Sarah E. Mount: Firing of Dr. Bob Lutz widened gap between health and justice

A few weeks ago, when a neighbor offered my family a “We Support Bob Lutz” sign for our front yard, we jumped at the opportunity. It felt strange to be excited about staking our support for Dr. Lutz on our front walkway because we’ve never been inclined to post signs of any sort on our property, especially political symbols and slogans that pollute the neighborhood around election time. But, this pledge of allegiance to a public health officer who was leading an admirable battle through a pandemic wasn’t about politics – or was it?

Spokane Regional Health District Chief Administrator Amelia Clark fired Lutz, our district health officer, for “insubordination,” which may have been a strategy to appease political pressure but translated as insecure, unqualified management grasping for control by terminating a perceived political threat.

The administrator was unhappy about certain “controversial” topics on which our public health officer had allegedly trespassed, such as climate change, children’s access to guns and police brutality against Black Americans. Clark later regretted her choice of the word “controversial,” but that’s irrelevant. She backpedaled when she realized she had broadcast her motivation consistent with city politics rather than Spokane’s health, showing her tendency to politicize that which she shouldn’t. What remained in the ash of that word “snafu” is evidence that the SRHD administrator just doesn’t get public health.

Public health is more than controlling this pandemic and stands on a foundation of social justice. Social injustice impacts health by unfairly denying individuals the chance to meet their basic human needs. For many people of color, low wages, few benefits and few opportunities often means exposure to hazards in the work place and a lifetime of chronic stress and poor health from having to navigate a mine field of discrimination that includes institutional racist practices and racial profiling such as stop-and-frisk. To be more precise, when race is linked to health outcomes it is not a direct cause-and-effect. Instead, that train starts with being born Black, travels through the tunnel of racism, and down the track to the Thanksgiving table where white folks need to explain to their white uncle born poor, that no, just because you were able to “pull yourself up by your boot straps” does not mean that “anyone can.” Poor health from being born Black has nothing to do with biology or a physiological flaw associated with darker skin. Race is a social construction; humans made up these categories that divide us.

Ironically, some of the gripes that Clark had about Lutz, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges as essential public health services. For example, Clark criticized Dr. Lutz for attending a rally protesting police brutality against Black Americans during a time when the governor restricted large gatherings. CDC Essential Public Health Service #4: “Strengthen, support, and mobilize communities and partnerships to improve health.”

Dr. Lutz was on the front line of promoting health for all Spokane County residents. He can and should attend such events. It’s his job to have a pulse on this activity. This isn’t a “Do as I say, not as I do” faux pas, like a governor who begs his constituents to stay home and then heads out for a swanky meal. Dr. Lutz was down in the trenches when attending that rally – not at all like dining on oysters and pearls while sipping chardonnay.

Police brutality against Black Americans is a public health issue because the health of this population is severely impacted by the structural racism that is embedded in our society. The life expectancy of a non-Hispanic Black male in the United States is 71 years old compared to his white male counterpart, who can expect to live to the age of 76. On the other end of the age spectrum, twice as many Black infants die before reaching 1 year of age than white infants. This is not the result of behavior choices, this is what happens after an eternity of oppression and marginalization. One generation after another, chronic stress takes its toll.

To get to the root of this problem, it’s important to point out that denying our public health officer the public presence to promote public health is to further marginalize the population we aim to support and strengthen. We need public figures to champion these efforts so that citizens can observe and be moved to collectively rally for all members of our community. When the SRHD chief administrator reprimanded the health officer for exercising his role to “strengthen, support, and mobilize,” she showed that she is gravely out of touch with what it means to be a public health advocate and professional. By keeping Lutz on the sideline, you keep Black Americans on the margins of society and police brutality holding court in the road.

What became abundantly clear in the firing of Bob Lutz is that the chief administrator at the SRHD is not aware that the effort to promote social justice in the public health sphere must be supported, rather than avoided or manipulated due to political pressures.

I support Bob Lutz, and hope that Rep. Marcus Riccelli is successful in passing legislation that would restructure local public health boards, requiring at least half of the board to be made up of health professionals. This will hopefully mend the disconnect between justice and health that was absent from the board that voted to oust Lutz. This lack of fundamental public health ideology on the board ultimately undermined the health of our community during a pandemic, dismantled our trust in local government, and thumped a discouraging dent into our collective social capital.

We can do better.

Dr. Sarah Mount is an assistant professor and program director of public health at Eastern Washington University.