-by Colorado Covid Watch
Jefferson County failed—and continues to fail—residents through an inability and/or unwillingness to implement and enforce basic health measures that would’ve prevented countless cases of COVID-19 and long COVID, while saving many lives.
For its 7-part report, “Unmasking JeffCo,” citizen watchdog Colorado Covid Watch filed a Colorado Open Records Act request to obtain emails from Board of Health president Cheri Jahn to detail what went wrong during the pandemic, who to hold accountable, and how to make sure it doesn’t keep happening.
The findings of “Unmasking JeffCo” are as follows, (with screenshots of the original email backing up each allegation at each link or at ColoradoCovidWatch.org)
Jefferson County Board of Health president Cheri Jahn ignored repeated requests from Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for information about an alleged anti-vaccine death threat against a local business, according to emails obtained in a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) filing by Colorado Covid Watch.
On the morning of January 4, JeffCo Board of Health Director Dr. Dawn Comstock emailed JeffCo Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) regarding a business participating in the Fully Vaccinated Facility program that was “receiving harassment, including death threats,” with Comstock asking law enforcement to contact president Jahn (who had to be prompted to do so despite being the one initially contacted by the business).
Less than an hour later, Criminal Investigator Heather Fosler emailed Jahn so JCSO could begin its investigation.
When Jahn did not respond for a full twenty-four hours, on January 5 Fosler followed up, “Just reaching out to you again to get the information about the business that is receiving death threats from the COVID restrictions. Please get back to me so I can start looking into this case.”
As no response from Jahn appears in the email thread, Colorado Covid Watch reached out to JeffCo Sheriff Records to determine whether the Board of Health president ever cooperated with the investigation and received this response: “Unfortunately, there is no record of a report for [Cheri Jahn] with the JCSO.”
On June 3, after additional follow up by Colorado Covid Watch as to why there was no record of the report, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office stated that “We don’t take reports on non-criminal events,” claiming that, after finally hearing back from Jahn, they determined that the alleged threat to the business in question did not end up rising to the level of a crime.
A month later, on February 10, a “direct threat” was made against JeffCo School District superintendent leadership demanding that the school mask mandate—already slated to end February 18—be dropped a week early. Later that day, Jeffco Board of Health, led by Jahn, prematurely ended the mandate, effective the next day.
Jahn took over as president of JeffCo Board of Health in late 2021 following the resignation of its previous president after months of harassment and threats from local opponents of masking and vaccination.
Jahn presided over JeffCo’s February 3 revocation of its mask mandate, despite some of the highest hospitalizations and case counts throughout the pandemic and was the sole Board member to vote against the November 2021 mask mandate at the peak of the Delta variant surge mere weeks before Omicron. Jahn has repeatedly spread misinformation throughout the pandemic around public health, including stating that Omicron infections are “not the cases going to the ICUs, the ones going to the hospitalizations.”
A January 23 post on the Telegram channel for The White Rose Colorado—the state faction of a global anti-mask/anti-vaccine movement with frequent antisemitic messaging—named Cheri Jahn as a “supporter.”
On top of opposing mask mandates and spreading misinformation about the Omicron variant, Jefferson County Board of Health president Cheri Jahn committed repeated derelictions of duty, according to emails acquired through a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) filing by Colorado Covid Watch.
Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) Executive Director Dr. Dawn Comstock wrote in a January 27 email to Board of Health (BOH), JeffCo staff, and County Commissioners that “Cheri Jahn has instructed the Executive Director that JCPH should stop presenting any [PowerPoint] slides displaying COVID data (e.g., graphs, charts, tables, etc) at public meetings, including BOH meetings,” including a direct quote from Jahn saying, “Don’t give them any ammunition,” in reference to citizens concerned about the spread of the deadly, infectious disease.
Comstock also mentioned “directives and communication plans” from the Board of Health under Jahn’s leadership, including efforts to “shift message focus away from COVID” and “deflect unnecessary/unfair scrutiny of JCPH.”
On February 1 Dr. Comstock chastised Jahn for trying to sidestep her authority: “Just a gentle reminder that all [Board of Health] requests for JCPH Staff efforts should be made through me or, at a minimum, have me cc’d on/looped into the request,” noting that staff “may not feel able to decline [Board of Health] requests or redirect them due to the power differential.”
