Dr. Jennifer Smith, a member of the State Department of Health contact tracing team who became a whistleblower, has been forced to go on leave.   Smith revealed that rather than up to 100 or more contact tracers working to track COVID-19 cases for the state,  there were fewer than 25.  Smith was put on paid leave effective Friday, Sept. 4.  The Department of Health has not commented, but Dr. Scott Miscovich, who has been critical of the Department for its lack of aggressive contact tracing, said Smith told him she was being escorted out of the building by State Sheriffs.

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said on her website, “…it was announced that Dr. Jennifer Smith, the brave whistleblower who exposed the dire reality of how few contact tracers were working with the DOH, was forcibly placed on leave and escorted out of the Department of Health building on Friday…. This was a clear retaliatory move, punishing Dr. Smith for telling the people of Hawaii the truth about what was really going on at the Department of Health.  Retaliating against a whistleblower further erodes the public trust and sends a dangerously chilling message to others in our government that they better toe the line or they will be punished.”

Smith confirmed what a group of State Senators on the State Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 discovered for themselves when they dropped in on the State DOH on August 7.   They reported a contact tracing operation with few people attempting to do contact tracing with overwhelming numbers of cases to handle.  They were told by some in the Department, including Smith, that they had to handle as many as 190 cases at a time.  Gov. David Ige at that time criticized the State Senators for their “inappropriate” actions in visiting the State DOH without proper advance notification.

The DOH has been heavily criticized for its lack of contact tracing, all the while the leadership –Director Bruce Anderson and State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park–insisted they had the situation under control and rejected offers of help from the National Guard, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, and state legislators.   Despite having touted a training program for contact tracers the DOH developed with University of Hawaii, which has trained more than 400 new contact tracers, Anderson hired few.  Finally the Department hired Emily Roberson, PhD, to lead the contact tracing effort, but she went on leave just weeks after being hired, citing a lack of a clear chain of command at the DOH.   Since then, Dr. Bruce Anderson announced his intent to retire Sept. 15, Dr. Sarah Park has been put on paid leave, and Dr. Roberson has returned.