Less than a year into his position at the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg had to learn how to navigate the county through the unprecedented novel coronavirus pandemic.
“It was like inventing an airplane, trying to build it, and fly it at the same time,” Ansorg told Noozhawk. “In this case, there was a virus, we didn’t know how it gets transmitted, and we didn’t know what would help. We just saw people getting really sick and dying from this.”
The first local case was reported in Santa Barbara County in March 2020, and since then, Ansorg and the Public Health team have been working non-stop to keep up, he said.
The pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges and hardships to everyone, but learning new information as it came in almost daily and using it to guide the county through the pandemic is a daunting task, Ansorg said.
Ansorg, who has experience working as a family practice and internal medicine physician in Germany and Arizona, came to Santa Barbara County to work at Public Health Department healthcare centers in 2016. He became the public health officer in April 2019.
In the past year, Ansorg has been one of the main faces of the Public Health Department, often speaking at broadcasted county briefings.
He had to quickly adapt to having a public role while simultaneously making the tough decisions about health guidelines.
“Being a public figure took some getting used to, that was a very new role for me to play,” Ansorg said. “But the more you do it, the more mistakes you make. You get it both ways, you do get some appreciation, which is really nice. It’s always nice to hear that somebody’s appreciating what we’re doing and understands where I’m coming from.”
“But we also get it the other way. Sometimes people are frustrated and then they personalize it and act on it.”
Receiving negative backlash from the community is something that is really unpleasant and hurtful, but ultimately unavoidable, Ansorg said.
Being such a prominent member in the community came with a steep learning curve, as Ansorg was used to one-on-one interactions with patients in his previous medical practices, he said.
“Now I can’t think of an individual patient, I have to think of 450,000 patients all at once,” he added.
The pandemic has taught Ansorg to look at the bigger picture and expand his view in order to make the best decisions for the county, he said.
One of the worst parts of the pandemic was the politicization of public health departments, Ansorg said, and the fact that some people felt every safety decision was a political statement.
“You’re just trying your best to protect people, and then somebody undermines the whole effort of many with just one stupid remark,” he said.
Ansorg said that he is lucky in Santa Barbara County and has experienced a lot of support from local elected officials, but that is not the case in every jurisdiction.
“Our public health director and public health officer make a great team. They have consistently guided our county through extraordinarily challenging circumstances with science-based decisions that are responsive to our community’s unique needs,” said Second District county Supervisor Gregg Hart. “I’m immensely grateful for their strong, passionate leadership and dedicated commitment to service.”
Ansorg said he looks to his wife, Isabel, and his “fur baby” puppy for support during challenging times and to ground himself while dealing with the pressures of the pandemic, he said.
“My wife was furloughed in March 2020, and in the end, it was a blessing in disguise. She’s really taking extraordinarily good care of me,” Ansorg said.
No matter what he is tasked with on any given day, Ansorg said, he always makes sure to start his morning by walking his puppy around the neighborhood.
“And then when I get home and have a puppy to play with, it really changes my mood right away,” he said.
After being in the pandemic for over a year, Ansorg said he hopes the county can reach a good level of herd immunity through vaccinations by the fall so that life can begin to return to some sense of normalcy.
“Hopefully by the fall we will see a lot more mobility,” he said. “I think it will be more like normal, but I don’t think it will ever really be the same.”
Schools, restaurants, bars, and other establishments will still have to operate with a sense of precaution, and people may still be wary of crowds for a while, but Ansorg predicts life opening up a bit more in the coming months.
“There will be permanent changes in day-to-day living, but there will be more liberties and entertainment again,” he said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
