Tuscarawas County Wellbeing Commissioner Katie Seward is like numerous of her colleagues all around the state and region. She’s acted in the very best curiosity of general public wellness although getting measures to educate inhabitants and listening to their worries about constraints in colleges as classes get started all over again this slide. And, like a lot of of her colleagues, she’s confronted a torrent of abuse and dislike for her decisions. Listed here, in an open up letter posted to the county’s Fb website page previous weekend, she talks about her position and what she’s been through.
Tuscarawas County Community,





I was to begin with drawn to the area of community overall health for its intent to use science to boost the wellbeing of populations. Largely, general public wellbeing is not controversial. Most people today possibly consider that the Public Health Department is a location you go to get a septic allow or a beginning certification. In the public overall health world, there is a frequent declaring: “When public wellness will work, very little occurs.”



A 12 months into the COVID-19 pandemic and all the things about community well being has now changed. As a neighborhood, we are all exhausted. Several individuals have listened to conflicting community health and fitness messages from a wide range of resources, and we are ALL all set to be completed with masks, social distancing, quarantines, and something else to do with COVID-19. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 virus is not carried out with us. Though the infection fatality price may be minimal, COVID-19 has killed far more People than every single one war since Planet War I merged and has taken 260 people in our local community.



Viruses, like the coronavirus, have the ability to reproduce by themselves over and around once again so extensive as there are prone hosts, or individuals. At every stage of spread it gets more difficult and more challenging to end.



As the Tuscarawas County Wellness Commissioner, appointed beneath the statutes of Chapter 3709 of the Ohio Revised Code, I have legal, ethical, and moral obligations to accomplish the responsibilities assigned by the Board of Well being beneath the State of Ohio’s Revised Code. Sad to say, in spite of doing the job diligently to uphold those obligations and often acting in good faith, I, like numerous of my colleagues throughout Ohio and the United States, have become an simple focus on for people’s frustrations. There is a rawness in the way individuals are behaving to each individual other, toward health care and community health and fitness workers, and towards me, individually and professionally.



The COVID-19 response must never have develop into a crimson or blue challenge. The COVID-19 virus has always been the enemy, and the United States its focus on. We must come collectively in opposition to this enemy and enable science to be our chief.
I have no playbook for the decisions I have faced, but I have generally acted ethically and with the ideal fascination of the Tuscarawas County local community in intellect.



As our youngsters return to school this fall, stakes are greater than ever. We are now fighting a variant that is more contagious, influences young children much more often, and probably has increased health consequences than the strains that have appear just before. I have read from lots of really passionate community members about differing stances on mask and vaccine mandates in schools. I have been told to “do more” and pressured to “do less.” 



Enable me be distinct. The Well being Department and I will continue to provide the most up to day tips from the Facilities for Condition Control and the Ohio Division of Wellness, present knowledge, and any other pertinent information and facts to the school districts and public so that they may make the greatest conclusions for their pupils, workers, and neighborhood. I have no authority about mask, vaccine and quarantine mandates and/or recommendations. On the other hand, I do have responsibilities and tasks I am obligated to uphold under Point out of Ohio legislation, such as isolating folks infected with a contagious sickness and quarantining folks who are exposed to a communicable condition, if the illness is considered quarantinable by the Condition of Ohio. The guidelines issued by the Ohio Section of Well being pertaining to “who” is thought of a shut speak to must be adopted but have been not established by our local Wellness Section or myself, individually.



Immediately after various conversations with school districts in our County, a lot of did not really feel they experienced the appropriate authority to exclude pupils from college who had not been officially requested into quarantine by the Overall health Commissioner. I had hoped to just present quarantine tips to contacts, but due to the difficult position that put the educational institutions in, I found it important to issue orders so that districts would have the desired documentation for exclusion.



It should really be mentioned that per the Ohio Office of Wellbeing tips, if universities have mask mandates in spot (regardless of vaccination standing), techniques to improve actual physical distancing, and documented COVID-19 procedures, the danger of transmission is frequently considered minimal, and even with constructive COVID-19 circumstances, all classroom contacts without the need of signs and symptoms would be permitted to remain in the classroom and participate in extracurricular sporting activities.



I understand and help the want to maintain our children in the classroom. I enjoy and value the profit of extracurricular functions. That is why I have communicated to Superintendents the ideal tactics and recommendations outlined above. School districts may come to a decision to pick to employ these guidelines and that would, in flip, cut down the range of folks essential to be quarantined. I acknowledge that implementation of social distancing and mask mandates may well not be a finest in shape for every single district, but it must be acknowledged that the absence of all those steps end result in the need to have to make contact with trace and quarantine those identified as near contacts.



The Health and fitness Department depends closely on our partnership with each and every college district to entire this process and we are so appreciative of the time and work this takes. The orders offered to students after a recognised exposure are the obligation of the Well being Department and a delegated duty of the Overall health Commissioner as outlined in Chapter 3707.08 and 3707.16 of the Ohio Revised Code. Please realize that positioning college students in quarantine is not an act of malice or retaliation towards all those who have picked to stay unvaccinated or those people who speak out against mask or vaccine mandates. These are the pointers I am necessary to observe. Merely place, it is my position.



Around the earlier 12 months, I have been threatened and harassed, my character has been torn down. My individual everyday living has been dissected, judged, and ridiculed. I have been labeled “the most hated woman in Tuscarawas County.”



Even nevertheless, I like general public health and fitness, and I love Tuscarawas County. I arrived to the subject of public health and fitness and the Tuscarawas community dedicated to implementing my expertise and schooling to save lives. I appreciate the enthusiasm of so quite a few of our inhabitants. I am NOT less than any circumstance trying to choose away any personalized freedoms or your ideal to make a decision what is finest for you and your spouse and children on any health and fitness matter, but I am obligated to follow Ohio’s Revised Code.



As we keep on to navigate these uncharted waters, I guarantee to proceed earning excellent faith selections and responsibly act within the scope of my duties assigned under the legal guidelines of the Point out of Ohio.



With regard and sincerity,
Katie Seward, MPH, CHES, CTTS
Tuscarawas County Overall health Commissioner