Further, the Jahn-led Board failed to communicate with the public surrounding Dr. Comstock’s resignation in February. As stated in a February 10 email from JCPH Community Engagement Coordinator, Debby Bower: “The peril of not having a public facing JCPH response to Dr. Comstock’s departure…is already being leveraged by a segment of the Jeffco community as a ‘victory’ and ‘a battle won.’ This does not serve well our organization or any of us within it.”
“In a vacuum of factual information from us as an organization we allow the narrative in the community to be whatever any given individual decides to make it,” Bower went on to write. “Additionally fracturing to our JCPH team to have little communication, no word from…the Board, and swirling questions, uncertainties, and concerns multiple days after such an upheaval.”
Finally, between October 2021 and January 2022, Jahn ignored at least 18 emails from the JeffCo Security Team reminding her to complete mandatory cyber security training to protect sensitive public and private health data from hackers.
Jefferson County elected officials, including Commissioners Tracy Kraft-Tharp and Lesley Dahlkemper, along with Treasurer Gerald “Jerry” DiTullio, “almost routinely ignored” Jefferson County Public Health Department, according to an email from former executive director, Dr. Dawn Comstock, obtained in a Colorado Open Records Act filing by Colorado Covid Watch.
“Commissioners, you and other county leaders…are doing what I fear is irreputable harm to [Jefferson County Public Health]…which will negatively affect our ability to provide public health services to this county,” wrote Comstock, who holds a PhD in epidemiology, in a November 22, 2021 email addressed to DiTullio and Commissioners.
“Far too many Jeffco leaders continue to make statements like ‘we are working with public health’ and ‘we are following best public health practices’ when nothing could be farther from the truth,” Comstock stated, accusing county officials of providing fodder to those opposing masking, vaccination, and other public health measures. “Stop belittling your Public Health Department.”
“If you continue to allow [Jefferson County Public Health] to be battered while allowing other county leaders to make statements about this pandemic and to make decisions regarding health and safety without consulting your public health department,” Comstock wrote, “you will harm [Jefferson County Public Health] to a point that its effectiveness will be diminished, perhaps irreparably, long after this pandemic is over.”
Singling out Commissioner Tracy Kraft-Tharp, Comstock alleged that, “in a public meeting you accused me of changing the metrics shared with you in order to make things look worse than they really were. I sent multiple texts and a very detailed email to you to demonstrate that was not true. Not only did you never correct yourself/take back that accusation on the record, you didn’t even respond to me.”
On January 24, 2022, near the peak of Colorado’s first Omicron surge, Comstock sent an email to Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper’s executive assistant (cc’ing Dahlkemper) saying, “I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for many weeks now to try to catch up with Commissioner Dahlkemper to discuss the future of COVID-19 updates given the current and pending stages of the pandemic.”
While Dahlkemper was refusing to meet with or respond to Comstock, the county commissioner did find the time on New Year’s Eve to reply to and forward an email to her appointee, Board of Health president Cheri Jahn, from a critic of Comstock outraged that the public health director suggested he get vaccinated and wear a mask indoors in public spaces. Dahlkemper is currently running for re-election in District 3.
In a November 19, 2021 email to the Board of Health, Treasurer DiTullio—who has no background in public health—spoke out against mask mandates, and insisted, in the case of mandates that gyms and restaurants (two of the riskiest businesses in terms of viral spread) be exempt.
Comstock accused DiTullio in her November 24 email of sidestepping her authority and that of the Public Health department by making such asks directly from the Board of Health rather than through proper channels. DiTullio is running for his Treasurer seat again.
“People are dying from COVID-19 every day in Jeffco,” wrote Comstock of the virus which has killed at least 1,448 in Jefferson County, 13,347 in Colorado,1,002,990 in the U.S, and 6-20 million worldwide. “You do not get the luxury of making unsubstantiated claims when we are talking about life and death.”
On February 7—three months after Comstock’s email and days after the Board of Health, led by president Cheri Jahn, rescinded the winter mask mandate—Comstock resigned.
In the midst of the first Omicron surge, the Mayors of Arvada and Lakewood and heads of the Westminster and Wheat Ridge Chambers of Commerce advocated on behalf of locals opposed to any and all public health measures to pressure Jefferson County Board of Health to prematurely end mask mandates and oust executive director, Dr. Dawn Comstock.
In a January 23 email to Jefferson County Commissioners, Arvada Mayor Marc Williams and Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul forwarded five emails from citizens against masking, vaccination, and COVID testing, all of whom demanded the firing of Comstock for advocating for these public health measures.
