“If you’re a public health person, and you’re trying to make a decision, you have this narrow view of what the right decision is,” Dr. Francis Collins, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s boss, said in late 2023. “[S]o you attach infinite value to stopping the disease and saving a life. You attach zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people’s lives, ruins the economy…. This is a public health mindset.”
He went on to say, “We wanted to be sure people motivated themselves by what we said because we wanted change to happen in case it was right. But we did not admit our ignorance. That was a profound mistake.”
This mindset of not admitting ignorance appears to be a positive for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, who rewarded Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama’s State Health Officer, by naming him its national president in October 2024.
They would have been better off listening to the advice of Dr. Donald A. Henderson, leader of the team that eradicated smallpox:
Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted. Strong political and public health leadership to provide reassurance and to ensure that needed medical care services are provided are critical elements. If either is seen to be less than optimal, a manageable epidemic could move toward catastrophe.
Our neighboring governors of Georgia and Florida initially followed Collins’ mindset but quickly admitted their mistake by trying to follow Henderson’s advice. Neither governor made the same detrimental policy choices as Harris, yet these states saw little difference from Alabama’s outcomes regarding the disease’s progress.
No doctor should force a prescription on an individual patient for a drug, diet, therapy or exercise. But Harris, who has more power than Gov. Kay Ivey in public health emergencies, imposed the Covid mandates on all 5 million citizens using the blunt force of state law.
“During the pandemic, public health officials’ recommendations, and the policies that followed from them, were based on subjective values yet were presented to the public as objective science,” David Zweig writes in his recent book, “An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions.” These policies “lacked evidence of benefit but delivered guaranteed harms,” he continues.
Instead of questioning whether his mandates caused harm or worked, Harris blamed all of us. In a June 2020 meeting of the State Committee of Public Health (SCPH), “He attributed the increased numbers of cases and deaths to those citizens who fail to take precautions and follow the simple steps that have been proven to prevent transmission of the virus.” Ironically, this meeting violated Harris’ 10-person limit mandate. Despite this – and many other moves – the SCPH has given him several pay raises at taxpayer expense.
According to Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) reports, 40,833 more people died in the 2020-2023 time period than did in the 2016-2019 period. It seems that Harris’ narrow focus on one disease diverted attention from and increased deaths from heart attacks, diabetes, overdoses, accidents, kidneys, and liver diseases, possibly because of lack of access to medical care.
ADPH classified 20,497 people as having died from COVID-19. The unaudited COVID-19 death total enabled 5,514 Alabama medical providers to receive $1.54 billion in federal CARES funds for cases, hospitalizations and deaths. But one wonders if this money was received legitimately, for an April 2025 study in Nature describes how a team in Greece reviewed original patients’ medical records, concluding that nearly half of initially-claimed COVID-19 deaths were attributable to other causes.
The constant media attention promoted by public health also increased fear and panic. As Scottish Dr. Henry Littlejohn stated of Cholera in 1880, “fear of it kills more than the scourge itself.” People can die from fear just as well as a virus.
In the ADPH annual reports, Harris says his core values include compassion, empathy, respect, fairness, integrity, and maintaining public trust. I never felt his mandates showed any of these values. Instead, I was empathetic to the masked elderly lady gasping for breath in the hospital waiting room, having to leave without treatment so that she could go outside to catch her breath, and my unaccompanied father who refused a needed medical test because he became frightened of masked strangers. Likewise, the masked, socially distanced outside funeral of a friend who died alone felt empty because of the lack of compassion by public health to basic human needs. It’s no wonder that a 2024 national survey for JAMA Network said trust in doctors and hospitals fell from 71.5% in April 2020 to 40.1% in January 2024.
Another core value Harris mentions is accountability. Yet Harris is politically and scientifically unaccountable, all while protected by the private medical association that appointed him.
There have been no public hearings, nor any evidence provided by Harris that the mandates made a difference in cases, infections, hospitalizations or deaths. There has been no justification provided for human, medical and constitutional rights violations or for economic and educational damage. Since October 2022, Harris bans all citizen comments on Alabama Public Health social media preventing any feedback on his policies.
Other states have held public hearings and changed laws after reviewing their COVID-19 actions, but nothing of this sort has occurred in Alabama. Why?
Call your state legislative representative to ask – they work for us, after all. Ask Harris why he disrupted normal social functioning or why he imposed his prescription on five million citizens. Ask anyone running for any office what they will do to hold hearings on the mandates. If the incumbent will not answer you, vote for a primary candidate who will at least investigate the mandates.
Donnie Claxton is an Auburn graduate, retired accountant, and an inveterate reader who is concerned about lack of accountability in Alabama state government.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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