By Rachel Suh
“We are not facing public health concerns as a hurdle,” Dr. John Bruss stated during a SJBPH work session yesterday, April 28, as the board discussed dissolving San Juan Basin Public Health in favor of individual county public health agencies.
I believe he is wrong in this assessment. At the beginning of the session, it was stated by another member that “the state has not legally defined the social determinants of public health.”
This is where our disunity falls into an ever-expanding chasm of politicizing and anger on both sides of what defines social health. This is where the District has failed to act responsibly in maintaining trust in government.
There is no definition of individual health in the state laws, and I have been discussing this, over the last several weeks, with other concerned individuals. The board itself then discussed this issue, touching on the vagueness of state laws in regards to a public health agency’s essential services, due to this lack of definition.
The vagueness in public health laws is exactly the underlying issue.
It is not just politicization.
It is overly broad and vague state laws for public health agencies that have allowed them to politicize a pandemic — and has allowed the same response from those whose rights have been violated. Even in today’s session, the board allowed their own political feelings and emotions to overwhelm them and began to single out individuals as part of an unwanted minority who are — to quote the various board members today — “bizarre, spreading misinformation, attacking our staff through new innuendos, undeserving of an answer or response, politicizing public health as a small, vocal group that is being validated by Archuleta County Commissioners.”
This is not a small minority. 37% of Archuleta residents decided through personal choice to not be vaccinated. An undetermined number of vaccinated individuals have lost trust after having COVID while following recommendations that have not been transparent. The public feels misinformed, and I commend the BOCC for giving the public a voice as SJBPH members snicker and say they are unhappy with dragging this decision on, while simultaneously claiming it is a commissioner’s right to hear their constituents.
On a side note, the SJBPH board can not claim amicability while outright attacking and silencing people for having different definitions from them as to what are the SOCIETAL determinants of public health — completely undefined by state law — and, due to vagueness, brings into question the Constitutionality of essential public health services as they pervade every aspect of our lives through vague and undefined — perhaps highly questionable — laws.
For example, a public health agency has no compelling reason for prior restraint and preventing people from speaking out about a health concern. This is nowhere in their directives. However, they have been treating citizens as a second class through tiered speech and a lack of access, while simultaneously claiming they listen to all voices (while also saying they need to be aware of what side they are listening to).
The side of the Constitution is where we all should be standing. Yes, public health is a concern. But when public health agencies lie, misinform, coerce, do not track, do not discuss preventative medicine, do not educate the public, seek to use children for their messaging, illegally use signage for vaccine clinics, silence minority viewpoints and defame individuals who are paying for the department as taxpayers, this is no longer about public health and has stepped far outside the social determinants of public health into questionable control of the citizenry.
What is at stake here is the legal defining and redefining of public health. Black’s Law Dictionary, first edition, states health is defined as, “the right to the enjoyment of health is a subdivision of the right of personal security, one of absolute rights of persons.” Therefore, we must be very careful in allowing a corrosive definition of societal health to violate individual rights (which are absolute), to violate minority rights, to violate fiduciary duties, and expand financial incentive and government interest of these violations.
Even at the end of the session, public inquiries from media were directed to the President of the board, and yet they openly admit her contact information is unavailable, and that a gatekeeper will direct concerns to her. This is not transparency.
As a board, they want to blame the citizens of Archuleta County and the BOCC for a corrosive relationship but it is, in fact, their double speak and lack of integrity behind their actions and words that have caused the severability of this relationship.
Citizens always have the right to speak out about the actions of their representatives and it is a failure of duty to state otherwise. The failure of duty is why the district is not unified. It is the failure of the board that has caused this rift, and it is appalling they chose to single out other representatives and individual citizens instead of take responsibility for their actions.
The board needs to take responsibility that the censorship, denigration, mixed messaging and lack of access, accountability, and transparency are why we must part ways. It is due to a health district run amok under what they perceive as societal determinants of public health that were never transparently defined through a pandemic that has caused this corrosive relationship, and Archuleta County is excited to implement their own department that more aligns with our community’s societal determinants of Public Health.
Rachel Sunshine Suh has announced her candidacy for Archuleta County Commissioner, District 3.