“Her actions are causing great concern in our communities,” wrote Williams of Comstock, the latter of whom holds a PhD in epidemiology. Paul agreed, chiming in, “Me too and I have many concerns.”
Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper—who, during this time, was ignoring Comstock’s communications—forwarded the emails to her appointee on the Board of Health, president Cheri Jahn. Jahn has opposed mask mandates throughout the pandemic, spread disinformation about the pandemic, and was named as a “supporter” in a post on the Telegram channel for The White Rose Colorado, the state faction of a global anti-mask/anti-vaccine movement with frequent antisemitic messaging.
In a Feb 2 email to County Commissioners and Cheri Jahn, Wheat Ridge Chamber of Commerce Chair, Shaun Pearman, insisted that mask mandates were “an utter and shameful disaster for Jefferson County schools and businesses.” He went on to falsely claim masks do “nothing to reduce the spread of covid.”
Pearman also condemned Comstock for suggesting that immunocompromised Jefferson County residents at severe risk for the virus shop in neighboring Boulder County with much higher mask compliance.
Pearman, who, as an attorney, had represented three Christian schools sued by the Board of Health for refusing to comply with the county mask mandate, demanded that the board “wrest control away from Dr. Comstock, and put then someone in charge who is not using a wrecking ball to harm Jefferson County.”
In a February 3 email to the Board of Health, President of Westminster Chamber of Commerce, Julia Abdel, blamed a variety of symptoms common to sufferers of long COVID on the wearing of masks. These symptoms included “cognitive health changes…difficulty concentrating, loss of interest, forgetfulness…depressed mood, racing thoughts, fatigue, excessive worry, crying, anxiety.”
Abdel also went on to blame a “50% attrition of employees” on masking, not the pandemic spread of a frequently debilitating and often deadly disease that has claimed the lives of over 13,000 Coloradans and more than 1 million Americans.
Finally, Abdel cited the unpopularity of masking amongst Jefferson County residents alone as a legitimate reason to terminate the public health order.
On February 3, Jefferson County Board of Health, led by president Jahn, rescinded the mask mandate. Comstock resigned as director on February 7.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) ignored public health orders intended to protect the incarcerated, abandoned small business employees and private citizens assaulted and/or threatened by anti-maskers, and openly defied state and county “vaccine or test” mandates, according to emails obtained in a Colorado Open Records Act filing by Colorado Covid Watch.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader “continues to blatantly ignore [Jefferson County Public Health] recommendations regarding best practices in the County Jail even when his failures to do so result in large numbers of his Staff and inmates being infected in yet another outbreak and in some being hospitalized and put on ventilators,” wrote Dr. Dawn Comstock, former director of Jefferson County Public Health director in a November 22, 2021 email to County Commissioners.
Comstock also revealed that Sheriff Shrader “made the demonstrably false statement that testing is a better way to keep people safe from COVID than vaccination.” Jefferson County jails had numerous outbreaks resulting in several hundreds of cases amongst inmates and staff, according to media reports.
In a July 30, 2021 letter to Comstock, Jefferson County Commissioners, and Manager Don Davis, Sheriff Shrader insisted that “our role is not to enforce the public health orders but rather to educate.” Yet the facts reveal that not only didn’t JCSO enforce public health orders, it repeatedly refused to take action against citizens committing crimes while opposing them.
Stephen Gould, board member of Colorado Distillers Guild and owner of a local distillery in Golden, sent a November 22, 2021 email to Comstock, the Board of Health, County Manager, and Westminster Chamber of Commerce president Julia Abdel begging the county “to step up and actually enforce any public heath order, protect businesses and hold violators, especially those that attack our employees accountable.”
In the case of an anti-masker assaulting one of his employees who asked for compliance, Gould alleged that JCSO “rather than dissuading the assailant, empowered him.”
“Any public health order must be supported by the authorities. Our businesses and our employees must be protected. Citizens attacking our employees for following the public health order must be held accountable,” Gould wrote, arguing that the ongoing lack of “active support” by JCSO and other law enforcement would continue to “endanger our employees.”
Several other business owners in Jefferson County, including the vice president of a national grocery chain (who spoke to Colorado Covid Watch under condition of anonymity), admit that the main reason stores don’t enforce masking on customers is that JCSO does not respond to calls to remove trespassers.
Sheriff Shrader also openly opposed state and county mandates for government workers to vaccinate or test for COVID-19 months before they were put in place (in Jefferson County from October 2021 to January 2022.)
