Name: CDC coronavirus testers pulled from MN after hostile and racist encounters
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CDC coronavirus testers pulled from MN after hostile and racist encounters

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By | | Pioneer PressThis story has been updated to includeFederal health workers have been pulled out of Minnesota after what officials describe as repeated threatening and racist encounters with residents while conducting a random COVID-19 testing study.In one instance, two cars boxed in the health workers’ vehicle and three men, one of whom had his hand on a holstered gun, confronted the team of testers who were asking randomly selected households to participate in the coronavirus study.State health officials said little about the encounter with the group when it first came to light a week ago. In interviews Thursday evening they revealed the confrontation occurred Sept. 15 in the small town of Eitzen, along the Iowa border in Houston County.“The team felt the intent was clearly to intimidate and scare them,” said Stephanie Yendell, who supervised Minnesota’s role in the testing survey. “Unfortunately that wasn’t the only incident.”Eitzen Mayor Jeffrey Adamson in a statement released late Friday.In a statement, Adamson said concerned residents alerted city officials to the presence of an unmarked vehicle with California plates going door-to-door offering coronavirus testing. Two vehicles, driven by a resident and city official, parked near the testers vehicle, but didn’t box it in; one of the men had a large fire department radio, not a gun, in a belt holster.“In a very small town where everyone knows everyone, a group of unfamiliar people with out of state plates is unusual, and to some residents is cause for concern,” Adamson’s statement said. “This situation was handled professionally, courteously, and unbiased with no racial slurs, threats or inappropriate comments made.”Several of the 15 teams conducting random coronavirus testing around the state said they encountered threatening and hostile residents, some of whom repeatedly used racial slurs. The survey effort was a partnership between the Minnesota Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to understand more about how the coronavirus has spread.Survey teams were accosted when they approached homes selected for random, voluntary testing and by neighbors and dog walkers, state health officials said. It’s unclear whether any laws were broken, but state officials said the way survey teams were treated was “untoward.”“Over the past week there was clear pattern that the (survey) teams that contained people of color reported more incidents than the teams that had only Caucasian people,” Yendell said. “We had a Latina team member who said she’d been called a particular epithet more times in the last week than in her entire life.”The testing teams were working in southern and northeastern Minnesota as well as the Twin Cities metro when the threatening encounters occurred. Most of the hostile interactions occurred in smaller communities in the southern part of the state, none happened in the metro.After it became clear they were not isolated incidents or simple misunderstandings, CDC officials decided to pull their workers from the state. None of the workers were physically harmed, but they described the hostility as mentally and emotionally disturbing.“The teams were really traumatized by some of these experiences,” Yendell said. “Given the uncertainty of the situation and the impact of the incidents on team members, CDC decided to demobilize the entire team.”Dan Huff, assistant health commissioner, said he understood people were frustrated by the pandemic and the restrictions in place to slow its spread. But that no excuse for being hostile to test teams.“We are all tired and worried,” Huff said. “There is a difference between disagreeing with a policy or elected official and taking out frustration on public health persons trying to do their job and help the community the best they can.”Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist, said ending the study early was a lost opportunity. The Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response, or CASPER survey, the teams were conducting is designed to help public health officials better understand how the coronavirus is transmitted.Teams planned to test random households in 180 predetermined communities through the end of September for active COVID-19 infections as well as antibodies that would signal a previous illness. Minnesota asked for federal assistance from the CDC to conduct the study because state and local health departments lacked enough personnel to complete it.Before the work was abandon, testers collected samples from about 400 residents around the state. Those tests will still be processed and analyzed, but will not present a complete picture of coronavirus transmission.“We did encounter many people when we were surveying who were very interested in talking to us and very happy to participate and supportive of the study,” Lynfield said. “We hope people can understand the enemy is the virus and not the public health workers who are trying to help.”We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. 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By | | Pioneer PressThis story has been updated to includeFederal health workers have been pulled out of Minnesota after what officials describe as repeated threatening and racist encounters with residents while conducting a random COVID-19 testing study.In one instance, two cars boxed in the health workers’ vehicle and three men, one of whom had his hand on a holstered gun, confronted the team of testers who were asking randomly selected households to participate in the coronavirus study.State health officials said little about the encounter with the group when it first came to light a...

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Christopher Magan

Twin Cities news, sports, politics, entertainment and business from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota's first newspaper.

CDC coronavirus testers pulled from MN after hostile and racist encounters

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