so serious that she now has security protection. Dr. Chris Farnitano, the Contra Costa County health officer, said in a podcast that security around her office and home had been tightened.
“Health officials and local health directors are working 80 hours a week to fight a virus,” said Kat DeBurgh, executive director of the California Association of Health Officials. “At the same time, they are subject to some really vicious attacks, being threatened by members of the public.”
Nationwide, more than two dozen public health officials have stepped down in recent weeks, although some had retirement plans. In California, eight local health officials and two state officials have resigned since the pandemic began, DeBurgh said.
On Tuesday, Dr. Pan became the ninth resignation, saying she will leave Alameda County to become a state epidemiologist and deputy director who oversees the Center for Infectious Diseases. The change is not related to bullying, he said. “In any case, this will be similar in the sense that I will enforce state guidelines (to combat the coronavirus), so it will be a public image and you will probably get more,” he said.
Governor Gavin Newsom addressed the problem of bullying at a press conference last Wednesday.
“Some of the health directors (are) being attacked, receiving death threats, they are being demoted and demoralized,” he said. “I just want to apologize to all those health managers … because all they want to do is keep him healthy and safe using data, using science. It is not a political problem. This is not an ideological problem. “
But many protesters see the pandemic through the lens of politics and ideology.
“People who are ideologically against vaccines are expanding on this related issue and have found common allies with COVID deniers, COVID conspiracy theorists, fringe right-wing groups concerned with government overreach,” said Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy and sociology at UC Riverside, who studies the anti-vaccination movement, who has led the organization of protests over pandemic measures. “They see this as the government overstepping its bounds.”
Some people behind the protests against health officials said they feel justified for the same reason, pointing to examples such as contact tracing, an initiative to interview newly infected people about other people who may have been exposed to the virus.
“Isn’t it also intimidating that they are talking about an army of contact tracing that will come to our homes?” said Stefanie Fetzer, an Orange County housewife and co-founder of the Freedom Angels Foundation, an anti-vaccine group that is organizing protests on coronavirus measures. “I feel threatened that they want to put me in a database and track my family’s comings and goings due to the coronavirus. That, to me, is very anti-American. “
Public health officials said contact tracing is voluntary (people can refuse to give information without consequences) and noted that it generally occurs over the phone.
“Tracking contacts is a vital protection of public health,” said DeBurgh. “Opposing contact tracing is like telling the fire department that you have the right to let your house burn regardless of the risk to your neighbors.”
Fetzer also said that the mask requirements are onerous. Two of his children have sensory processing problems and panic disorders that are exacerbated by wearing face masks, he said.
Fetzer defended the Freedom Angels protests. “Taking him to the homes of county public health officials has been very peaceful with chalk and children there,” he said. “Calling it bullying is almost a tactic against us.”
Facebook removed three videos the group posted about their protests outside the homes of health officials, including one from Contra Costa County.
“While we believe in protecting people’s ability to express their views and organize peaceful protests on our platform, we have determined that these videos violate our policies and have therefore been removed,” Facebook said in a statement. The problem was that the content revealed personally identifiable information, the company added.
The videos that follow on the group’s Facebook broadcasts show protesters who remain in the public right-of-way and interact peacefully with police officers, but their comments include strident statements such as: “We will be relentless, we will not stop, we will introduce ourselves. in each house “. In Santa Clara, a protester said the presence of security guards shows that “hypocrisy sucks” and is “really very sick.”
“Hello, public health officials, they are in our sights,” the group wrote on their Facebook page. “We need to start making them feel very uncomfortable,” one member said in a video, speaking of public health officials as well as members of the city council and county supervisors.
Some experts say that hostility towards health officials dates back to the White House.
“It is very unfortunate that President Trump has set the tone for not supporting science and doing well to lash out at other people,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, a San Francisco health officer.
Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s director of public health, agreed. “The answer in the highest office in the country (is to ignore) the data, the science and the facts,” he said. “That fuels the local dynamic that we are seeing across the country.”
In the Bay Area, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has received inflammatory language towards health officials.
Outraged by orders to keep his Fremont manufacturing plant closed, Musk called Dr. Pan “unelected and ignorant” on Twitter and said he was acting “contrary to the Governor, the President, our constitutional freedoms and just plain sense. common!” That inspired his fan base for more social media attacks on Dr. Pan, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with more than two decades of medical experience.
Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County right away. Alameda’s unelected and ignorant “interim health officer” is acting against the Governor, the President, our constitutional freedoms and just common sense!
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020
All California county health officials are not chosen by design to “isolate them from politics,” DeBurgh said. “You want them to be a doctor, not a politician who ran for office.”
Unlike many of his colleagues, Aragon and Colfax have not been attacked. While they may receive emails from people who are unhappy, they have not crossed the line of abuse.
“It is fortunate that there has been great public support in San Francisco for the efforts made,” Colfax said. Still, “the fact that we are now in a time when public health officials are being harassed and attacked for doing the right thing for public health is a matter of great concern and reflects the very challenging dynamics we are in. working right now. “
Stephen Shortell, dean emeritus of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, worries whether the attacks could deter doctors from taking on these critical roles and could change the nature of the work.
“Now there is an expanded leadership role, need for emotional resistance, communication skills, being more visible to the public,” Shortell said.
Widespread anger at the devastating economic impact of the closings has left people searching for scapegoats.
“That is what has caused so many people to fall apart or suffer a stress attack and attack the most visible target, public health officials,” Shortell said. “Certain members of the public see them as those who restrict their freedom to reopen their businesses or do what they want to do.”
In Alameda County, Dr. Pan said she understands and empathizes with how difficult it has been for everyone to cope with the pandemic.
“I support the freedom of people to protest (like) coming to my office or a board meeting,” he said. “There are a lot of respectful letters, emails, and advocacy for elected officials.”
His message to protesters: “Alameda County, the entire county, is my patient and I am trying to make the best decisions I can for a large (diverse) population with many competing problems and priorities. We are open to continuous feedback and comments, but we want it to be constructive. “
Carolyn Said is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @csaid
