What was it like working seven days a week pushing out communications to the public during COVID-19? Scott Oxarart and Becca Allured, APR, discuss the toll of the pandemic on government communications professionals, and how it feels to use the search term “death” in your email every morning.
Transcript: The Human Side of Crisis Communications in Government Agencies
Welcome to season two of better PR a podcast for public relations practitioners who are looking to advance their careers. Whether you’re a new practitioner mid-career or a senior practitioner, we’ll have great discussions that will reignite your love of PR.
We’ll also learn about accreditation and PR through the Public Relations Society of America. Better PR is brought to you by In Plain Sight Marketing, a full-service public relations and marketing agency located in Carson City, Nevada, and the Sierra Nevada chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. I’m your host, Kathie Taylor APR.
Today our guests are Scott Oxarart, communications manager at Washoe County Health District, and Rebecca Allured, APR, public information officer and energy outreach quarterdeck, coordinator for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy. Welcome, Scott. And Becca. Thank you for being here.
We are talking today about crisis communications from a government agency standpoint, which given the year that we’ve just had, I think, is a really important topic to cover.
Scott, you are with the county, Washoe County, and Becca, you’re with the state. So you guys have some really interesting interplay between the jobs that you’ve done over time. And I really want to talk about those relationships as we move forward. But what I’d like to do first is have you talk about your roles as they were in February of 2020, and how they’ve evolved since So, Becca, you want to go first?
Becca Allured, APR 1:42
Sure. So I had been working at the Nevada Department of Agriculture, which a lot of people don’t realize is the agency that administers a lot of food programs, including school lunch, and a handful of other programs that are not SNAP. And so in the weeks leading up to the pandemic, we were preparing for what looked like it was going to be a shutdown of schools and making sure that kids who rely on free and reduced-price lunch still had access to meals.
And so in preparation for that, we were just kind of getting ready for Okay, it’s going to be a couple of weeks, right, but that we’ll have to make sure kids have food, and, make sure that food delivery is safe and all of that, um, and then my life, I was totally asked to shift gears because I was asked to serve in the state’s Joint Information Center, the JIC at the State Emergency Operations Center in Carson City. And, it was a time when several people that had previously worked in the state check on other incidents had retired. So there weren’t, a lot of seasoned PIOs that they had to pull on.
So I worked in the JIC for a little over a month, as a workhorse helping other state agencies and creating materials for other local governments to be able to use, especially in the world because they don’t have communication staff. So I kind of went back and forth between my, my actual job and working in the JIC. So it was really cool to be asked to serve in that way. And I was really a workhorse in that environment, to help push messaging out and to help our local jurisdictions.
Kathie Taylor Speaker 3:44
Wow, that’s a lot. Scott, tell us about your role in the beginning and how it’s evolved since?
Scott Oxarart 3:55
Well, I started the Health District in September 2019. So it was about three or four months before the pandemic kind of started to shape up. And we actually formulated what we call the ICS structure, Incident Command System structure, in late January, and it was just a small, small group of just health district employees, just to make sure we were prepared.
We were hearing a lot of things coming from the CDC about what was going on, and move on. So we were kind of monitoring it. And it just kept escalating from there. In Washoe County, we had our first COVID-19 confirmed case on March 5, and early on, we decided, (or at least I decided it’s a one-man band at the Health District). So we wanted to make sure that people had access to all the information we were given media, the time to talk to experts, information, infographics, whatever they wanted, and it just never stopped.
We’ve been in the JIC, we can have a low-level kickstarting in January. And then it escalated into a full force, command staff JIC in March. And we’re still in that JIC. And here we are, in May, we are getting close to hopefully d- escalating, but we’ll see how the vaccination rates go.
But in that time 14-15 months now, we’ve had a daily update that was sent out to media posted on social [and] on our website, pretty much every single day, we went for a full year doing seven days a week operations before we made it just weekdays last month.
So it’s just been, it’s just been an unbelievable year. It’s just hard to tell people what it was like, and it’s hard for me to remember back because it’s been so long. But just working at it every day working on new information, getting those case counts updated. Starting a dashboard, starting a new website, starting new social channels, doing media briefings, sometimes up to three times a week. It’s getting in into the weeds about it, it’s just it kind of makes my mind numb because it was just so intense.
