Your impressively thorough article, “The Public Health Officer Emergency” (October 2021), was distressing. The defiant attitudes and mean-spirited tactics of the vociferous opponents of professional medical guidance concerning the COVID-19 epidemic are chilling. They apparently do not care about protection of their fellow citizens, their own personal vulnerability or the tragic impacts on overwhelmed medical facilities. It seems so simple. Mask up and get vaccinated as many millions of us have willingly done, and we can get out of this mess. Mandates would not be needed if it were looked upon as a civic duty … like putting out campfires.  

Clayton Parr
Draper, Utah

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When public health becomes the public enemy

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The Public Health Officer Emergency

by Clayton Parr, High Country News
November 1, 2021

<h1>The Public Health Officer Emergency</h1> <p class="byline">by Clayton Parr, High Country News <br />November 1, 2021</p> <p>Your impressively thorough article, “<a href="https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/53.10/north-extremism-when-public-health-becomes-the-public-enemy-community" target="_blank" data-linktype="external" data-val="https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/53.10/north-extremism-when-public-health-becomes-the-public-enemy-community" rel="noopener">The Public Health Officer Emergency</a>” (October 2021), was distressing. The defiant attitudes and mean-spirited tactics of the vociferous opponents of professional medical guidance concerning the COVID-19 epidemic are chilling. They apparently do not care about protection of their fellow citizens, their own personal vulnerability or the tragic impacts on overwhelmed medical facilities.&nbsp;It seems so simple. Mask up and get vaccinated as many millions of us have willingly done, and we can get out of this mess.&nbsp;Mandates would not be needed if it were looked upon as a civic duty … like putting out campfires.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p><em><span class="s2">Clayton Parr<br /></span><span class="s2">Draper, Utah</span></em></p> <div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box"> <p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=187857">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">The Public Health Officer Emergency</span>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/53-11/letter-to-the-editor-the-public-health-officer-emergency/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=121098&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/53-11/letter-to-the-editor-the-public-health-officer-emergency/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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