CBS Health is re, imagining what it means to be healthier. Your health journey shouldn't be defined by the destination, but by all the little steps and big If that happened along the way. That's why CBS Health is working to make healthier, Filmore, achievable and more human by expanding access and providing more helpful services from twenty four seven virtual care to prescription delivery to mental health resources. We are working towards becoming healthier together and one step at a time. Cbs health, healthier happens together, learn more at sea vs, health, dot com. from New York Times. I'm likeable borrow. This is a day to day in their efforts to fight the pandemic. Local public health officials have become the target of protest anger. The governing body should fear the people. We are pissed off

threats you doctor are going to be arrested for crimes against humanity, does show and increasingly laws intended to limit their power? My colleagues have been investigating how all of that is impacting the ability of public health workers to do their jobs and whether its left, the country less prepared than ever for the next public health crisis I spoke with. Colleagues, might baker about what they found its Thursday November eleven.

MIKE. Tell us how this investigation into the state of our public health agencies got started, but I've been covering the pandemic since, basically the beginning, when the first cases arrived in Seattle, What was clear even early on in those days, was how critical public health departments were going to be to confronting the virus to stopping the pandemic. Public health is really a patchwork system of agencies, both in the state and local level that work together across the country and so uncovered hits these public health agencies are responsible for monitoring the cases that arise in their community to figure out quarantine protocols to recommending or instituting or implementing mask mandates, send establishing the guns of rules and protocols that business

says in schools and everyone's gonna be following for the course of the pandemic right, but almost from the start of the pandemic. I think we all saw this resistance to the notion of public health mandates and how public health operates, and what we ve increasingly seen over the course of this year, is that a lot of that resistance is actually starting to become policy. So earlier this year I teamed up with my colleagues the library and she has been leading a covert data team throughout much of their pandemic. So we started coming through all of US dates. Looking for new laws and proposals on the table that would undermine public health. We began reaching out to every health department to see what kinds of changes they were seeing their departure Hence, and what we found was a pretty bleak picture for them. At least fourteen states have introduced or past bills that would limit the power of stay,

officials. I was republican governor, signed a bill into law that bans local jurisdictions from implementing mask mandate in North Dakota. That's a ban on mask mandates. Emitter was more than one hundred new laws. The measure governor Rhonda Santa's, signed into law banning businesses, government agencies and educational institutions from requiring proof of vaccination status that have passed a limited, the power of public health departments, and largely turned over that power to political leaders in their states in Ohio. The legislature could overturn any order issued by the governor or state Health department in a public health emergency. In the end, it was a picture of public health in this country. That was in a very precarious state. So the main strategy for us was just trying to talk to his many of these public health officials, as we could to better understand the circumstances they are facing, what they are dealing with

and where did you end up going whose experience you just stand out? You you, one of the states that stood out as we were compiling these laws was Kansas. They had some really impact for new legislation and also these interesting political dynamics with a democratic governor and a republican legislature, and so there was clearly a battle going on an estate over what the role of public health should be hi doktor. How are you, in one of the people in the middle of that battle that I found to be really interesting was Doktor Jennifer, Baconian, mechanical she's, the health officer in Wilson, county down in southern Kansas, and it seemed like a good

place to go visit. I got an upper dna and anti tank, so I'm a doctor, Mckinney outside the Wilson County out department to one story, building surrounded by small local bit This is a lovely area, you, I know it's horseshoes and more furthermore, no small community about nine thousand and. she's one of those people who knows everybody in town. I think you are a very thin one bar, if called out he's like legit. the name of the bars I'll give you she grew up in for donor Kansas in Wilson County, she went to college indicator degrees, but came back in the game of family physician and also works at the hospital, and also on this bored. So, on top of being a doctor and other school board too,

also runs the public health of our. Yes, you she's gotta. She had a lot of duties Do you mind if I see the sights in here? Are you so I want to talk to her, but you know how are things going now? What's the future very clear and we really started with a sort of a job He threw her time in the pandemic. As someone who was a trusted voice in the community is someone who is mired in known my all to someone who is dealing with just constant scepticism in this sense of almost being a pariah, and what was that

Marge edges? Twenty twenty? I remember on a Friday with so she started back at the very beginning when the first few cases are coming in the United states him. She starts to rally the communications, and so I got all this core business owner churches on government leaders, hospitals, clinics, just Emily. Sixty people like smashed into a real person like all we didn't realize rats wasn't do that by now, and people in the community are really book, Inter for guidance, their trusting her eyes No, the family physician they nowhere to be seen like? We don't know who they listen. To that we see you guys and we know you. So we trust you know it's a wii and she carries out the governors statewide lockdown in March of twenty twenty in Kansas does not really see any early wave of cases. In fact, they're almost no cases and Doktor Mckinney's county.

