Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis doesn’t have the luxury to complain.
“I can sit here and say it’s very unfair that I inherited all of this but at the same time you don’t step up to the plate if you’re not willing to lead.”- Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, director of the city’s health department.
It was a critical time in the region when Mayor Tishaura Jones appointed Hlatshwayo (pronounced “Shla-ch-why-o”) Davis as the new director of the city’s health department. The health department was suffering from high burnout rates, increased staff turnover and a serious lack in funding. Gun violence and mental health illnesses were on the rise and the department was still struggling to combat misinformation generated by political and internet sources that complicated efforts to get people vaccinated.
“It goes to show what happens when people in glass towers, people in positions of privilege, who don’t have to deal with the results of these types of rulings.” – Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, the new director of the city’s health department.
Entering this quagmire of complicated issues was challenging but Hlatshwayo Davis believes she’s up to the task:
“I can sit here and say it’s very unfair that I inherited all of this but at the same time you don’t step up to the plate if you’re not willing to lead.”
Hlatshwayo Davis, an infectious disease expert who focuses on addressing health disparities among marginalized communities, seems well equipped to lead the city’s health department during these dire times. Since the virus emerged in early 2021, the doctor has been the guest on numerous national, international, and local news outlets sharing her thoughts on COVID-19, other infectious diseases, and racial bias in society and in the medical, science and public health arenas.
When accepting the offer to run the health department, Hlatshwayo Davis knew her focus had to be on prioritizing issues outside of COVID.
“There are non-COVID-related issues that have taken the sideline. People continue to have chronic diseases be it diabetes or high blood pressure. They continue to have mental health concerns which, quite frankly, have been exacerbated by this pandemic. And, obviously, there’s the impact of gun violence within our city and region.”
Hlatshwayo Davis officially reported to work in October, after a Delta variant summer surge. A month later, in November, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued warnings of a new variant, “Omicron,” believed to have originated in South Africa and was destined to spread globally. Hlatshwayo Davis had the unpopular duty of being the first public health official in the state to announce that Omicron had indeed arrived in the region after a St. Louis resident contracted the new variant.
Around the time Omicron was announced, a Missouri Judge ruled that local health orders imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state were illegal and should be lifted. The impact of that ruling was not lost on Hlatshwayo Davis.
“Now, I have to deal with a Cole County ruling that could jeopardize the ability of public health officials throughout the state to perform core functions around communicable diseases. If enforced with the language that the court ruling uses, it will have a dire impact on people with communicable diseases, which is completely unethical.”
Although the city of St. Louis utilized distinct local authority and aldermanic legislating to continue implementing mask mandates, Hlatshwayo Davis is still concerned.
“Even if the city is protected by our charter and our different legislative process-we’re not an island. If the counties and regions around us are impacted by the way people move in and out of the city, it could still be really damaging for us.”
Although Hlatshwayo Davis has no desire to enter politics, her work is complicated by political decisions. For example, she said the judge’s ruling to lift the county’s mask mandates, was influenced by “petty, political perspectives.”
“It is, quite frankly, astounding to me that the political players involved would ever do this. It goes to show what happens when people in glass towers, people in positions of privilege, who don’t have to deal with the results of these types of rulings…how they have no idea of the impact it will have on real people’s lives.”
The major difference in combating COVID-19 and other infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDs in the 1980s and the H1N1 flu virus which emerged in the spring of 2009, Hlatshwayo Davis added, is the politicization of the coronavirus.
“We have never seen a pandemic being politicized to this level. On one level, I understand; politicians are the enforcement arm of what we can do on the public health front. But very early in this pandemic, we saw both parties very irresponsibly using it as a tool for political movement.”
In the 1980s and ‘90s, there was no Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, or Instagram that many use to spread misinformation and disinformation about COVID, Hlatshwayo Davis stressed. Therefore, the Internet has the power to determine “trust.”
“What that did for entire populations-especially those that don’t have a high degree of health literacy-it made politicians their trusted leaders, many who probably haven’t even completed courses in science or biology. For them to be the ‘trusted leaders’ and health care professionals like myself, who are in data-based positions to be mistrusted…well, that, to me, is frustrating.”
Above and beyond all the divisive issues that complicate combatting COVID, Hlatshwayo Davis maintains that her focus must remain on interfacing with those who have valid reasons to distrust those in the medical and scientific fields.
To that end, she has partnered with trusted community sources, like the clergy, to address concerns and deliver pertinent information to marginalized communities. Instead of letting the challenges overwhelm her, Hlatshwayo Davis channeled her energies into launching a public town hall meeting, less than a month after her appointment. She meets weekly with the board of aldermen to update them on the latest health statistics in the city. To interface regularly with residents, she’s increased her communications team’s engagement with the community by 30% through various social media platforms.
The pharmaceutical company, Pfizer recently announced that the (third dose) booster shots have shown to have efficacy against Omicron. For the immediate future, Hlatshwayo Davis stressed, vaccinations and boosters are the only viable path to herd immunity. The onus of change, she added, is not on the people; it’s on leaders in the medical, public health, scientific and political communities. This, Hlatshwayo Davis said, is the area of her expertise:
“I believe the mayor called upon me to lead at this time. The job, the call, the priority, the work, is to address public health always through the lens of equity. That’s who I am, and that’s what I bring to the table.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is The St. Louis American’s inaugural Deaconess Fellow
