MY TURN: North Idaho deserves answers on the Panhandle Health District crisis
“When public health does its job, it’s invisible.” That’s how Larry Belmont, Panhandle Health District’s first and longtime director, described the work. Its greatest successes are often the ones nobody notices. As a virologist on staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, I saw firsthand how much our community relied on the people working behind the scenes to respond to outbreaks and kept us safe.
So, when I learned that the District Director Erik Ketner, a North Idaho native and 25-year veteran of the health district, along with other members of the executive leadership team and as many as eight additional employees, had abruptly resigned, I knew this could not simply be chalked up to ordinary turnover.
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