TOPEKA — Dr. Lee Norman anticipated the risk of deploying to combat zones with the Kansas National Guard, but the doctor didn’t predict the level of animus directed at public health officials by skeptics of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said an unexpected level of criticism of restrictions, testing and vaccinations had to be accounted for by medical professionals dealing with the reality of a lethal virus infecting more than 10% of the state’s population.
“There was a point in time where I was contacted to have security detail attached, which I did. Plain-clothed deputy sheriffs. Anytime I was going to be in a public setting,” Norman said. “There was very negative sentiment against not just me, but all public health persons in some measure, not just in Kansas, but throughout the country.”
He estimated 20 of the 55 U.S. state and territory health officers were fired, resigned under pressure or stepped away voluntarily in the past year. The pandemic also took a toll on local health officers in Kansas, he said.
“I was taken back by how vulnerable I felt at certain points along the way for this kind of angry, threatening behavior,” he said during the Kansas Reflector podcast.
GUIDANCE from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allows vaccinated people to go inside businesses without a face covering. The CDC’s decision reflects a sharp decline in cases, rising vaccination rates and evidence the shots work on new variants of COVID-19.
“I think it was a bold move, to say that fully vaccinated people can be unmasked indoors, don’t need to even socially distance. So, I think, it’s a good move. It will cause a problem, I think, because vaccinated people it kind of will open the door for them to not wear masks and not socially distance, because the word from the CDC that just came out, doesn’t change anything for unvaccinated persons,” Norman said.
The Legislature recently passed a bill opening up as much as $500 million in federal relief dollars to businesses enduring economic hardship from coronavirus mandates imposed by city, county or state officials.
Norman said Kansas small businesses struggling to thrive could make good use of that aid, but he was disappointed some state legislators sought to extract the money to punish state and local officials for fighting the killer virus by temporarily closing some businesses, limiting mass gatherings, maintaining social distancing or requiring masks to be worn.
Norman said KDHE did a solid job of forecasting disease activity in Kansas and where it would emerge. The state correctly concluded the pandemic wasn’t going to produce bed shortages, but would result in staffing shortages at hospitals.
“We chose not to buy hydroxychloroquine. And the reason was, we talked to people in Europe. They said it don’t work,” he said.
Norman said he underestimated the impact of social psychology on how people reacted to political upheaval of COVID-19.
“The social psychology really needed as much attention as the science, the biology and the evidence,” he said. “We put a lot of eggs in the basket of, ‘If we talk to people and share openly, transparently the science and epidemiology, that they will follow suit with me because they believe in science.’ We are wrong.”
