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Public Health Workers Fighting Virus Face Growing Threats

Associated Press

   Emily Brown was stretched thin.

   As the director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department in
   rural Colorado, she was working 12- and 14-hour days, struggling to
   respond to the pandemic with only five full-time employees for more
   than 11,000 residents. Case counts were rising.

   She was already at odds with county commissioners, who were pushing to
   loosen public health restrictions in late May, against her advice. She
   had previously clashed with them over data releases and control and had
   haggled over a variance regarding reopening businesses.

   But she reasoned that standing up for public health principles was
   worth it, even if she risked losing the job that allowed her to live
   close to her hometown and help her parents with their farm.

   Then came the Facebook post: a photo of her and other health officials
   with comments about their weight and references to "armed citizens" and
   "bodies swinging from trees."

   The commissioners had asked her to meet with them the next day. She
   intended to ask them for more support. Instead, she was fired.

   "They finally were tired of me not going along the line they wanted me
   to go along," she said.

   In the battle against COVID-19, public health workers spread across
   states, cities and small towns make up an invisible army on the front
   lines.'ŻBut that army, which has suffered neglect for decades, is under
   assault when it's needed most.

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