BOISE, Idaho — One of the leading voices in the Boise area's response to the coronavirus pandemic was stripped of his position on the Central District Health Board of Health in a move he charges was politically motivated, just as public health experts are warning that a highly contagious variant could lead to another spike in infections.
Dr. Ted Epperly was informed last week in an email signed by the Ada County Board of Commissioners that he would not be retained after 15 years with the health district. Instead, the president and CEO of Family Medicine Residency of Idaho, a retired U.S. Army colonel, is being sidelined from the body tasked with ensuring the region's public health. Epperly said the reason is clear: pandemic directives, including mandatory face coverings, that were unpopular with Republicans who now have a majority on the commission.
"There's no place in this for politics," Epperly said. "At the end of the day, this decision was not based on me failing as a physician and as an expert on public health. It's what we've seen with the victimization of scientists, of medical experts, of knowledge. They have become casualties in this politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic, and yes, I think that played out with me as well."
Epperly, 67, who served as the only physician on the health board, said he was given no advance notice prior to last week's email that his five-year term would be allowed to lapse at the end of June. According to a county spokeswoman, an opening for the volunteer position was posted to the county commissioners' website on June 16, setting a June 30 deadline for applications.
"You would've thought perhaps the commissioners would reach out to let me know, versus getting an email thanking me for my service, after 15 years," Epperly said. "I just thought that was not a professional nor respectful way to have handled this. It's disappointing to me, and it hurts."
According to state statute, Epperly must be replaced by another active physician so that Central District Health continues to maintain at least one on its seven-member board, an agency spokeswoman confirmed.
Commissioner Kendra Kenyon, representing District 3, is the lone Democrat on the three-member county commission, and she said she preferred to reappoint Epperly. But her newly elected Republican colleagues, Chair Rod Beck, representing District 2, and District 1 Commissioner Ryan Davidson, decided to let him go.
Davidson, who previously was the Ada County Republican Central Committee's chairman, called into question the effectiveness of mask mandates and shutdown orders issued during the pandemic under Epperly's watch.
"Not only did Central District Health fail the greatest moral test of a generation, they also failed the scientific test, as none of the doomsday predictions ever came true," Davidson said in a written statement.
"We were a little too cavalier with this pandemic restricting freedoms," Davidson added in an interview. "It's really just the government-imposed mandates that I took issue with. That has now shown to be largely irrelevant during this pandemic. Dr. Epperly was the main voice on the committee, and now that his term is over, we decided not to reappoint."
Central District Health's board voted in July 2020 to mandate the wearing of masks/face coverings throughout Ada County, a response to the worsening pandemic. That vote was 5-1, with Epperly joining the majority. In February, when the mask mandate was removed in the county, the vote was unanimous.
Public health experts have consistently said that mask mandates were critical to curbing the caseload, both in Idaho and across the nation. They went into effect in Boise and several other cities and counties in Idaho, but there never was a statewide face-covering mandate.
CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY DOUBLES DOWN
Beck, who like Davidson first took office in January, did not return phone messages and emails over two days seeking an interview. But in a written statement provided by the county spokeswoman, he also noted his desire to transition away from Epperly.
"Dr. Epperly has been on the Central District Health board since 2006 and we appreciate his service. I think the Central District Health board would now be best served by someone with a different perspective who represents the community," Beck said.
Kenyon backed the Board of Health's decision to establish orders last year that placed restrictions on residents and limited aspects of the local economy for the sake of public health, and sided with Epperly in believing the decision to end his tenure was "clearly" political in nature.
"Their statements speak for themselves. I think it's political," Kenyon said by phone. "The sheer number of people who died in Ada County and in Idaho is evidence that it is a serious pandemic and we needed to take precautions. There's absolutely empirical data and proof that those measures helped."
Idaho has seen nearly 195,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 2,150 deaths. Ada County has easily led the state in both categories, with more than 53,500 cases and over 480 deaths.
A similar philosophical rift developed between the three county commissioners over another appointment to the Board of Health in January. Beck and Davidson voted together to choose Raúl Labrador, the former U.S. congressman and former state Republican chair who previously labeled masks "overrated," over infectious disease expert Dr. Sky Blue, who had Kenyon's support. The controversial selection of Labrador also led to an investigation into whether Beck and Davidson violated Idaho's open meetings law, though they were later cleared in an independent review by the Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
That Board of Health seat opened after Davidson defeated Commissioner Diana Lachiondo, the incumbent Democrat who had also served on the health board, in last November's election.
"When I ran for office, I said I'd never support anyone who voted for shutdowns. That's one of the reasons I ran against Diana. I felt she was wrong on that," Davidson said.
DELTA VARIANT CONTINUES TO THREATEN IDAHO
Mask mandates and other public health measures during the height of the pandemic were rejected in many parts of the state, and in Ada County, protesters went to the homes of Epperly and Lachiondo during a board meeting. That disruption shut down the meeting.
Epperly has long argued that the board decisions he helped direct saved countless lives, and he has firm backing from public health officials throughout the world — even as the Delta variant threatens to produce another surge in places where vaccination rates remain well below the national average.
Idaho's vaccination rate of 47.6% of people 12 and older is nearly 16 points below the national average, according to Idaho Department of Health and Welfare data.
"Public health initiatives are paramount and step one of really trying to get control of a pandemic," Epperly said. "They were exactly what we needed to do to keep the community healthy, limit hospitalizations and limit deaths."
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not promote the use of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic, by the first week of April 2020, the nation's public health agency began urging all Americans to wear a face covering when they left the house. Former President Donald Trump refused to establish a nationwide stay-home order recommended by Dr. Anthony Fauci, an adviser on the administration's coronavirus response team who serves as director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Meanwhile, working with Idaho public health officials, Gov. Brad Little issued Idaho's statewide stay-home order in March 2020, shortly after the pandemic arrived in the Gem State, extending it once before allowing it to expire at the start of May. Little consistently said that measures such as mask mandates should be left to local health districts, cities and counties to pursue to protect health and safety. Little, though, was a proponent of mask wearing.
Ada County, the state's most-populated county with more than 480,000 residents, launched a public health order in late June 2020 under the authority of the CDH Board of Health to limit the size of gatherings, as well as encourage social distancing and the use of face coverings. Face coverings became mandatory in language added to the order three weeks later.
"We are not defenseless against COVID-19," Trump appointee Dr. Robert R. Redfield, then the CDC's director, said in a statement at the time. "Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus — particularly when used universally within a community setting. All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families and their communities."
With Epperly's exit, the Ada County Board of Commissioners plans to meet this month to consider applicants to fill his vacant seat. The Board of Health next meets on Aug. 20.
The Idaho Capital Sun was first to report Epperly's ouster.
