While it appears that the most recent COVID-19 variant is slowing down and infection rates are on the decline, our union members at the Ohio Department of Health are doing everything but slowing down. These frontline workers continue to be on high alert, not just in regard to the current pandemic but when it comes to their work on many diseases and health risks that put Ohioans in harm's way. This includes preparing for any potential future COVID-19 variants, pandemics and epidemics that could come our way. In the most recent edition of the OCSEA magazine we celebrate the men and women of the state health agency, our behind-the scenes frontline heroes from our state scientists to inventory control specialists, who have worked around-the-clock since the pandemic's first moments (and even before).
When COVID-19 appeared
in the U.S. in the early months
of 2020, medical personnel and
health departments around the
country were forced to make a
strong pivot in order to track,
understand, treat and deal
with a virus that was so new, so
unknown and so fast moving,
that no one knew what to expect
from one day to the next. For
employees working at the ODH
laboratory in Reynoldsburg, east
of Columbus, that meant, in
many cases, pausing the work
they had been doing and getting
their arms around a worldwide
pandemic in a matter of weeks. Read more about our frontline heroes in the Ohio Department of Health in the most recent edition of the OCSEA magazine HERE.