As COVID raged, filmmakers captured Pierce County at its worst. The proof just hit PBS | Opinion

The drama and suspense transpired in real-time, over several weeks in late 2020.

At the height of the pandemic, when COVID-19 was claiming the lives of more than two Pierce County residents a day, Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department — an agency responsible for responding to COVID-19 and a host of other threats — was in crisis, caught in the crosshairs of ego and politics.

Today, with the local COVID death toll now more than 1,600, it’s a reminder of Pierce County at its dysfunctional worst, a moment when self-interest and a struggle for power put lives and safety in danger.

Lucky for us, a group of documentary filmmakers captured every twist and turn.

In case you forgot, or, perhaps like a few of our elected leaders at the time, have since tried to forget.

“The Invisible Shield,” a four-part documentary series produced by RadicalMedia and Bloomberg Philanthropies, debuts March 26, streaming online at PBS.org and through weekly episodes aired on KCTS-TV.

The series’ director, Jason Kliot, told The News Tribune that the Pacific Northwest was a natural backdrop as the frantic national emergency response kicked into gear, considering the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States was in Snohomish County.

Pierce County is one of several U.S. locations featured in “The Invisible Shield,” mostly for its proximity to the Seattle-metro area and the early epicenter of the outbreak. While providing viewers with historical context, tracking the emergence of public health through cholera and smallpox to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, filmmakers captured the tireless, often thankless efforts of COVID first responders in communities across the country.

According to Kliot, what the crew encountered when it arrived in Pierce County — the near dissolution of a critical public health agency contending with mounting anger and death, saved at the eleventh hour by a political curveball few saw coming — was powerful. The team set out to reveal how “the field of public health has saved countless lives in the U.S.,” exploring “the hidden public health infrastructure that makes modern life possible.” What they found was an ill-fated conservative coup, derailed by former County Council member Pam Roach’s unexpected change of heart.

It makes for illuminating viewing, he suggested.

Through fate, dumb luck or the grandeur of Roach’s last act, what happened here reveals precisely what his crew was hoping to document: The importance of work that historically goes unseen and underappreciated, Kliot indicated, particularly in the United States, where it’s taken for granted when it’s not being perverted by partisan politics.

“I think (what happened in Pierce County) was a microcosm of what was going on throughout the country,” Kliot said by phone last week before the PBS debut of “The Invisible Shield.” “We have one of the richest countries in the world, and we definitely had the worst response. … It’s sad, and it’s appalling.”

“(The series) is called ‘The Invisible Shield’ because the work is invisible until something cracks it and we see the problems,” he added.

“In terms of the divisions and the divisiveness and the politicization of what happened during COVID, I can’t think of a better example. That’s the incredible thing. We didn’t go in for that. We didn’t expect any of it to happen. It was just this unbelievable turn of events that we thought was reflective.”

Dr. Anthony Chen, the now-retired former director of Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, remembers the final weeks of 2020 well.

Chen, who announced his retirement from TPCHD in January 2023, said looking back on the defining public health crisis of his long career — through the lens of documentary filmmakers — reminded him how challenging it was, physically, emotionally and psychologically.

“Here we are in the middle of the biggest pandemic we’ve ever seen in history, and we’ve got the County Council trying to dissolve the health department,” Chen recently recalled. “To have two big, bad things happen to you at once is something else, right?”

“I think in some ways, it was very encouraging that there was so much support for the health department from the community, but clearly it was a very nervous time for our staff,” he added.

“Here they are battling this pandemic, and they’re wondering whether they’re going to have a job.”

Of course, TPCHD was not dissolved. The agency’s work continues today, including protecting us from a host of infectious diseases and health threats, including helping people quit smoking.

That’s the point of the documentary, Kliot said — why it was made.

As we learned the hard way back in 2020, we don’t appreciate the value of public health until a crisis hits and it’s too late, leaving us exposed and vulnerable.

It doesn’t have to be that way, Kliot argued.

“If you don’t understand that we need to be vigilant, we need to be supportive and we need to appreciate (public health) … then when another pandemic comes — and it will come — we will be in exactly the same situation,” Kliot said.

“You can’t have public health unless you have a community that is in lockstep, trying to work to save themselves and each other,” he added.

“That did not happen in Tacoma.”