{"id":52618,"date":"2020-07-21T01:34:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T07:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/threats-vandalism-resignations-colorado-health-officials-are-under-attack\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:00:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:00:33","slug":"threats-vandalism-resignations-colorado-health-officials-are-under-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/threats-vandalism-resignations-colorado-health-officials-are-under-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Threats, vandalism, resignations: Colorado health officials are under attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=ff8c8769-f34a-4870-9494-bf5150c5796c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1116\" alt=\"The offices of the Gunnsion County Department of Health and Human Services located at 220 N. Spruce Street in downtown Gunnison.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">The offices of the Gunnsion County Department of Health and Human Services located at 220 N. Spruce Street in downtown Gunnison.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">William Woody\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Joni Reynolds, the head of Gunnison County\u2019s public health department, entered kind of a routine as the coronavirus crisis descended on Colorado earlier this year: Long hours. Sleepless nights. A police escort home.<\/p>\n<p>A wave of threats over her efforts to keep her community safe amid the pandemic made her fear for her safety. There were also suspicious packages left outside her house and sent to her office, both of which were unsettling but weren\u2019t dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReferences to Nazism. Calling me Mrs. Hitler,\u201d Reynolds said, recounting the contents of the hate mail she received. \u201cCalling me vile names \u2014 curse words. Threatening harm to me, my family, my home. Assuring they would remove me from my job and take \u2018all my worldly possessions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Public health officials in every corner of Colorado have become the <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/2020\/07\/20\/colorado-public-health-officials-coronavirus-threats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">target of threats, vandalism<\/a> and even attack ads in newspapers and on the radio as a result of their handling of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>They are unelected government workers who typically do important, but seldom acknowledged, work preventing disease outbreaks and inspecting restaurants. But during the coronavirus crisis, the harsh spotlight of a politicized pandemic has shined upon them.<\/p>\n<p>Some have faced blowback from their bosses \u2014 <a href=\"The%20Colorado%20Sun%20is%20a%20reader-supported,%20journalist-owned%20news%20outlet%20exploring%20issues%20of%20statewide%20interest.%20Sign%20up%20for%20a%20newsletter%20and%20read%20more%20at%20coloradosun.com.%20\">often county commissioners<\/a> \u2014 and have been forced out of their jobs. Others have resigned because the stress and pressure just aren\u2019t worth it.<\/p>\n<p>In Southwest Colorado, officials have created a support group.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_headline2-18\"><a href=\"\">Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_headline2-18\"><a href=\"\">Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\">Jessica Gibbs is a reporter for Colorado Community Media. The Colorado Sun partnered with the news outlet on this story.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_headline2-18\"><a href=\"\">Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>departments face barrage of vitriol as they respond to the pandemic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88118,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52618\/revisions\/88118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52618"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}