Back in the 80s I worked a dual function position in a rural county in Arkansas. On one side I was Administrator of the Local County Health Department. A function that was more or less office manager for the Health Unit and I interfaced with public officials in and outside the county. When I put on my other hat I was the County Sanitarian. As a Registered Sanitarian I had a wide range of duties that included inspecting food stores, restaurants, working general sanitation complaints, dog bites, mosquito issues, truck wrecks involving food and many different arenas of public health outside of a medical setting.
Part of my duties as Sanitarian was permitting and approving on-site waste management systems (usually, not always, septic systems). I also was expected to certify sewage and water when a house sold that was not connected to public services. If I failed to approve those, a sale was lost or delayed. Usually the angriest person was the real estate agent. I was also responsible to assure that anyone opening up a new store with food or a new restaurant went through all the proper procedures and construction/remodeling.
It was with this last subset that I received the most grief. I can recall at least three times that I was physically threatened with bodily harm. In at least two of those they had a make shift weapon in hand. Fortunately, I am a big guy, over 6 feet, and too dumb to be scared when I should be, so I was able to stare them down. One time I was told someone was considering putting a hit out on me. I discounted that as the source had a history of false statements. More than once they went over my head to my boss or the local State Representative in an effort to get me fired. Add to all this, the nightmares that I sometimes had about overlooking something that resulted in many folks ending up sick or worse. If I told you what I was getting paid to endure this harassment, you would still be laughing come next Tuesday.
This is not original with me nor with the creators of the video, but we need to be recognizing those folks who often do unknown jobs, underpaid jobs and frequently unappreciated jobs of much social significance. This would be a long list from public health workers, teachers, policemen, firefighters, postal workers, even to those folks who do jobs most of us would not want like collecting garbage or keeping ditches free running.
Long ago I read an article that asserted when public health measures around water, sewage, food and vermin control began to take good effect, it saved more lives than all of the medical advances up to that time. Probably a bit of an exaggeration, but maybe not.
It saddens me that we have arrived at a point in this country that science is so distrusted or simply ignored. That we have arrived at a point that good people working to do their best to protect populations for which they are responsible for are driven out of office. All for the sake of protecting profits or some unfathomable right of personal freedom.
And so it goes.
Keep well.