And looking back now I think we’ve done a keep track, done over 480 press releases, done over 95 Media briefings that feature tell district staff or for other people. I mean, our social media channels are I mean, we started our own Twitter handle, and it’s up to almost 5000 followers, multiple tweets a day. It’s just been an unbelievable amount of work and effort to just try and keep people informed on what’s going on. And honestly, I’ve been in so long, I don’t even know what’s next. Like, what’s my actual job? I still have to think about what, what’s going to what I’m going to be doing because I’ve been doing so COVID so long that I don’t know what’s what anymore.
Kathie Taylor 7:05
So did you feel ready? Do you feel like you were ready for the ramp-up? It sounded like you started thinking about this when you came on to the job? Because if I heard you right, you came onto the job just a few months before you got your first wind of what was happening.
Scott Oxarart 7:23
Yeah, I had about three months on the job. So I mean, I heard about it in December. And my first thoughts and actually I looked back on it, and I feel bad because when we were going into December I heard about it.
Okay, that’s cool. I mean, communicable diseases coming, be prepared, but let’s not freak out here, guys. And even in February and March, I would still keep telling myself and I would tell even the media let’s just let’s be calm. We haven’t had a case in Washoe County, yet there has been a case in the state yet.
And then it just things just kept coming that we’re proving me wrong. Now even our first infographic. And I’m almost embarrassed by the first thing we put in there was Okay, we have no cases in Washington County, or we had one case in Washoe County or five cases in Washoe County, but we haven’t any deaths.
And then pretty soon, we started getting deaths. Our first step was in late March. And then still in that infographic output, well the flu killed almost 100,000 people a couple of years ago. So let’s come on guys, let’s be safe, let’s not like let’s cover a cough and wash our hands and coughing your elbow, whatever.
And every time I just kept getting proven wrong, it just kept going and going and going. And now to think back then that we would have over 45,000 cases, and over 675 people who died from the disease I never would have believed you, I never would have believed you. And I’m supposed to be the PIO for the Health District.
And I’m, and I’m trying to tell people just to calm down, it’s gonna be fine. We just want everybody be safe no need to freak out. So that was kind of a mindset that I’m not exactly proud of, but it’s definitely taught me a lot.
When the mindset changed
Becca Allured 9:18
Do you remember at what point when you had that shift of mindset, where you were like, Oh, crap, this is really a big deal? And how did that change what you did?
Scott Oxarart 9:41
I think the first thing that I remember that was that kind of hit me in the gut was we were doing a…we opened up the JIC, the region operation center, and emergency operation centers up in North Reno. It’s this big area where all the cities in the county come together and everybody makes decisions and we had a press conference in their press room.
And the ICU, the incident commander, this was in late March, the incident commander was like, Hey, you have to wear a mask. And I’m thinking why do I have to wear a mask I’m on the good team. I’m, I’m a good guy, I don’t, I don’t do that kind of stuff. I don’t need to wear masks, but he required everybody in that room media, the people behind the cameras, even the people speaking, to wear a mask, and that’s why it wasn’t required then yet in April is when the CDC actually provided that guidance. And that’s where it just kind of made me stop and said, Okay, I guess I gotta go find a mask, and I gotta wear a mask.
And I think everybody kind of had that point, at some point just where they’re like, Man, this is we’re really doing this, we’re really gonna wear masks, okay, I thought about people that wear masks are doctors and trying keeping that are opening up people to do open-heart surgery. They have to wear a mask. Yeah, that makes sense, because you’re breathing on, but I think that was the point where it shifted for me. What about you? I mean,
We’re really doing this
Becca Allured 11:17
When, for me, it was pretty early on. So my sister lives in China. Um, and she was displaced for, I think five to eight weeks because she was on vacation in Vietnam when this all went down. And she kept telling me, Becca, I can see your future. You’re not I had, I had a trip to Vegas planned mid-March for work. I was going to go field, some interviews, blah, blah, blah. And she was saying you’re not you’re not going to Vegas. And schools are going to close. And you’re going to be working from home.
And so I was like, ah, I don’t think so. You’re being dramatic. And she said I can see your future. So that was it for me. When what she said would happen happened. And then I went home and I didn’t come back. I’m still I’m, this is my living room. I still work from home.
Scott Oxarart 12:20
I think the other big thing for me too, was I like sports. I love basketball on football, and the NCAA tournament, which is the biggest college basketball tournament ever. I look forward to it. I usually will. I’ve gone to watch the Wolfpack play in Atlanta and St. Louis and even went to Des Moines, Iowa, to watch them play. And when they shut down that tournament and just canceled it. I think that was a big one too. And all the other sports followed suit. Football, baseball, basketball, it just all shut down. I think that was also a big wake-up call.
