EYE OF THE STORM:
Arkoosh became face of public health guidance
NORRISTOWN >> As the new coronavirus was bearing down on Montgomery County last March, Dr. Valerie Arkoosh was thrust into the spotlight, becoming the face of the local public health response to the outbreak.
It was a challenge unlike any she had faced before in her medical career but one she took on with unflinching determination.
“It is an enormous responsibility and I continue to see it that way. It was particularly challenging, because I, like everyone else, did not know much about this virus,” Arkoosh, chair of the Montgomery County commissioners, said during a recent interview as the one-year anniversary of the virus’s appearance in the county approached.
“So, I felt it was part of my responsibility to read everything that I could to learn and understand all the new information that was coming out, practically on a daily basis at the beginning, and then try to convey that as accurately and simply as possible to members of the public who were just hungry for reliable, trustworthy information,” Arkoosh added.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine who also
holds a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an undergraduate degree in economics from Northwestern University, Arkoosh, 60, concedes the battle against COVID-19 has been the greatest challenge of her career.
“I’ve been through some big challenges in my professional career and none of them hold a candle to this,” said Arkoosh, who also briefly chaired the county Board of Health for eight months between 2012 and 2013 and served a brief stint as medical director for the health department.
Arkoosh, appointed a commissioner to fill a vacancy in 2015 and later elected and re-elected in 2019, also made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2013.
“I have used every skill that I have. I was an economics major as an undergrad, I have used those skills. I have used my skills as a physician, as a public health professional. I have used my skills in leadership … I’ve used what political skills I have. Every skill, it’s taken them all,” Arkoosh said about her preparation for the battle against the virus.
‘Hang in there’
What sustained her during this difficult year has been outreach from residents who offered support in emails, text messages and cards, total strangers expressing appreciation for the county workers tirelessly working to keep people safe and encouraging her to “hang in there.”
“Those are the quieter voices. There have been some loud voices over this past year and many of those loud voices have been very much in opposition to many of the policies and procedures that our Office of Public Health has put forth based on the best data, evidence and science we have,” Arkoosh said.
“But I have truly believed that those voices are shouting
over a much bigger group of people who have just been doing their best to get through this, to be safe, to look out for their neighbors, to buy groceries for someone who can’t safely go to the grocery store, to help their parents. The extraordinary outpouring of volunteers and just true sense of community — that has been the thing that has sustained me and has been the most incredible thing I have seen, that people could come together in such supportive ways over such a long period of time,” she added.
“From the bottom of my heart,” Arkoosh thanked all those who reached out to a neighbor or someone they know who needed help.
“Those are the people
who have kept me going and those are far and away the vast majority of people in our community. I am so grateful for them and so proud of this community for how it’s pulled together to get us through this,” Arkoosh said.
Virus gains attention: Preparedness
It was sometime in midto late-January 2020, after the virus was confirmed in the Chinese city of Wuhan, that it caught Arkoosh’s attention.
“I’d been reading about it over December and early January, but when Wuhan went into lockdown, I looked at that and I said to myself, ‘This must be way worse than they are letting on to the public,’ because a government doesn’t just do that. It was just so completely locked down and that is what made me really, really concerned because you just don’t see that, it’s unprecedented,” Arkoosh recalled.
About three or four weeks before the first cases surfaced in the Philadelphia suburbs, Arkoosh convened a meeting of all of departments in the county that would be involved in a virus response and reviewed emergency preparedness plans.
“We had that meeting and so it really got people focused and every department was doing planning. I also called the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and asked if a couple of people from our health department could meet with all the superintendents because we just wanted to talk to them about this in case we started seeing cases. They all understood the potential gravity of the situation,” Arkoosh said.
Montgomery County becomes epicenter
On March 7, 2020, the county recorded its first two cases of the virus.
At the time, Arkoosh described it as “a rapidly evolving situation,” and within a week the number of those infected swelled to 20 and the county had the most presumptive positive cases of any county in the state, which recorded a total of 47 cases at the time, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
“We were the biggest county to have the first cases. We also were really quite unlucky,” Arkoosh recalled.
Several county residents who attended a medical conference in Boston returned home with the virus and several local people who had gone on cruises on
the Nile River were part of spreading events. Additionally, an Upper Merion cardiologist who had traveled out of the country was believed to have exposed multiple patients when he returned.
“There were people here, before anyone really understood this disease, who were going about their business due to no fault of their own, spreading this disease. So, we had this very rapid escalation of spread in our county and it was just frankly bad luck,” Arkoosh said.
Arkoosh and her fellow commissioners began holding daily news briefings to inform the public about virus cases and deaths.
“The situation was changing so rapidly that we felt it was necessary. We just wanted to make sure people understood how serious this was, make sure that they understood whatever we were able to convey to them at that point. People had so many questions. People were terrified,” Arkoosh said.
“It is an enormous responsibility and I continue to see it that way. It was particularly challenging, because I, like everyone else, did not know much about this virus.” — Montgomery County Commissioner Dr. Valerie Arkoosh
Transparency was important
“I think particularly in a situation that is uncharted territory, which this virus was, you have to be 100% clear with the public about what you know and what you don’t know and you had to be honest about both,” Arkoosh said.
County health officials didn’t publicly identify positive individuals by name or address but did make the public aware of the municipalities in which the individuals resided. Emergency medical responders also were made aware if they were responding to a residence where there was a positive individual so they could wear personal protective equipment.
“We just tried to do everything we could to keep the whole community safe,” Arkoosh said.
Within days, Gov. Tom Wolf ordered schools, community centers, childcare centers licensed by the state, gyms, entertainment venues and nonessential businesses in the county of