Ferrer and the L.A. Dept. of Public Health Are a Joke, but the Money Spent on PR Is No Laughing Matter

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH) is an ongoing source of parody that may well be rivaling The Babylon Bee.

As my colleague Bob Hoge reported, not only have they shut down their social media accounts to public comment, but they have decided that it is vital to “public health” that your pet be tested for COVID, and are blithely offering free tests to pet owners and animal care facilities.

Did anyone look this over and think that maybe it might not be taken seriously?

Apparently not.

Despite abundance of caution, my goldfish Guido caught the Rona. At first he refused to mask up in his tank but he did and despite that now somehow caught Covid. @lapublichealth should I leave my house and stay at a hotel until he recovers? How many days should he quarantine? pic.twitter.com/mLEj4Ez9Ub

— Barbara Stalin (@FedUpCitizenLA) August 22, 2022

The jokes write themselves, and as Hoge pointed out, people have been taking full advantage. LA Uprising did a terrific riff off LADPH with some spot-on photoshopped PSAs about vaccinated dogs, skunks, and turtles:

“I’m Vaccinated Because… I Want To Sniff Butts Safely”

“I’m Vaccinated Because… I Need My Sense of Smell”

“I’m Vaccinated Because… I’m Amphibious”…

And so it goes.

Then there is this clever parody account, not only doing a play on Barbara “Not A Real Doctor” Ferrer’s name, but skewering LADPH for their lack of transparency and refusal to interact with the public they purport to serve.

Excited to launch @lapublichealth's new social media account tracking animal COVID! Unlike the rest of our department, I am happy to answer ALL QUESTIONS people have about our new program testing animals for COVID. It is an otter and a privilege to serve the beasts of Los Angeles pic.twitter.com/8Xpw1VrmCE

— Dr. Barbara Furrair (@Barbara_Furrair) August 22, 2022

Dr. Houman David Hemmati, who was pivotal in helping to combat Ferrer’s push for a new L.A. County mask mandate, had this perfect response:

Dr. Furrair has a PhD in veterinary social justice with a concentration on inter-breed equity and has strong connections to the animal “labor partners.” So she’s a perfect authority.

But all kidding aside, this agency sinks deeper and deeper into hot water. What idiot admits that they are too cowardly to face the public whose health they claim to be protecting? It’s a sad commentary on not only the depths of Ferrer’s incompetence, but is a clear indicator that the inmates run the asylum. Los Angeles County is the most populous county in California with close to 10 million residents. LADPH supposedly has an entire communications team, with a paid consultant named Brett Morrow who is supposed to be running point. Interesting that his Twitter account is also locked and closed off from public comment.

But this is what hiring someone with a Ph.D. in Social Welfare gets you.

When you cannot effectively communicate and manage the questions and complaints of the population, then perhaps it’s time to hang up playing social justice warrior, and let real adults with actual medical and communication experience handle things.

Just a thought.

Barbara Ferrer makes somewhere in the neighborhood of $637,066 a year (with benefits and “perks”), yet she would rather sit on Zoom conference calls and blather on about protecting unions and masking kids, than engage with the public and their concerns.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reminded us of one of his exclusive reports from 2020. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in concert with LADPH renewed a 1.9 million no-bid contract with the money slated for COVID information and outreach.

A reminder of a story I did in 2020. L.A. County & @lapublichealth spent millions of taxpayer dollars to hire not one, but two communications firms to help with their COVID messaging, which has objectively been amongst the worst in the entire country. https://t.co/O7YVZxb3eW

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) August 21, 2022

The COVID Pet Testing and all the other malfeasance and grift from this department is just another ploy to keep the COVID gravy train running. The Los Angeles County BOS has no more excuses. What Ferrer is doing, and continues to do under the guise of public health only adds to the ammunition needed to not only get her fired, but to dismantle the bloated, money-laundering barnacle known as the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

And let’s not forget this expose documentary bringing more receipts for the cause to #FireFerrer.