On Friday October 22, 2021 the Harford County Council voted to terminate the County Health Officer, Dr. David Bishai.  Dr. Bishai is incredibly highly qualified for this job, due to his role as a full professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with his research and teaching focus on the economics of local health departments and their role in population health and economic prosperity.  Furthermore, he has focused many new initiatives in Harford County on minority health, which has been long forgotten in this area. 

During 2021, he has become the target of a vocal anti-science, anti-mask, and anti-vaccine minority in Harford County.  These groups have led small but loud protests against any COVID mitigation strategies in Harford County, including constant attacks of any public official who stands for mitigating the risk of COVID.  To be clear, it is scientific consensus that masks, vaccines, social distancing, and testing are all important strategies for safely mitigating the transmission risk of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is responsible for more than 750,000 deaths in the United States.  Public Health Officials all over the world agree with these assessments, and they are not up for debate.  Dr. Bishai has done an incredible job informing the public of up to date COVID findings and educating the public through social media, board meetings, and podcasts.

The County Council is caving to the pressure of, or even worse, agreeing with, a vocal minority who do not want to listen to the sound public health advice of an internationally respected medical professional.  It is easy to forget, but the two largest employers in Harford County are the Aberdeen Proving Ground and Upper Chesapeake Health, which employ over 25,000 eligible voters, most of whom are STEM professionals who believe in science and want public health to be taken seriously.  We stand with Dr. Bishai and demand he is immediately reinstated as Harford County's Public Health Officer, as we do not want to see the new direction that the County Council (which has no scientific or medical degrees between them) want to take our local public health.