Utah's cast of COVID characters: Where they are now
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State epidemiologist Angela Dunn speaks in 2020. Image via Gov. Gary Herbert's office, via Facebook
With a canceled NBA game, COVID-19 seized Utah's consciousness five years ago today.
- Here's a look at some major players in the pandemic, and where they are now.
Dr. Angela Dunn: The Utah Department of Health epidemiologist became the face of COVID prevention in the state and online as her video updates made her a minor celebrity.
- Friction point: Dunn's strategy was more cautious than many Republican officials were willing to embrace, and conservative activists soon began protesting at her house.
- Dunn left UDOH in 2021 to run Salt Lake County's health department after state lawmakers banned most mask requirements. She later moved on to the CDC.
Rudy Gobert: The Jazz center tested positive March 11, preempting that night's game in Oklahoma City. The NBA promptly suspended the season.
- Gobert was criticized for jokingly touching reporters' microphones earlier.
- "The media portrayed it like I caused the NBA to shut down, instead of saying that it's a pandemic and Rudy Gobert tested positive," Gobert told Ben Golliver in the book "Bubbleball."
- Gobert has played for the Minnesota Timberwolves since 2022.
The Wasatch fault: If anyone's nerves were still unfrayed by March 18, 2020, they were likely shredded when SLC awoke to a magnitude 5.7 earthquake that temporarily shut down the state's COVID response.
- The latest: Despite the looming threat of The Big One, lawmakers disbanded the state's seismic safety commission last year. A bill to replace it died last week.
Former Gov. Gary Herbert: His containment measures were among the nation's least restrictive, per a New York Times analysis.
- Yes, but: He resisted activists' calls for a total "let 'er rip" approach.
- Herbert is now an advisor to the Utah-based Dignity Index initiative, which rates politicians' speech for contempt and violent rhetoric.
Tom Hudachko: Clear public health messaging was critical in March 2020. But UDOH had just sidelined Hudachko, its longtime spokesperson, after "Condomgate" — a controversial HIV prevention campaign to distribute condoms labeled with Utah-themed sex jokes.
- Hudachko returned to the mic early in the pandemic.
- He is now a policy advisor for the Salt Lake County Council.
Nomi Health: The tech company's TestUtah system was celebrated as a successful "public-private partnership."
- Then its early results were found to be questionable, its costs higher than government testing, its lab protocols repeatedly in violation of federal standards, its lucrative no-bid contracts guided by friends in state government, and its leadership dismissive of medical expertise.
- Nomi said the criticism was politically motivated.
- It is now managing direct contracts with health care providers for employers with self-funded insurance policies.
Jeff Burton: The retired Utah National Guard adjutant general was hired to oversee UDOH a month into the pandemic.
- He withheld a state review of TestUtah's accuracy and promised a retest — but the audit didn't happen.
- Burton was elected to the state House later that year and was reelected in November to represent southern Utah County.
Hydroxychloroquine: Utah officials ordered huge supplies of the malaria medication in March 2020 as right-wing personalities promoted it as a treatment for COVID-19.
- TestUtah was initially designed to identify patients and dispense the drug on the taxpayers' dime. The tech CEO running TestUtah had financial ties to the pharmacy poised to sell $8 million of the drug to the state.
- The plan was scrapped after the FDA warned of heart risks. A study cited by lawmakers to justify the purchase was retracted in December.
Kristen Cox: The former head of the governor's budget office pushed the state's COVID strategy toward economic interests, filtering the medical data that reached Herbert's desk and interfering with health experts' recommendations, per a Salt Lake Tribune investigation.
- Cox stepped down that year and now is head of the U of U's Initiative on Government Improvement.
Ivermectin: The anti-parasitic drug is not a proven COVID-19 treatment, despite its popularity on the right as an alternative medication.
- Patients became enraged when doctors refused to prescribe it and poison control calls spiked.
- It's still used for head lice and other skin conditions.
Kim Bojórquez contributed to this report