That threat actually wasn’t all that original. As Kat DeBurgh, head of the Health Officers Association of California, put it, “To do the job of local public-health officer, you basically always need to be willing to lose your job.” To be a public-health officer—to really own the role—you needed to be prepared for your only appearance on the front page of the local newspaper to be in a story about a call you got wrong. That might be the only time anyone ever looked up and noticed who you were: the moment they chopped off your head.
