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Public health officials were stars and targets of pandemic response this year
• 13 min read
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In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Jennifer Bacani McKenney would chat with residents of her Kansas hometown over the phone, on Facebook Messenger and at the grocery store about their COVID-19 concerns. We were just kind of accessible to everybody for all these unknowns, McKenney, a health officer in Fredonia, Wilson County, told ABC News.
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By MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Jennifer Bacani McKenney would chat with residents of her Kansas hometown over the phone, on Facebook Messenger and at the grocery store about their COVID-19 concerns.
“We were just kind of accessible to everybody for all these unknowns,” McKenney, a health officer in Fredonia, Wilson County, told ABC News.
Regular hour-long Facebook Live sessions soon followed. “People were just scared of the unknown, and they were thankful for us helping them walk through it all with them,” she said.
The rural county didn’t get its first COVID-19 case until almost mid-April, and by August had eight total reported. Throughout the fall, cases have picked up, with Wilson County now reporting over 600 cases as of Dec. 28.
Kansas students flocking to careers in medicine, public health
Just like the Space Race of the 1960s inspired a new generation of scientists and engineers, Lucy Fischer sees the pandemic inspiring a new generation of students to become heroes like the ones they’ve seen in doctors, nurses and public health leaders.
Fischer would know, because she’s one of them.
“I think every generation has something that is really impactful in their lives,” said Fischer, a freshman pre-veterinary medicine major at Kansas State University. “There are so many major events that have helped determine the priorities of the people who live through them.
Iâm not much for Christmas. Iâve spent more than half a century hoping each Decemberâs wishes of peace on earth and goodwill to men would come true, only to be eternally disappointed.
But I still wish joy to those who can find it in these darkest days of the year. And this year I wish comfort to some people in particular.
I wish comfort to county health officers and other public health workers who, as thanks for their expertise in trying to keep people safe, have been overruled by incompetent politicians and threatened with violence.
Go ahead and test Kansasâ level of Christmas spirit by sitting for four minutes with the NBC News story about Jennifer Bacani McKenney, of Fredonia.