Becca Allured 13:01
Yeah, so your friend Emerson was one of my colleagues in the JIC and we were researching comparing cities, right? Because Vegas had had something get canceled, I think some sort of big event gets canceled. And we were just looking at all the statistics because Mardi Gras happened in New Orleans in February. And it was a super spreader event.
So, at that point, we were still trying to flatten the curve. That was that was messaging. And I think that it was in researching and putting that information together with Emerson that I really realized l this is that going anywhere, anytime soon, which I think was around the same time, we all started having to wear masks.
How do you manage self-care in a 24/7 environment?
Kathie Taylor 13:51
So what I really love hearing is your personal stories to write because we tend to go into work note work mode, and we’re little tin soldiers marching along doing the things but what I find most fascinating is while you’re looking back and you’re reminiscing on what it was like for you personally, as well, Becca, you and I talked briefly about self-care, how did you manage to keep marching along as a little tin soldier every day when this was blowing up in front of you?
Becca Allured 14:27
It was tiring and there were some really long days in the JIC. And, we were lucky that there were a lot of us at that time. Um, I, I think the tiny little box of a room that the JIC is located in at the state could only hold I think with social distancing could only hold five of us at once. And we also had some other colleagues working remotely so I felt really lucky knowing that there were other people helping carry this load.
And honestly, it hurts my heart, knowing Scott, how hard you worked alone for how long, you have had to do that. Because it’s a lot. That’s, that’s a lot to carry. And I only had to be there for four weeks. And then I got to go back to my regular job. And our IC, our incident commander would regularly come into the JIC, because we were separated from the rest of the operations. And he went first of all, make sure to show us that he saw us, right, and he saw how hard we were working, and recognize our efforts. And also remind us to take a break, hey, I’m going for a walk, anybody want to join me kind of thing, and not just, hey, make sure you take a break, but I’m taking a break to model that behavior.
And I feel I feel, I felt really lucky to be around people who have lived these kinds of, I mean, not this exact kind of crisis, but have lived crises, right. And it’s easy, but he would always say it’s a, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, right, we have to survive to get to the end of this and in order to do that, you can’t burn yourself all the way out. So that was a big part of my self-care was seeing it happen around me.
And just being able to, and knowing my own limits as a person I know that after about 10 hours of staring at a computer, I’m not good for anything else, I can’t keep churning out work once, I remember having this sensation early on of looking at my computer screen and thinking I can’t really see anything that I’m doing right now. When I saw the iPhone, Carson, remembering that it’s my safety to a certain point it’s not safe to make that commute when my eyes aren’t working the way they’re supposed to. So, um, I don’t know, it was hard.
How did you manage that?
Facing adversity
Scott Oxarart 17:19
You know, looking back, I really don’t think I did, I did not do a good job of that. I have a tendency when I when I’m facing adversity or challenges. My natural instinct is to block everything around me. Keep my head down, focus on the daily tasks that I need to do. And try and get to a point where I’ve, in my own head where I feel I’ve done a good enough job to call it a day.
And the problem initially, is that the Health District was the lead agency. So once all of the other kinds of regional partners with the City of Reno, City of Sparks, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, the fire agencies, Truckee Meadows fire was a big one. They all came in and said, okay Scott, you’re with the Health District, you’re the lead agency, we’re going to make you the deputy. And then we’re going to bring in a fire person because usually in emergency disaster situation responses, they that fire guys usually take the lead because there are a lot of wildfires here. There’s flooding here and the fire guys really know ice as well.
So I had a lot of support in our regional jack, but I was it was becoming clear that if we designated people into certain areas like, hey, you cover social, you work on graphics, you work on video, you work on media, PR collection, media clips and stuff, we had kind of roles, but the graphics guy would say, hey, Scott, I need something to say, and the social media person would say hey, Scott, I need something to say, video person. Hey, Scott, I need something to say. So I’m not very good at delegating. So I took that on myself, unfortunately. And it came to a point where even though we had five or six people embedded in that JIC I was doing a lot of the work and putting on myself because it was one it was easier. Less communication between multiple parties, fewer approvals, less trying to figure it out. And to I just didn’t want to burden other people, you were on a Saturday and three people have to do one thing that just doesn’t make sense to me. It’s inefficient.
