ASHLAND — The Ashland County Health Department disabled its Facebook page in December, and its staff has since provided inconsistent reasoning as to why.
On Jan. 4, Ashland County health commissioner Vickie Taylor responded to Ashland Source via email stating the health department disabled the page because of a lack of staff and time. When asked if the health department deactivated its Facebook page because of comments on the page, Taylor wrote “NO.”
“There is no big story here,” Taylor wrote Jan. 4. “We simply do not have the time or capacity currently to deal with the Facebook page, so we decided to only focus on the website for a source of information.
“With the large number of cases and our vaccine clinics, not to mention all the other work we have, we had to redirect staff to work on other priorities.”
Regarding other priorities, Taylor wrote staff was focused on COVID-19 cases, meetings and community vaccinations but does not treat COVID-19 patients directly.
A week later, however, Taylor acknowledged the decision was at least partly based on Facebook comments posted by a specific Ashland resident.
Ashland Source first learned of this reasoning after obtaining a copy of messages between Taylor and Sarah Wells, an administrator of a public Facebook group called “Ashland Ohio Community Support for Covid-19.”
Taylor wrote to Wells that she was considering taking down the health department’s page because Facebook user Paul Miller had “crossed the line with his comments” and staff were beginning to get upset. When asked about Miller in an interview on Jan. 11, Taylor said the health department disabled the page partly because of Miller, but that the main reason was staff did not have adequate time to moderate all public comments on the page.
“We didn’t take it down because of him,” Taylor said. “But we will say that we’re not — because we feel an obligation to all the information that gets posted on our page to either review it, refute it or whatever, we just didn’t have the time to do that with that as well.”
Ron Puglisi, president of Ashland’s health board, told Ashland Source he also had a part in the decision to deactivate the Facebook page through informal conversations with Taylor.
“We needed to eliminate duplication of work while short staffed,” Puglisi wrote to Ashland Source. “Maintaining two sites takes time away from daily operations of the department.”
Taylor said she had concerns about inaccurate COVID-19 information being on the Facebook page. Because the Facebook page is disabled, Ashland Source was not able to review the comments on the page.
“I personally had concerns about people reading that on our page and wondering if we condone that information,” Taylor said of comments from Miller and others.
Taylor wrote Jan. 4 that one employee was dedicated to the Facebook page before the health department disabled it. On Jan. 11 she said other staff also contributed. The health department does not employ a public information officer to moderate social media.
“We’ve talked about whether we wanted to get one, but that’s just an expense that we don’t feel like we can bear,” she said. “It really does take some people with some experience with posting on social media and what to post and how to post it and how to reach the different audiences — it takes a lot more work than just putting somebody on there.”
Ashland County commissioner Jim Justice said he was concerned by the health department’s decision to disable its Facebook page. County commissioners dictate health department finances, although they do not have a supervisory role when it comes to the health department’s day-to-day operations.
“I really believe people should be able to reach the health department by phone, by Facebook and all the other things,” he said. “It’s a good way to keep the public informed as to what’s going on.”
In an interview with Ashland Source, Miller said he and others frequently asked questions and challenged what the health department posted on its Facebook page.
“I just happened to be one of the more vocal in asking questions and seeking other points of view than the CDC version,” Miller said. “It would not be difficult to find many stories from residents who were disappointed in how things were run.”
Miller, an Ashland resident, said the health department blocked him from the page around July 2021, but later reinstated his access, which Taylor confirmed.
“Around six months ago, and it was one time,” Taylor said. “And then we talked about it, a couple of us with the board, and said maybe we should check with legal and see if we can do that.
“Now, I know other health departments have very extensive rules on who and what can post on their Facebook page, as we did, too, but ours just decided they really wanted to lean on the side of freedom of speech that we weren’t going to block anybody.”
However, according to the social media policy Taylor sent Ashland Source on Jan. 14, “Repeated violations of the comment policy may cause the author to be blocked from ACHD’s social media profiles.”
Miller is blocked from Wells’ Facebook group “Ashland Ohio Community Support for Covid-19,” where Taylor has posted health department information using her personal Facebook account since December. Taylor first joined the public group about two years ago, Facebook shows.
Since then, Taylor has posted about COVID-19 boosters, the availability of test kits and vaccination clinics. She has also commented on posts made by other page members.
Taylor said she posts on the page during her personal time, such as lunch or after work hours.
Wells created her page in March 2020 to share information about COVID-19-related resources in the area, she said. Wells is familiar with Miller’s posts, as he used to post in her group. Wells blocked Miller and others in the summer of 2021 after they made comments that she and other administrators of the group found inflammatory.
“We’re pro science, pro vaccines, we don’t tolerate nonsense from people sharing misinformation or entering into massive debates,” Wells said.
Wells said spends about an hour per day monitoring posts and comments on her page. The group had 2,856 members as of Jan. 19, and the other administrators include Wells’ husband, Brandon Wells (an Ashland City Schools board member), Emily Huestis (a former candidate for Ashland City Council) and Aaron Allen Huestis.
The health department is using its website, the media and community partners as its primary communication methods about COVID-19-related updates and other public health information, Taylor said. The health department does not use other social media platforms, such as Twitter or Instagram. However, its website links to profiles on those sites, with posts dating back a year or more.
The fate of the health department’s page remains unclear.
“Will (the Facebook page) go back up again?” Taylor questioned rhetorically during a Jan. 11 board of health meeting. “It may, if we can find the bandwidth.”
