Virus hits frontline workers in taxed public health system

Chantee Mack was a veteran public health worker, so she knew the coronavirus could kill. So she asked — twice — for permission to work from home. But the Prince George’s County health department in Maryland deemed her essential and said no. Eight weeks later, she was dead. The outbreak at the Maryland office that sickened 20 workers and killed Mack illustrates the tension between serving the community and protecting workers from a deadly disease. An ongoing Associated Press-KHN