Pierce County docs, pediatricians right to fear the politicization of public health
Mary Ann Woodruff was at her Pediatrics Northwest office when she heard the news.
Like many in her profession, the long-time Pierce County pediatrician — who has worked for more than three decades at the network of clinics founded by Dr. George Tanbara and Dr. Lawrence Larson that now stretches from Federal Way to Gig Harbor — said she was caught completely off guard.
Woodruff said she had no idea that the Pierce County Council had issues with the governance of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, or that the council’s outgoing conservative majority was considering a last-minute maneuver to seize control of it.
Simply put, the move left her flabbergasted Woodruff said earlier this week, not long after the ordinance moved an important step closer to becoming reality.
“It was just shocking and outrageous” Woodruff, who has been active for years in local efforts to improve health outcomes for Pierce County kids and families, told The News Tribune.
In addition to the obvious role that the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has played in helping to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Woodruff said the department has been an important partner on fruitful community initiatives.
Woodruff cited examples like the Help Me Grow Pierce County project, work to improve community health disparities and providing perinatal mood disorder screening across the county.
To potentially disrupt this crucial work in the name of politics, or give the Pierce County Council the ability to curtail it, “makes no sense,” she said. While Council Republicans claim the health department’s work will be largely uninterrupted by the proposed change in governance, Woodruff is skeptical.
Beyond the pandemic timing, that’s what irks her.
If local elected officials aren’t going to listen to the concerns of those on the front lines of medical care across the county — who work day in and day out with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and know what’s at stake — then who exactly are they going to listen to, she wonders?
“No one has made a compelling argument as to why, at this moment in time, with a runway of a little over a week, that this should be abruptly changed,” Woodruff said of the proposal to put the health department under county leadership.
Across the region, Woodruff’s reaction was no outlier. The surprise development left plenty of Pierce County constituents dazed, confused and angry, quickly generating what some on the council have described as an unprecedented number of calls and emails in opposition.
“I have never seen a community response inundate my email, overwhelmingly against a proposal,” said Pierce County Council member Marty Campbell, a Democrat who represents District 5, which includes Tacoma’s South End and Eastside.
Not that any of the push back seems to matter.
After roughly an hour of strongly expressed opposition during a meeting of the Council’s rules committee Monday — which could have stretched on much longer — the ordinance was forwarded with a “do pass” recommendation along party lines.
The move set up a do-or-die moment for the nearly 50-year partnership that created the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. A final vote is scheduled for Dec. 15.
If Council Republicans have any intention of heeding the mounting calls for caution and adequate public process before a decision is made, they’ve shown no sign of it.
It’s enough to leave medical professionals like Woodruff grasping for straws and bracing for impact.
“(Council Republicans) have the votes. Next Tuesday, four out of the seven (council members) could simply … ignore the will of the people,” Woodruff said .
“I’m worried.”
So is Steve Cook, who has practiced family medicine in Tacoma for the last 17 years and previously served on the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Board.
Cook said he first learned of the County Council plan to take control of the department while he was doing rounds at St. Joseph Medical Center.
Cook told The News Tribune on Tuesday he was in the break room when he got the call, and as he told the doctors around him, disbelief quickly spread.
“There was just kind of a general astonishment, like, ‘What would be the point of doing this?’” Cook recalled of the scene.
Like Woodruff, Cook noted the many ways that the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department — in its current form — has been a valuable partner in important community health initiatives.
Obesity. Smoking. Restaurant safety. As a former member of the health board, Cook said he has seen the health department’s work firsthand and knows it matters.
He also knows how important it is to have the health department operate independently of local politics, he said.
That’s what scares him most about potentially granting control of the health department to the County Council and executive’s offices.
The result, he fears, will be the politicization of public health, and in the future that could mean that things like preventing gun-related suicide or addressing food deserts and community health disparities could be jeopardized, he said.
So could the county’s response to the next deadly pandemic.
“Somebody has to be able to determine what good health guidance is, and I don’t think it should be just the voting public and the power of the polls,” Cook said when asked about the risk of dismantling the current board of health.
“If 51% of people say there’s no cancer, that doesn’t mean cancer is gone, right?”
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
