Dr. Devdutta Sangvai talks with NC Sen. Kevin Corbin after a Senate committee meeting. (Photo: Lynn Bonner)
At Dr. Devdutta Sangvai’s confirmation hearing Thursday, a co-chair of the Senate’s health committee pressed Sangvai for his assessment of the state’s COVID-19 response of four and five years ago.
As secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Mandy Cohen was a key advisor to former Gov. Roy Cooper throughout the hard pandemic years.
Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance) wanted to know what advice Sangvai, as head of DHHS, would give Gov. Josh Stein.
Cooper issued a stay-at-home order and required all but essential businesses to close when the pandemic first started sweeping the globe five years ago. Restrictions loosened gradually.
When vaccines were developed, some state employees were required to show they had received shots or be tested weekly for the virus before returning to the office.
More than 29,000 deaths in the state were attributed to COVID-19.
The need for a reckoning
“The shut downs, the incredible upheaval of the fundamental fabric of our society. Did we do the right thing?” asked Galey, one of the Senate Health Care Committee chairs. “What lessons have we learned? If there is another contagion, how would you advise Gov. Stein on how to deal with an emergent public health threat?”
Galey asked a variation of the question three times.
Sangvai offered nearly the same response each time. He would use available information to protect people’s safety.
“My commitment is to make sure that we use the evidence to guide us, make sure that we make decisions in consultation with all the right people, and importantly, continuously reevaluate as new evidence emerges and our understanding continues to improve,” he said.
Sangvai was president of Duke Regional Hospital before joining the Stein administration to lead DHHS.
Galey’s questions indicated that while far fewer people track COVID like they did five years ago, the state’s COVID response survives as a political issue.
Galey said Thursday she had not seen a reckoning of what happened or what was learned.
“I think it would be really helpful for people to know that the public health community is wrestling with those questions,” she said. “And what’s the answer? It feels like the answer is hidden under a bushel somewhere because it’s going to make somebody look bad. If it makes Gov. Cooper look bad, it might make President Trump look bad. It might make Mandy Cohen look bad. Well, if they need to look bad, they should,” she said. “If we did everything great, that would be really nice to know too.”
Republicans wanted schools and businesses to reopen much quicker than Cooper did.
During the pandemic, the Republican legislature passed bills that would have open bars, gyms, and other businesses. Those bills did not survive Cooper’s vetoes. Republicans also criticized Cooper for being too slow to allow students to return to in-person learning. Student academic performance in North Carolina and nationwide plunged and still has not fully recovered.
Republicans included a provision in the 2023 budget that prevents any state or local government office from firing employees or not offering people jobs because they won’t be vaccinated for COVID.
Galey represents the county that’s home to Ace Speedway, which defied a state ban on large public gatherings in 2020. The state shut down the race track for a short time. Its owners are suing the state, saying the business was singled out.
The 2020 governor’s race turned on the state’s COVID health precautions. Then-Lt. Gov. Dan Forest was the Republican candidate for governor. He opposed the mask mandate, and wanted schools opened for at least some public school students in Fall 2020. His campaign events were notable for a lack of social distancing and mask-wearing. Cooper won reelection that year by about 5 points.
Journalist Leoneda Inge spoke to Cohen for an episode of WUNC’s Due South that aired this week.
Cohen recalled that no one knew much about the virus in the earliest days.
“We were learning so quickly, and everything was changing so quickly,” she told Inge. “There was so much we both didn’t know about the virus, how was it transmitted, who was it most impacting, how fast it was moving.” And, there were no tests, vaccines, treatments, or enough protective masks, gloves and gowns for health care workers.
“We were trying to learn from every corner of the globe, and bring the best of that knowledge of North Carolina,” she said. Cohen later ran the CDC for about 18 months under former President Joe Biden.
Cohen has acknowledged that COVID-19 underscored the need for clearer, more transparent communication to restore public trust.
Kody Kinsley succeeded Cohen in leading the state agency for the final three years of Cooper’s term. As DHHS Secretary, Kinsley worked tirelessly to rebuild bridges with Republican legislators, which helped the legislature ultimately agree to expand the state’s Medicaid program.
Relationships with legislators on both sides of the aisle are crucial as the state agency faces an ambitious to-do list and uncertainty about federal funding under the Trump administration.
Confirmation could come next week
Sangvai was sworn into office in January and has been doing the job leading DHHS.
The Republican legislature passed a law in December 2016, after Cooper won his first term but before he took office, requiring him to submit names to the Senate for confirmation. Most appointees are approved, but a 2021 Senate committee rejected the nomination of Cooper’s choice for secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality.
The Senate Health Care Committee is set to vote Wednesday on Sangvai’s nomination.
Most of Thursday’s questions for him were about his goals for the department and challenges it faces.
Improving the child welfare system is a focus, Sangvai said. Children are sleeping in county social services offices because they have nowhere else to go.
A new software program that will ease communication among social services workers across county lines and a new Medicaid insurance plan set to launch later this year to help smooth coverage as children move from place to place offer hopes for improvement.
Nearly a quarter of DHHS jobs are vacant. Vacancies in front-line jobs at the state’s psychiatric hospitals drive up the average.
Sangvai told the committee he wants to reduce employee turnover and offer paths for career growth.
Promoting primary care and attention to non-medical social needs such as health food and transportation are priorities.