So I found myself basically compiling all the information and writing it into a press release. And then I okay, well, we got a new website and we got new social media channels. Okay, who knows how to do that? Well, I guess I’ll learn to do it. So I would post everything and then everything if the website there was only a couple of people that could do that. Also, have kind of like the journalism background to make sure that it’s it’s reading correctly and looking at it from a design perspective. So, even though I was the deputy supposing trying to kind of lead and do all this, I’m not that wasn’t what I was good at. I’m a former journalist, I take pride in my covering high school football days where I’d write a story, do a video, send out social media, and then have my story done for print by 11 o’clock with 10 minutes to write the whole thing.
So I took that approach with this. So I just did everything. I wrote everything, I posted everything, I put it out on social, I organized a lot of media and I was putting way too much on myself. And just acting like it was all fine.
The human side of crisis communications
And it took a toll on my family. I didn’t get to spend time with my kids I have a back then was it would have been a three-year-old and a six-month-old. And my wife was staying home with them and watching the kids, I’m useless to them. Because I’m working 10 to 12 hour days. On weekends, I’m useless.
Even if I do set out time I go, Okay, I got my update out today. I don’t put my phone down. Oh if I hear somebody text me, I respond to them. And I just was in a bad place where I just put all this pressure on myself. And I didn’t really allow the people to help me. How can we support you? If I got it. I got this because I knew how to do everything. I didn’t want to teach a bunch of stuff. And when I could be doing other things that are more important. And I think that’s what I’ve learned is I’m proud of the work I’ve done, but man, I did not approach it in the right mindset.
How can we help
Kathie Taylor 21:51
It brings up a story I heard last year, in our first season we talked with Keri Garcia Hendricks from UNR after the dorm exploded, and what she went through and her team. And she said something really meaningful to me. And I don’t know why I didn’t act on it this time. But she said that the coolest thing that happened was people in our field, whether they worked for UNR or not, reached out to her and said, How can I help you? And I think about that listening to you, Scott, what an awesome opportunity there was, and I’m thinking Geez, I missed it. But to reach out to someone like you and say, Hey, I know how to do these things. How can I help you? Is that something? If we look at this in the future, God forbid, there’s a mass casualty or some huge thing that happens. Is there space in your area for people who know how to do the things to reach out and say, Hey, I’m here for you, what can I do? I can do all the things, how can I help you?
There was just no end in sight
Scott Oxarart 23:02
I feel like it’s a little easier with things that people are used to. So when you have an earthquake or a fire people have a background somewhat in that. And they know that, if you have a fire, there are people that need to be evacuated. There are pets that need to be evacuated. So some of the social components are like, okay, hey, let’s let people know there’s a shelter for horses or other livestock here and if you want to donate come to here. problem was with a pandemic, nobody knows.
I didn’t know. I was trying to text with our epidemiologists who were completely overwhelmed. overworked, some of our employees work the most overtime out of like any person in the state, like any government then.
So I’m trying to get information from them. And then I don’t want to be pestering them. And if someone were to say, Hello, how can I help? I would just say, I don’t know. And that’s probably my problem, too. I don’t know. It’s not like you’ve done this before. And you and you can just say, Yeah, I need you to do this, this and this. And that’ll alleviate some of my workload. I’m trying to figure it out, too. I’m trying to get the information straight from the people that only I have access to. I couldn’t have said, Hey, Becca, yeah, I talked to Heather Kerwin, and give me some information. That’s just not gonna happen.
So I think that we’ll end right. I mean, I think that was one of the hardest things too, is knowing that there was no end. Everybody has been through some kind of incident especially when you’re in an EEOC, right, but nobody there had been through anything like this knowing a fire has a start and an end right. October one had a start and an end. The incident was over at that point.
Searching for “death” in my inbox
We’re still in this incident 15 months later and that’s the hard part for people. To realize this, yeah, when you look back and say over 675 people died, over 45,000 cases, it wasn’t always like that back in March and April. And one of the things that I remember that I didn’t even know I was doing it, but basically, every time there was a COVID-19 related death, I get an email about it.
And when we hit our surge, now, it’s only about a month ago, back in November, there were up to 15 deaths a day. And those are a lot of times were individual emails, and I had to report those report the age, the gender, if the underlying health conditions, and it got to a point where I was getting so many emails, there were so many deaths, I literally had to search death in Outlook, so that I can filter all the emails in which I had to report. I did that for weeks. And then I actually one day, I just put death in Outlook for part of my job.
Becca Allured
That’s just, it’s just unbelievable and impossibly hard. Nobody, nobody has to do that. As a PIO, how are you taking care of yourself now that knowing what you know now, and about how you burned yourself out and how you didn’t know how to let people help? Are you taking care of yourself? Now?
