WELD COUNTY, Colo. — The pressure that comes with leading our communities through the pandemic is causing public health officials to leave their jobs.
The director of the Jefferson County Public Health department resigned this week, though the department won’t say why.
In Weld County, the health director was forced out shortly after the pandemic began.
Dr. Mark Wallace started the pandemic as the Director of Public Health in Weld County. He left his job because of political pressure.
"I don’t know what I could’ve done other than to say, don’t do what you’ve been trained to do," Wallace said. "It was not going to be easy for me to do my job, do it right, do it well, and meet my bosses' expectations."
His bosses were the Weld County Commissioners.
Wallace had prepared for a pandemic. He hadn’t prepared for the politics that would come with it. He retired from his position in May 2020 as COVID spread.
"In public health, this is our World Cup. We have been playing lots of games for a long period of time, training, getting ready, getting the team to work together very well. And it felt like when I was up against this decision, that I was going to leave the team in our World Cup, in the finals," Wallace said. "It’s still hard at times. If I think too much about it, it is personally difficult to reconcile. Was I weak? Did I put myself above sticking it out and trying harder and harder to make whatever difference I could?"
This week, another public health official in Colorado made the same decision. Dawn Comstock resigned as Director of Jefferson County Public Health after a closed-door meeting with the board. The department provided no reason for her departure and did not respond to requests for comment.
"The first thing I feel is just an overwhelming sense of sadness," Wallace said. "We are essentially, across the country, losing talent that we can’t afford to lose. As a state and local communities, have we really thought about what we’re losing? As we are prepared with the people and talent that we need? I’m not convinced that we are."
Wallace said he never got a death threat for his work as the public health director, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t fear for his safety. For several weeks during the pandemic, he lived in a hotel, paying for it out of his own pocket.
He said he wanted to stay safe from the virus and keep his family healthy, but also get away from people who didn’t agree with his work. He said other than his family, he didn’t tell anyone else where he was living.
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