Harassment of public health officials all too common in pandemic

More than a third of local and state public health officials who resigned or were fired in the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic reported incidents of workplace violence such as threats, harassment, and intimidation, according to a mixed-methods US study yesterday in the American Journal of Managed Care.The Johns Hopkins University researchers analyzed 583 responses to a survey sent to 2,430 public health department members of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, media and social media content, news releases, local board of health meeting minutes, personal correspondence with journalists and health departments, and publicly reported position departures from March 2020 to January 2021.Public health officials found themselves thrust into the limelight as often-unpopular public health measures were instituted to quell the pandemic, the researchers said.By June 2020, media reports of social media insults, public distribution of personal information (doxing), protests, and threats of violence against public health officials began to emerge.

In August, conflict-related resignations and firings also started to surface.Social media backlash, angry messagesThe survey revealed at least 1,499 harassment incidents from 335 departments (57%).

The most common type of harassment occurred on social media, with 296 departments (51%) reporting incidents, 194 of them targeting local department leaders.

The second most-cited threat targeting individuals was messages containing indirect threats (30%).Nationally, 222 public health officials (36%) left their positions due to resignation (120), retirement (58), firing (20), or another action (24).