The guilt factor
Scott Oxarart 26:27
I’m doing a little bit better job. I mean, I think we probably did a little too much. Honestly, we did a full seven-day-a-week operation because a lot of people at the Health District weren’t doing seven-day-a-week operations, it was almost like a guilt factor.
But finally after a year, since our first case, we had the conversations okay, let’s, let’s not do Sundays, let’s take Sunday off. And then a couple of weeks later, okay, let’s throw Saturday out too – let’s take weekends off.
So I think I have gotten a little better. But I do feel like what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. So I think I’ve just been able to manage it and be a little more tolerant. And now that it is getting easier. I mean, there’s just not a lot of cases, and I’m working on vaccines and community pods and going to churches to try and get people the vaccine is a lot, lot better working conditions than trying to report how many deaths are and how long we’re gonna stay closed. And why you have to wear a mask and dealing with all the anti-vaxxers. And people just emailing me out of the blue telling me I’m a piece of crap and I’m worthless and all that. It’s not as bad now for sure.
How everyone finally came together
Kathie Taylor 27:50
One of the things that we were talking about before we began recording was the idea of these organizations coming together. When you talked about the fire departments coming in, and the aspect of changing the view, like you said when you woke up one day and said I don’t want to type this into my Outlook anymore. Being able to draw on these other departments and in these other communications professionals in these other groups to kind of ease some of that strain.
So with the vaccination rollouts, I know that there are all the things that go along with it. There are people who are going to complain no matter what you do. Even if you’re doing it, all right, they’re going to complain. How do you feel now? Are you prepared in a different way than maybe you were 15, 16, 17 months ago?
Scott Oxarart 28:56
For sure that I think that’s one of the best parts only the best part about this whole pandemic is. In the past, there never been a lot of coordination between the city of Reno city sparks, Washoe County Health District, they’re just silos. They work together for a little bit. But it’s very eager to get out of that and go back to doing your own thing.
And I think we saw that initially when we first started when we press conferences with political leaders and other elected [officials] there were some territorial wars, and some sniffing back and forth between piles. But what quickly turned was the fact that we did need to rely on each other, and we got to know each other.
And that’s one of the best things that’s happened is the there’s Rebecca Venus at the city of Reno, Nancy Leuwenhagen in Washoe County and Julie Door from the City of Sparks and Matt Brown from Reno and some other people – Bethany Drysdale as well.
We meet on a weekly basis. And a lot of times we talk about COVID and then we talk about each other, we talk about what we’re doing and non-COVID related issues, and we’ve kept those meetings, we’re going to keep on going through even past the pandemic because we did realize that there was a lot of really good things.
And there’s a lot of things that we’re all kind of working on the same thing. Or we can bounce ideas off each other. And I think what will keep that meeting, going, it might be once a week or once a month. But I think knowing the people that are doing the same type of workaround you have been absolutely amazing. And I feel so much more comfortable reaching out to one of the other jurisdictions about something and we can talk and ultimately that’s going to benefit residents, when people are working together and organizations are sharing resources and stuff like that, I think it’s a great thing.
Kathie Taylor 30:54
I think on that note, that positivity and the care that our communities are pulling together with each other, we’re going to call it a morning.
Thank you both for being here and sharing your stories. I think the personal side of public relations and public information is the strongest thing that we can build on the relationship side of public relations.
So I really appreciate you guys being vulnerable and sharing your stories this morning. And that positivity of looking forward as a team. So thank you very much.
You have been listening to better PR a podcast by and for public relations practitioners. To learn more about the Public Relations Society of America, visit prsa.org and be sure to visit me at IPSMLLC.com. Scott, if you would give a shout-out to where people can find out more information about services and availability from Washoe County.
Scott Oxarart 31:53
Absolutely. If you go to COVID19washoe.com, you can schedule a vaccine on our website, a lot of time, there’s a ton of availability, and also NVCOVID fighter.gov is also another place to find out because there’s a lot of pharmacies offering vaccine right now as well as the Health District.
Kathie Taylor 32:13
Fantastic. Thank you, Scott. And Becca, thank you so much for being here and sharing your viewpoint from the state side. Is there any information we need to let people know about?
Becca Allured 32:23
I think the state is still using their NV health response social media to push out information and it helps to follow the governor on what he’s pushing out as far as vaccinations and mass guidelines and all of that.
Kathie Taylor 32:43
Wonderful. Thank you both so much.