things are going pretty well. So what did you say? Things start to change. We are, we all did the lockdown evolution to do and I think people started feeling like we did all this for nothing. It was overreact. Where I salute in so so we don't have to worry. Look. We made it this far and everything's fine and got to make any starts to get a sense of change by may have twenty twenty! When there is this effort to start reopening you and once we started late opening back out. That's when I started thinking of the disagreements behind measures were like, notably just open everything, because it that way and their resistance that Doctor Mackenzie is also happening at state level too, I mean you have republican lawmakers at the capitol who want to open up the economy again. They want to prevent the governor and public health departments like hers from implementing walked down.

they have just done so. Governor Connally could issue whatever mandates she wanted, but thanks to Applicants in the legislature stripping her powers for public health. I didn't mean anything stay wide and any, and so they go after the governor through these laws that I mentioned earlier, four hundred and five counties in Kansas. Governor Connally issued her mask mandate. More than eighty of the hundred and five counties in the state opted out of it to limit the hours she would have to call us for a state of emergency. What it does is it put some checks and balances and play so if at the governor wanted to declare another, ass to related to cover than it has to run through a legislative body in this case, and they want to really empower the political leaders at the local level, the county commissioners that doctor MC any deals with empower those people to control more of what the county of departments do.

and so what are these new laws and rulings at state level? Giving these local leader is more power over a department mean for Doktor Manette, either the little power struggle in the euro because, after the reopening that's when they started say you know we ve looked into it and you're you're appointed by us and light like we could fire you. If we wanted, you know, or you have to do what we. Let me tell you even so far as like, when the commissioner thing, you can't those things on Facebook without talking to us, and I, my personal account does not. Even so she feels like this is really a slap in the face. This is the kind of thing had prioritizes political decision making over health decision making and she starts to see in her community shift in sentiment of how people are viewing public health and how people are viewing her current commissioners

we're not medically trained or didn't know how to read researcher. You do anything there trying to do what I do. You had scoreboard members who are making decisions, kids, who also had no medical knowledge, and even if you have a doctor on your board like like ours, they don't listen, You know, and so you have all the and so she's seen people in her community suddenly becoming distrustful of what she's asking for her county commissioners are calling her a liar there This agreeing with the facts she's trying to present them. So I remember bringing in the idea that young people can get party or my apathy, you know my accredited after cove, and so we need a clear than for sports. Where they started playing. I remember distinctly one of the commissioner said. That was the first time he said. That's bullshit and I said I'm sorry what he said:

You think you know everything I said well, I do about this. I know you about this. Well, this is bulshit. They don't need to be cleared. You can't do that and he said well, I'm I'm just trying to protect the kids and make sure they're. Okay, That's where he said something like. Were you in your ten page resume? Thank you. Can I don't it's weird and part of that in this tension that growing the commissioner's mocking her sayings? then, along lines of like well yeah, you and your ten age resume as a sort of a job at her extremities. was the first time I remember it being not just disagreement but like hostile. You know so in her mind the laws of impasse at the state level that seem to challenge public health rules related to the bench Those seem to be encouraging this kind of behaviour this, commissioner, turning to her

basically saying I don't trust, you even know she's quite skilled yeah. That's right. I mean it really was just basically the same thing. No thanks! I don't need you anymore, you and everybody was in and by the time covered really does come for Kansas by the fall of last year. Note this sentiment in the community is creating problems for Doktor Mckinney House. She had been pushing for quite some time for a mask mandate as case numbers arising in the county commissioners to receiving the dire numbers agreed to have a discussion about whether did one, and so that sets up this really tense town meeting where community members are outraged at the idea and she's their left. Trying to convince all these people who have grown skeptical ever try to convince them of the need to make this happen, so this guy invited all of his constituents in her mouth?

