Millard to Resign as Health Officer in January

Dr. Anne Millard has formally announced her resignation from the position as Valley County Health Officer effective Jan. 1, 2021. She will remain a primary care provider at Frances Mahon Deaconess. Millard gave notice to the board of health before Thanksgiving and officially informed them at their regular meeting on Dec. 8. She has been in the position for three years.

Millard spoke to the Courier the evening of Dec. 9 about her resignation, the COVID pandemic and her time in the position before 2020.

"I wasn't trying to leave them in a lurch or anything," said Millard. "I just needed to not do it anymore."

Millard is resigning for multiple reasons some of which are personal, but others include the eight months of trying to "deal with COVID in the community" and the split positions much of Valley County holds about the topic and what to do about it.

"No one comes to a consensus," explained Millard. "If you want to say something out loud or give an idea or opinion, what you get back is a bunch of, 'well you can't do that because of whatever reason.'"

Specifically, Millard said masks and quarantines were contentious topics that many pushed back against while she was the health officer. "There have been more issues with violating quarantine and isolation orders than probably anybody in the public knows about, because people just don't respect public health opinion."

She did add that push back to public health orders is not universal and many, if not most, people in the community agree with or support preventing COVID-19 in Valley County. Still, a vocal few have consistently pushed back against health measures that Millard considers not only necessary, but fairly benign to daily life and personal liberty-such as mask wearing and quarantining.

Millard's focus has been on the job of public health which is to prevent the spread of a communicable disease like COVID-19, and the measures she has taken and supported are intended to do just that. She added that she often asks people to compare COVID-19 to tuberculosis or other long-standing infectious diseases. People do not share the same resentment for health orders that mitigate those diseases and, in many cases, have reduced them to nominal numbers in the U.S.

She also pushed back on the idea that mitigation efforts in the fight against COVID-19 were unreasonable or in some way an infringement on personal liberty. "I think there are limits to what you can ask people to do," said Millard. "But as much as everybody keeps toting that they have rights, they also have responsibilities when you are part of a community, and that's the portion I think a lot of people forget about."

Millard said she thinks the lockdowns in California are excessive-she described them as "insane"-but she added that they have a lot more people than rural Montana. "There's a lot of people out there and maybe that's what they need-I don't know," she said. "I know that Glasgow, Montana doesn't need that. I do think that it's reasonable to say that when you're out in public if you're going to be within six feet of someone and you can't avoid that then you should be wearing a mask, and that's not an unreasonable ask."

She said many people forget that the reason mitigating the virus is important is not just because it is deadly, but because it impedes everything. By preventing the spread of coronavirus public health officials are also trying to keep businesses, schools and stores open and operating-something they cannot do if everyone is home sick.

The virus is not just fatal, but it also affects people in other ways. Some individuals report symptoms that include headaches, brain fog, aches and pains and respiratory issues for weeks and months after the disease said Millard. She added, "And these are people in their 30s, not just old people."

Still, with a vaccine on the horizon and cases relatively low and deaths even lower, Millard said the region is fortunate that the community has not had more cases or complications. "I think we got very lucky up here that we live so remote from a lot of population centers that we didn't have more problems from COVID than we have had," she said.

A vaccine presents another challenge for the health department. Disinformation has run amuck, and many have expressed doubts about the vaccine's safety and efficacy. According to Millard, one reason the vaccine was so quickly produced was because it was modeled off of similar coronavirus vaccines such as the one that combats the virus that causes SARS. The vaccination rate will need to reach about 70 percent to be an effective preventative level for those who are immunocompromised or unable to receive the vaccine due to allergies or other conditions according to Millard.

She pointed out that the most likely risk to the public is allergic reaction and anaphylaxis which can be deadly. Other side effects though are said to be mild and temporary when compared to COVID-19. With the two-shot process of the upcoming vaccine, Millard said the second shot will give most people an immune response resulting in aches, low-grade fever and similar side effects.

Once the community reaches 70 percent of people vaccinated, Millard said Valley County should be able to return to a state of relative normalcy.

"I mean, I think you are still going to have to be careful, but I think activities can start to come back to normalcy. I think that people really should stay home when they have a cold, but I think the contact tracing will be able to slow down or stop," she said.

Being health officer wasn't all bad or all COVID. Aside from the normal health department issues like restaurant sanitation and providing services like vaccinations, women's health, cancer screening, mental health and contraception, Millard said her most enjoyable time on the job was "solving problems for people."

She recalled one story of educating and vaccinating a local sports team for rabies after a bat was discovered dead in their sleeping area. Because a bat's bite can be so discreet and painless, whenever one is discovered dead in sleeping quarters health professionals recommend the occupants be vaccinated against rabies due to the fact that the disease is almost always fatal.

"The bad news with rabies is once you get sick, you're gonna die from it, probably," said Millard. "Because 99.9 percent of people do."

Asked what advice she would give her successor, Millard said, "Talk to the board and help them remember where their focus should be. I don't think I did enough of that. I really think I could have done more."

As of Dec. 14, the county health department reported 25 active cases, 593 recovered and eight deceased from the virus for a total of 625 cases in the county. Out of those 625 cases a total of 47 have been hospitalized. The largest infected demographic for the week is between 50 and 70 years old. Statewide 818 Montanans have died from the disease with 37 of those occurring in the four days leading up to Dec. 14.