Public Health

Anti-mask and anti-lockdown protesters are targeting public health officials and politicians in parts of the Mountain West — sometimes at their own homes.

Nevada recently hosted its annual rural health conference, with a particular focus on infrastructure as COVID-19 continues to ravage rural America.

In some ways, Logan County has been Colorado’s canary in the COVID-19 coal mine. It was home to one of the earliest, large-scale outbreaks. Then, months later, it was the first to move back on the state’s public health restriction “dial.” Now, it's one of 15 counties that have moved to the state’s new stricter, but pre-lockdown level. Area residents say living in a hotspot can be scary, stressful and divisive.

The state health department recently announced it is adding a sixth level to Colorado’s COVID-19 dial framework — Level Purple: Extreme Risk — effective Friday, Nov. 20. The new level is one step higher than Level Red: Severe Risk, which was previously the highest level on the dial.

As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in our state, schools are closing and counties are moving to tighter restrictions. Executive director of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials, Theresa Anselmo, joined Colorado Edition to talk about the state's response and how that has impacted local public health officials.

A regional public health department had been going strong since the 1960s. Then, the pandemic hit. Now, it's on the brink of divorce.

Administrators from the University of Colorado Boulder are partnering with Boulder County Public Health to slow the spread of COVID-19 cases in the city.

Libby, Montana was already living with an invisible enemy that attacks the lungs long before COVID-19. For the past century, asbestos has killed hundreds in this small town — at least. That experience informs how it’s reacting to the pandemic today.

Concerts and music festivals around the Mountain West have been canceled due to COVID-19, but not all of them.

For Dr. Lori Drumm, the trouble began after she cancelled a rodeo in rural Deer Lodge, Mont. "The rodeo attracts many, many people from all over the state," she says. "There'd be no way of enforcing social distancing and the wearing of masks."