Seventy-six percent of state and local public health leaders interviewed for a new study said they were threatened or harassed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research, led by The Ohio State University and published in the American Journal of Public Health, is based on interviews with 109 leaders from 18 geographically and politically diverse states. The accounts included an FBI arrest of a person making ongoing, credible death threats.
The findings reach beyond one profession. The same local health departments that faced this backlash now run measles responses, vaccine clinics, restaurant inspections, and foodborne illness investigations. Lead author Marian Moser Jones said many of the leaders interviewed have retired early or left the field.