we're leaving what's wrong, revealed man why here at all then, the war, the AIDS virus, Oh, after everything we've ever known in our lives. This is a and then at the end meeting the commissioner's sad will? This is this? Is the mass mandate that we want what did I read you a resolution that is by far away now. However, no, had me, read it. So people started date

up and yelling you right here, a leg. like we are wasting our time this with you, it's a tense meeting It really illustrated how much the community in many ways. Turning against her, so by the end of the meeting there is sick. De there, that wants to escort her out for her own safety. That's right. I got was a weird moment for me when the shares deputy, missing you'll just walk you out, I mean there's some angry people here. as she's leaving the meeting she gets a text from. When she knows one when it my classmates data that mass me in here he's right. We should have mass freedom rights and he sent me a text that was like this wasn't No like no one is personal it. This is my life's work without personal guy you, so it feels like this community, her community

seems to be turning on a weird is all of this leave Doktor Mckinney and the people who work with her. That affirmative Health in the middle of this dark period in the pandemic, I'm coming there feeling breed demoralized, seeing the lack of support in the community there frustrated by all the misinformation that their dealing with exhausted by how much the community is ignoring them more rejecting them and they're, not in a great spot amnesia. It is very sad. small town. I dont know how we're supposed to move forward or like forgive and forget, causes not. It wasn't just one episode it's like throughout the last eighteen months ago, and how much do you feel like you're, holding back.

Cbs health is re, imagining what it means to be healthier. Your health journey shouldn't be defined by the destination, but by all the little steps and big wins that happened along the way. That's why CBS Health is working to make healthier, Filmore, achievable and more human by expanding access and providing more helpful services from twenty four seven virtual care to prescription delivery to mental health resources. We are working towards becoming healthier together and one step at a time. Cbs health healthier happens together more at sea, vs, health dot com. This is Robert Jemison, I'm a producer on the daily when covering a new Alzheimer's treatment. On the show we explored the news to the expense this one couple: Debbie and Susan, we hadn't up close, look at their four decades of love: the heartbreaking onset of Debbie's dementia, the hope of joy, A trial testing, a promising new drug and then everything that followed its this of storytelling that fans of the daily I've come to rely on, because you can feel

Certain news when here, from someone actually living it. but we also have a responsibility, is journalists to mix of the research behind the new drug and cover the ethical and personal debates, and this it takes time to do it right and that's really made possible by New York Times. Subscribers paper the layer of support to. Let us do we do best. So if you love the daily and want us to keep bringing you these kinds of stories, then please consider becoming a subscriber. You can do that at an why times. I come slash subscribe. Mike I'm curious in all your reporting in communities around the country and your conversations with people in public

Of how usual or unusual is doctor. Mckinney's experience will, I think, throughout the investigation, the more people that we talk to the more it became clear that the experience the doktor MC anyhow and was having was a really common one. Then the public health officials round the country in dozens of states were seeing their public trust eroded, and the powers that they had that had allowed them to do the job during the pandemic. Those were eroding as well, and so we really found sort of three main reasons why these public health agencies were in a very bleak situation, and what were those provisions will differ

and I think the foundational one is that these new laws are cropping up everywhere. As I said, we ve done more than one hundred new laws at a past, and many of them are so potent in their reach that they extend potentially here beyond the pandemic. Freed ample. Some laws place a limit on quarantines that is so broad that it could disrupt quarantine protocols even for diseases like measles smile. Other laws are targeting vaccine mandates, but some of those restrictions are now stretching beyond just covered vaccines in Montana, for example, the hospitals there are worried that they can no longer require the annual flew shot for their employees and which is something that's, become pretty common practice in healthcare settings and MIKE. What is this stated? Rationale for these laws for a lotta conservative lawmakers

was this response that public health overstepped its authority and essentially took away people's rights in the middle of this pandemic? There is also a sense that they didn't realize that public health had all these powers to control people's lives, to shut down. Restaurants, stockbroker masks and they weren't keen on that power is being there that they wanted to put some more restraints on public health agencies and to prioritize personal liberties in the rights of people to go out there day as normal. So what they have been a weakened do is just how much power people in the world, the public health, have they fear that, after having used it during Cove id public artificially could keep using it in ways post go ahead then might continue, in their bind to infringe on people's rights. That's right, yeah, ok, and what is the second reason why

people by the collar feeling so frustrated and undermined. We're one big thing we ve done with. There has been a mass exodus of people leaving public health jobs. That's been firing, that's been rising, visions, but around the country we heard from people who are just

doubt they ve been dealing with direct threats on their safety. There are struggling to break through misinformation and those protests, sometimes right outside their homes, and so there is a lot of people would resign about the job. So we actually found some agencies who say they have the same or fewer staff than when they began the pandemic. Despite all the investments and trying to build up a response right, despite the enormous need of the pandemic. Absolutely do you get a sense for just how many people have left the public health industry it's hard to tell because there's, there's no central tracking system, but we found more than five hundred

