via CNN
During a live public briefing on Facebook last month, "someone very casually suggested" the Los Angeles County's public health director should be shot, the director said.
"I didn't immediately see the message, but my husband did, my children did, and so did my colleagues," Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Monday in a statement.
It's just one of the many threats of violence public health workers are facing across the nation "on a regular basis" as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, Ferrer said.
Whether it's advising people to avoid large groups or encouraging people to wear face coverings in public, health officials -- both at the local and federal level -- have spent the last few months updating Americans on how to remain safe during the pandemic and avoid spreading the virus.
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The backlash has taken its toll: At least 24 public health officials have either resigned, retired or been fired from the positions during the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) said Monday.
"What has typically been just pure public health advice coming from a trusted source in the community, the local health department, is being politicized and made to seem like the public health advice is something that is restricting people's rights, their freedoms to move about," Lori Freeman, CEO of NACCHO, told CNN.
Story here.
This should have been easily predicted and should have served as a SERIOUS consideration for governors across the nation.
Free men and women will eventually buck at the notion of being told that they are essentially being placed on house arrest.
I also contend that the protests/riots, the response by law enforcement (hoisted on them by policy makers) to businesses reopening and wide spread defiance by the public to go out into the public is having a terrible effect on the psyche of our nation.
From my chair the messaging has been all wrong about this pandemic.
If you recall I stated on this blog that medical professionals would go from being hailed as heroes to hated by the public.
I think we're there now.
The real question that we will have to grapple with? How much damage has/is being done to our fellow citizens finances, mental health and physical health (because so much medical care has been canceled/postponed)? How much damage has been done to the nation?
The only good thing that can come out of this? The US military has another datapoint when it comes to insurgent warfare. Study of the pandemic response in the US should be studied by our psychological warfare and special ops community. There is much to be learned here and those lessons could possibly translate to future operations in megacities and/or disaster response.
Side note. Could we consider this entire pandemic (at least so far) a missed opportunity for the US military? Should our reaction to this thing have been to look at it as a massive HA/DR episode that required Northern Command to fully leverage the logistics capability of the US military? I think so. Additionally I believe that this is another bit of evidence that Northern Command is basically useless. It really should be disbanded.