“Even if mandated, no Sheriff’s Office employee will be at jeopardy of losing their job for refusing vaccination,” Shrader wrote in his July 2021 letter.
Shrader even floated what some consider a threat to withhold essential services were the mandate to be upheld, claiming, “Ultimately [a vaccine mandate] may impact our ability to provide public safety.”
Jefferson County citizens denying the health risks of COVID-19 not only praised Board of Health president Cheri Jahn for her opposition to mask mandates and other public health measures but asked her personal advice for how to take their opposition to the next level, according to emails obtained in a Colorado Open Records Act filing by Colorado Covid Watch.
After thanking Jahn for being the “voice of reason,” due to the president’s blanket opposition to mask mandates throughout the pandemic, one citizen trusted her enough to ask, “What can be done now besides noncompliance? I am willing to join the fight.”
In reference to a Board of Health meeting in which Jahn made false statements about the ineffectiveness of masks, one citizen emailed that she was, “so relieved to feel our voices were finally being heard.” This individual’s “voice” included statements such as “masks do more harm than good,” while insisting that her child’s inability to see her teacher smile outweighed the health and economic costs of letting the virus run rampant in schools. CDC recently revealed that more than 75 percent of all U.S. children have been infected with COVID.
More support for Jahn’s opposition to public health came in the form of a citizen email saying, “It was so refreshing to hear someone speak for Jeffco citizens. I know you are the sensible one and I am so grateful for that!…I do feel you are the right person to get us rolling on [the lifting of mask mandates].” Indeed, the Board rescinded its winter mask mandate shortly after Jahn took over as president.
Making it even more clear as to who shares Jahn’s views, a post on the Telegram channel for The White Rose Colorado—the state faction of a global anti-mask/anti-vaccine movement with frequent antisemitic messaging—named the board of health president as a “supporter.”
One parent, in her communications with Jahn, admitted her opposition to masking had nothing to do with effectiveness: “The insistence on masks and all the other mitigation measures are a vivid, daily reminder of the trauma my children have already suffered.” Sure enough, without any data whatsoever, Jahn repeatedly brought up undocumented “mental health” impacts from wearing a mask alone as a reason why she opposed any and all mandates.
Jahn is also a favorite of the single biggest violator of public health measures in Jefferson County throughout the pandemic, according to citizen complaints provided shared by Jefferson County Public Health: the fitness industry.
“I am writing on behalf of the Colorado Fitness Coalition (CFC) to say thank you for being such a strong supporter of the business community and specifically of the Fitness Industry in Colorado,” wrote Robin M. Jost, Accounting & Human Resources Department Head for Jost ADK Wolf PackPlanet Fitness in Denver.
Emails relating to the resignation of former Jefferson County Public Health Director, Dr. Dawn Comstock, were illegally redacted from a Colorado Open Records Request obtained by Colorado Covid Watch. The citizen watchdog group calls on District Attorney Alexis King to launch a grand jury investigation to uncover the hidden evidence, as well as the many past and ongoing failures of the county to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Multiple emails to and from Board of Health president Cheri Jahn were wrongly blacked out under the guise of “attorney client privilege,” a clause that applies only to materials prepared in anticipation of litigation.
Until her resignation in February, Dr. Comstock, who holds a PhD in epidemiology, more than admirably fulfilled her role of “promoting health and preventing injury and disease for our residents” by calling for appropriate measures following Gov. Jared Polis’ passing the public health buck down to counties.
Dr. Comstock and her staff also produced detailed, data-backed reports scientifically justifying the need for any and all public health orders while regularly providing federal, state, and local COVID-19 updates to county partners.
Yet time and time again Comstock’s authority was ignored, undermined, or outright resisted—without countervailing data—by Board of Health president Cheri Jahn, County Commissioners Tracy Kraft-Tharp and Lesley Dahlkemper, Arvada Mayor Marc Williams, Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul, County Sheriff Jeff Shrader, and others. Comstock was also the target of unrelenting attacks from citizens opposed to public health, including threats of violence and death.
Despite this overwhelming resistance, Comstock, before her resignation, had clear positive impacts for the county. Most recently, on January 28, Jefferson County made up only 9.9 percent of COVID-19 cases in Colorado, yet following the Jahn-led Board of Health’s premature lifting of the mask mandate the state ballooned up to 10.9 percent. This removal of the last meaningful public health measure set up the county for its current explosive Omicron surge.
