Proven Ways We Are a Healthier Pierce County Together
By Bryan Dominique, Communications Manager
Office of the Pierce County Council
On March 25, I sat down with Pierce County Council Chair Jani Hitchen (District 6) for her video series, Zooming into Pierce, to discuss proclamations—what they are, what they aren’t, and why we do them. It’s a conversation I won’t soon forget, mostly because I was about 15 minutes away from driving to the airport to catch a flight to Phoenix.
At that same time, Chair Hitchen was only a few days away from delivering a joint proclamation from the Council and Executive, officially recognizing April 6-12, 2026, as National Public Health Week. Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t recall that.
Right before our talk, I’d been reminiscing about the “weirdness” of flying during the COVID-19 pandemic. I generally prefer not to dwell on germs or how viruses spread, but back then, it was all I could think about. There I was, suspended 37,000 feet in the air inside an aluminum tube, convinced every germ in the cabin had nowhere to go but into my lungs.
Now I occasionally get fixated on the germs, but I also know there are people who make public health their life’s work. It wasn’t like that for me during the pandemic, though.
There was so much information that it was hard to keep up. I remember hearing three different directives on masking on the same day in the early days of the pandemic.
I wasn’t sure whether wiping down my groceries before bringing them into the house was necessary, and I didn’t fully understand the disease and its transmission.
“In the United States, the public lacked understanding about the disease and its transmission, mitigation measures (e.g., masks, social distancing), vaccinations, and related policies due to a rapidly changing incident and conflicting information from various sources,” states an After-Action Report from the Health Department.
Yeah, that tracks with my experience. What also tracks, though, is that as the pandemic progressed, I relied heavily on information from the Health Department. It became my go-to source for everything COVID-19 related, and it was a huge relief.
During the 1918 influenza pandemic, public health officials and residents in Pierce County faced some of these same challenges. News reporting from that period showed that a lack of medical cohesion led to conflicting advice, and as understanding of the virus evolved, shifting information led to public confusion and a loss of trust. If you search for public health measures in 1918, you’ll find reports about bans on public gatherings and school closures that were met with significant resistance from residents, business owners, and politicians at different levels of government.
It turns out COVID-19 was novel, but its impacts weren’t new—just new to me.
The lesson I draw from that is public health is a continuous effort with no real endpoint. Whether dealing with a pandemic or managing efforts to keep our water clean, the work remains necessary.
The Council’s and Executive’s proclamation for National Public Health Week is a way to keep that lesson in the local public record, so in another 100 years, the lessons will be available to everyone, because public health will take intentional effort just like it does now.
“One truth guides it all: good health doesn’t just happen,” said Kenny Via, Communications Director for the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health, during a presentation on National Public Health Week to the Board of Health on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. “Public health really is a decision that we all make as a community.”
That’s true. On my flight to Phoenix this time around, I just washed my hands, trusted the work being done behind the scenes, and enjoyed the view.