hop public health officials who have left their jobs since the pandemic began at the level of someone like Doktor Mckinney right exactly surrogate local politicians are shifting power away from health experts who, in turn, are leaving their jobs, which brings us to the third reason. There is a crisis in our public health system. I now, which is what would the third kind of goes off the second, which is that, with these vacancies, opening up and the need to appoint new leadership, some of those that are being appointed of a lot less experience and expertise in those were there before them, and in fact some of them are being appointed specifically because they run counter and have different ideas than those who have been in public health before. But what do you mean by that? I mean that people being putting these jobs, sometimes Dona backgrounds and public health and in some cases, actually

openly opposed this science have covered one other cases we looked at was in Idaho. I went to boys see to watch some interviews take place for a new position on the regional Health board. One candidates for the job was someone who is an epidemiologists too. lies infectious disease yet support from all the hospitals in the area? But the commissioner's decided he wasn't the one for the job. The person they chose was a doctor who had, in recent months, been advocating against getting them seen we hardly vaccine needle rate and I'm basically positioned himself as someone who thinks that the public health world has all wrong, so they choose someone who was added Maxine. Yet the commissioner's basically said this is someone who's gonna bring an alternative perspective to the job and using vat is

kind of decision that would leave everyone working for this person very disillusioned with it changes the whole dynamic of public health and what it has meant for decades now and what its going to become so yeah, there's some great anxious about what this is going to mean for the future summit. Where does all of Estes three factors you just cited in the experience of what someone like Doktor Mackay, went through weird

all of this to be the country's public health system? At this moment, these front line workers in protecting all of our health. You mean there's a deep worry that the public has turned against public health agencies were lawmakers, got this window into what public health does, and they don't want any more of it, and so there is a fear that, right now, public health agencies are constrained in responding to this pandemic, but also what happens with the next one is what happens when the next one? this comes when the next diseases going through community. Are we now hamstrung to respond to the next pandemic right, where you're describing seems to be a sense that, instead of the public health system in this country becoming stronger and more robust. Having lived through the tree

of cove Ed. Then it's more the opposite, He said this system seems weaker and more vulnerable rain. You. I think this could have been an opportunity to rebuild public health after years of budget cuts, after a chance to build up staffing, to make these departments better and stronger to fight the pandemic and in Ed were dealing with the opposite, and the communities are more vulnerable to I would like thank you re my trip ship. Thank you.

oh Jack,. Cbs health is re, imagining what it means to be healthier. Your health journey shouldn't be defined by the destination, but by all the little steps and big things that happen along the way. That's why CVS Health is working to make healthier, feel more to vable and more human by expanding access and providing more helpful services from twenty four slash: seven virtual care to prescription delivery to mental health resources. We are working toward becoming healthier together and one step at a time. Cvs, health, healthy or happens together learn more see vs health dot com hears what else you need Turner Day on wines the binding ministries said that consumer prices on everything from groceries took cars rules more than six percent in October. Compared to a year ago

the largest annual increase in thirty years. The increases defied predictions from you as policymakers and in a statement President Biden said quote. Reversing this trend is a top priority and fry. I look over my shoulder and MR rose above MR rose above, was now running from my right side, and I was fourteen from did frighten me with MR summits, and there were in at times emotional testimony on Wednesday. Kyle Windows took to the stand today.

and himself against murder charges, testifying that he shot and killed two people and injured a third in connection with constant, only after feeling that his life was in danger, but in their cross examination prosecutors suggested that it was written house who had made the situation more dangerous by going to canosa with a gun Why do you need the gun when you go? I need the gun, because if I had to protect myself because somebody attack Why would you think anybody would do that? I don't know, but you clearly planned on that's the whole reason you brought the gun does not about the gun. Tidies episode was produced by Sidney Harper Stella, and and Rachel quest her. It was edited by Angela Davis, Lynn and Patricia Wilkins contains original

from Marian Lozano and was engineered by Chris. Would our theme, music is by Jim Weinberg and then land of Wonderingly That's it. I'm likeable by sea tomorrow. CBS Health is re, imagining what it means to be healthier. Your health journey shouldn't be defined by the destination, but by all the little steps and big. Things that happen along the way. That's why CVS Health is working to make healthier, feel more to vable and more human by expanding access and providing more helpful services from twenty four slash: seven virtual care to prescription delivery to mental health resources. We are working toward becoming healthier together and one step at a time. Cvs, health, healthy or happens together, learn more at cvshealth dot, com