Last month, during a live public briefing on Facebook “someone very casually suggested” the Los Angeles County’s public health director should be shot, the director said.
On Monday, Dr. Barbara Ferrer said in a statement: “I didn’t immediately see the message, but my husband did, my children did, and so did my colleagues.”
Ferrer added that it’s just one of the many threats of violence public health workers are facing “on a regular basis” as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.
Whether it’s advising people to practice social distancing or encouraging people to wear face masks in public, local and federal health officials have spent the last few months updating Americans on how to avoid spreading the virus and remain safe during the pandemic.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, there are more than 2.3 million reported coronavirus cases throughout the country and there have been at least 120,393 virus-related deaths.
However, many Americans have taken issue with guidance from health officials as the act of wearing a mask to protect others during a pandemic has become a political and cultural flashpoint.
On Monday, the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) said that the backlash against health officials has taken its toll. At least 24 officials across the US have either retired, resigned, or been fired from the positions during the ongoing public health crisis.
“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, said in a CNN report.
According to NACCHO, the threats toward health officials are happening “across the country, in red states and blue states, large metropolitan areas and rural communities.”
“Public health department officials and staff have been physically threatened and politically scapegoated,” Theresa Spinner, NACCHO communications director, said in a statement.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most public medical face of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has had personal security from law enforcement including at his home for a few months now after receiving threats.
Kathleen Toomey, the commissioner of the state’s department of public health in Georgia, confirmed to 11Alive last month that she had received several threats and now has personal security.
“The experts who comprise our public health departments are true heroes,” the NACCHO said. “We should be thanking them for their tireless work and heeding their advice, not threatening their safety and careers.”