Arizona's top health official leaving

PHOENIX — The state’s top health official is quitting.

Dr. Cara Christ is leaving as director of the Department of Health Services to become chief medical officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. Her last day will be Aug. 27.

Wednesday’s announcement comes less than 24 hours after Christ, who has been a loyal ally of Gov. Doug Ducey, took a position on the use of masks that could be seen as conflicting with the governor’s own position.

But Christ, in an interview Wednesday afternoon with Capitol Media Services, said Ducey knew the position she was going to take, and had no problem with it.

On Tuesday, Ducey poked fun at the recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that even vaccinated people in areas of substantial or high transmission of the virus wear a mask when indoors or in school. The agency also made that same recommendation for vaccinated people who have anyone at home who is not vaccinated, including children younger than 12.

“This is just another example of the Biden-Harris administration’s inability to effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic,” the governor said. He cited Arizona’s 46% vaccination rate, even though it is lower than the national average, and said his goal is to work to get more people inoculated “despite this unnecessary and helpful ‘guidance’ from Washington, D.C.”

Christ, however, said her agency’s recommendations for the 13 Arizona counties with “substantial” spread of the virus will echo that of the CDC. Pima, one of those 13 counties, updated its recommendations regarding mask use on Wednesday.

“Everyone, whether you’re fully vaccinated or not vaccinated, should wear a mask when you are indoors or around others that you do not live with,” she said. And Christ has made a point of saying that she requires her two youngest children — younger than 12 and ineligible to get vaccinated — to wear masks when they go to school.

The health director said she spoke with the governor’s office and reminded them that it has been the the practice at her agency to adopt CDC guidance.

“They were on board with that,” she said.

“They knew that we were doing that,” Christ continued. “They supported me, just like they have with all of the public health recommendations.”

But that’s not the only incident.

A week earlier, Christ took a somewhat different position than Ducey on whether schools should be able to quarantine unvaccinated students who have been exposed to the virus. The governor’s education adviser even sent letters to two school districts, including Catalina Foothills in Tucson, telling them that such policies are contrary to state law.

The districts, through their attorneys, have said Ducey is misreading the law. And so far the governor has taken no action against them.

But Christ said that schools should be able to quarantine unvaccinated students and keep them out of class in at least some cases where they have been exposed.

“Isolation and quarantine does remain a tool that’s available to local public health (agencies) when they are working with school districts,” she said, saying those guidelines remain in place.

Will Humble, who had the job before Christ, said those recent stances are notable because, up until now, she has been loath to take any position that differed from that of her boss.

In fact Christ has been subject to some criticism for refusing to question various Ducey edicts during the pandemic, ranging from his refusal to allow counties to impose their own mask mandates to balking at various mitigation measures even as new daily cases hit 12,400 a day in January and COVID patients were taking up two-thirds of the available beds in intensive-care units.

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To date, 18,185 people have died from the virus, according to the state.

So what does Humble believe changed for Christ?

“She had a different position in the bag which afforded her the liberty to disagree with the governor,” he said.

“It wasn’t a flat-out disagreement,” Humble said. “But it was more of a disagreement than anything in the previous six years.”

Christ, however, said she sees it differently.

“I don’t feel like I’ve been disagreeing with the governor,” she said. Christ said the issue was blanket policies, which the governor opposed, versus what she sees as legitimate case-by-case use of quarantines.

Christ said she has been in discussions with Blue Cross Blue Shield “for a while,” having finally made her decision “a couple of weeks ago.”

So why leave now?

Some of it, she said, is the recognition of a limited future at the state.

“I’m a political appointee,” Christ said. “Come January of 2023, I don’t have Gov. Ducey to protect me any more.” Ducey has to leave office due to term limits.

And Christ acknowledged that given the controversial issues around COVID-19 in which she has found herself immersed, “I probably wouldn’t survive an administration change.”

At the same time, she said, Blue Cross “presented an offer that was too incredible to pass up.”

Finally Christ said that the pandemic has taken time from her three children.

If there was any friction between Ducey and Christ it did not show up in his news release in which he praised her 13 years at the agency and more than six as director.

“She’s dedicated countless hours to protecting millions of Arizonans from the COVID-19 pandemic, and she’s done it with grace, stability and confidence,” the governor said in a prepared statement. He cited implementation of statewide testing and what he called “internationally recognized mass vaccination sites.”

Christ also was praised by Pam Kehaly, president and CEO of her new employer.

“Even before the pandemic, Dr. Christ had a reputation for thinking big, approaching health strategically, and leveraging the best of medicine and science to improve life and health for Arizonans,” Kehaly said in her own statement.