We weren\u2019t set up well to deal with this virus in Missouri. We have the worst funding in the country for public health, and a lot of the things we\u2019ve needed to fight the spread of covid are things we should have had in place 10 years ago. We don\u2019t have an emergency manager. We don\u2019t have anyone to handle HR, public information, or IT, so that\u2019s all been me. We didn\u2019t get extra funding for covid until last month. I\u2019m young and I\u2019m motivated, and I took this job in January because public health is my absolute love. It doesn\u2019t pay well, but would I rather be treating people who already have a disease or helping to prevent it? That\u2019s what we do. We help take care of people. At one point this summer, I worked 90 days straight trying to hold this virus at bay, and my whole staff was basically like that.<\/p>\n
We hired 10 contact tracers to track the spread, starting in August, but the real problem we keep running into is community cooperation. We call everyone that\u2019s had a positive test and say: \u201cHey, this is your local health department. We\u2019re trying to interrupt disease transmission, and we\u2019d love your help.\u201d It\u2019s nothing new. We do the same thing for measles, mumps, and tick-borne diseases, and I\u2019d say 99 percent of the time before covid, people were receptive. They wanted to stop an outbreak, but now it\u2019s all politicized. Every time you get on the phone, you\u2019re hoping you don\u2019t get cussed at. Probably half of the people we call are skeptical or combative. They refuse to talk. They deny their own positive test results. They hang up. They say they\u2019re going to hire a lawyer. They give you fake people they\u2019ve spent time with and fake numbers. They lie and tell you they\u2019re quarantining alone at home, but then in the background you can hear the beeping of a scanner at Walmart.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve stayed up a lot of nights trying to understand where this whole disconnect comes from. I love living in this county. I know in my heart these are good people, but it\u2019s like we\u2019re living on different planets. I have people in my own family who believe covid is a conspiracy and our doctors are getting paid off. I\u2019ve done press conferences and dozens of Facebook Live videos to talk about the real science. Even with all the other failures happening, that\u2019s the one thing we should be celebrating: better treatments, nurses and doctors on the front lines, promising news about vaccines. But the more I talk about the facts, the more it seems to put a target on my back.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI do have an agenda. I want disease transmission to go down. I want to keep this community safe. I want fewer people to die. Why is that controversial?\u201d https:\/\/t.co\/nbEhwgEK4P<\/a><\/p>\n — Colby Itkowitz (@ColbyItkowitz) November 18, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n