Comstock also went above and beyond to protect her staff from “trauma” brought on by members of the public opposed to masking, vaccines, quarantining, and testing, some of whom Comstock noted could be “quite aggressive, at times using very bigoted language (e.g., racist, xenophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, etc).”
While Comstock was sometimes blunt in her communications—understandable with the life and death issues she was entrusted with—she even took time to listen to her most vocal and irrational opponents. In one instance Comstock agreed to a one-one-one meeting proposed by a local anti-mask member of the public who had spent years spreading disinformation about the pandemic and Comstock, herself. That individual canceled at the last minute in favor of organizing a protest at Jefferson County Public Health in Lakewood in which the department was forced to shut down for the day in the name of safety.
Ultimately, Comstock’s exemplary leadership came to end a few short months after the appointment of Cheri Jahn to Board of Health President—a longtime opponent of public health, proven purveyor of disinformation, and ally of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers—who repeatedly attempted to undermine and circumvent the leadership of her public health expert director.
- Summary & Conclusion
Summary
Jefferson County Board of Health president, Cheri Jahn
Board of Health president Cheri Jahn opposed ALL mask mandates throughout the pandemic; intentionally hid COVID data from public meetings; spread disinformation downplaying the seriousness of the virus and the benefits of public health measures; risked private and public data by refusing cyber security training; impeded a police investigation into anti-vaccine death threats; sidestepped and undermined the authority of public health director and PhD epidemiologist Dr. Dawn Comstock.
Jefferson County Elected Officials
County Commissioners Tracy Kraft-Tharp and Lesley Dahlkemper, Treasurer Gerald “Jerry” DiTullio, Arvada Mayor Marc Williams, and Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul: “almost routinely ignored” and “belittled” Jefferson County Public Health Department; advocated on behalf of members of the public spreading disinformation about masks, vaccines, quarantines, testing, and the virus itself; consistently undermined and ultimately succeeded in pushing out director Comstock.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office
Sheriff Jeff Shrader ignored public health orders intended to protect the incarcerated; abandoned small business employees and private citizens assaulted and/or threatened by anti-maskers; and openly defied state and county “vaccine or test” mandates.
Conclusion
For all these details (and more) revealed in “Unmasking Jeffco,” Colorado Covid Watch has called on District Attorney Alexis King to launch a grand jury investigation to determine the past and ongoing failures of the county to slow the spread of COVID-19.
While we believe such an investigation will cover malfeasance, derelictions of duties, and potentially criminally negligent behavior by the county officials mentioned above, ultimately Gov. Jared Polis set Jefferson and every other Colorado county up for failure with his refusal to implement and enforce an effective statewide approach to the virus.
Yet even if Polis hadn’t shirked his responsibilities, a statewide effort would’ve been insufficient without a national strategy. Tragically, neither President Trump nor President Biden have chosen to act meaningfully to slow the spread of the virus, and this collective failure of our federal, state, and county leadership has resulted in hundreds of millions of infections, millions suffering long-term disabilities (which multiple infections are only exacerbating), and over one million deaths and counting.
What are the forces at play that prevent our elected officials from protecting public health, one of government’s primary purposes? There is no question that corporate entities pressured and continue to pressure politicians to force employees back to work without protection from the virus (often while carrying the virus) and to go out and spend money as if there was no pandemic.
Yet how did these government officials get away with failing so monumentally during the worst pandemic in a century with little to no pushback? In no small part because an almost entirely partisan media chose to politicize the virus early on, while today resorting to little more than reprinting woefully underreported “official” case counts, instead of investigative reporting to uncover the roots and remedies to this ongoing public health tragedy.
Kowtowing to corporate advertisers whose business models depend on downplaying the pandemic is also a likely factor behind the superficial and/or absent media coverage, with even once-trusted media outlets such as the Denver Post printing blatant and dangerous disinformation about the pandemic being “over” while refusing to respond to requests for a correction.
But, of course, a failing media is just responding to clicks. As the vast majority of the public— left, right, and center—has suffered so much trauma over the last two and a half years that the psychological response for many has been to lie to themselves that there is no more pandemic.
And so, rather than being brave, honest, and ethical enough to do what needs to be done to mitigate the impact of the virus to the best of our ability, we as a nation have allowed ourselves to drift into a nearly sociopathic indifference to mass suffering and death, from which there seems to be no immunity.
Colorado Covid Watch 