Karen Koenemann wakes up at dawn, rubs the sleep out of her eyes and immediately starts tapping away on her iPhone from her bed. The anxious emails that began to sprinkle in a few weeks ago are now a daily deluge for the public health director for Pitkin County, Colo.
Since the coronavirus reached U.S. soil, thousands of local health officials across the country have been working nonstop and scrambling to prepare. Pitkin County has not had a case, at least not yet, but Koenemann has helped businesses decide whether to cancel conferences, walked leaders through potential school closures, pored over response plans with the hospital in the county seat of Aspen. And it is exhausting.
When an outbreak hits, public health departments are America’s front line of defense. They investigate the infected and trace their contacts with other people, take passengers’ temperatures at the airport, harangue the public to wash their hands. They advise local leaders on whether to cancel school, and they find facilities to isolate the sick from the healthy. Continue reading.