About 75,000 to 90,000 folks in Kentucky have been anticipated to die. University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field solely seats 61,000.
Dr. Steven Stack studied the horrific projections for the cornavirus pandemic. He had been Kentucky’s public well being commissioner for a couple of month in March 2020, and he knew “the sheer enormity” of the duty at hand.
Kentucky had no assessments for the virus, not sufficient private protecting tools for front-line well being staff and a small provide of masks, stated Stack. More and extra deaths have been being reported.
Stack, who advises Gov. Andy Beshear on well being points, was to change into the state’s level individual on COVID-19.
Kentuckians frequently would see the bespectacled, bald Stack, who has a penchant for bow ties, by Beshear’s aspect at information conferences to offer updates on the lethal virus. They would see an articulate doctor who didn’t shrink back from displaying his feelings on the sorrow that unfolded.
“We were fortunate to have him in that role. History will be kind to him,” stated Crystal Miller, pubic well being director for the WEDCO District Health Department which serves residents in Scott, Bourbon, Nicholas and Harrison counties. Harrison County was the primary within the state to report a COVID-19 affected person.
“From the start of this ordeal, Dr. Stack’s compassion, care and knowledge always were present,” stated Miller.
“I’ve been in this role for 14 years and have never seen this kind of attention from the state health commissioner. He always made time for you and he knew how to lead.”
Early years and training
Steven Stack was born Feb. 15, 1972, in Cleveland to Ray and Kathe Stack. They had a daughter about three years later named Tina, who is now a pharmacist.
Steven was raised within the Catholic church and attended Catholic colleges in Cleveland — St. Mark’s by means of the eighth grade and St. Ignatius High School.
“I was a pretty good student. I was a chubby, dorky kid with a complete absence of athletic ability,” he stated.
Stack acquired a full scholarship to review classical Greek and Latin from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. He additionally took pre-medical courses in school.
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After graduating magna cum laude from school, he returned to Ohio to finish 4 years of medical faculty and three years of emergency medication residency at The Ohio State University earlier than shifting to Memphis to start his medical observe.
Stack labored as an emergency room doctor and director at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis for 5 years and received married in 2001. In 2006, Stack and his spouse, Tracie, moved to Lexington. She is a pediatric allergist with a medical diploma and a PhD. They have a 16-year-old daughter, Audrey.
Stack served as medical director of a number of emergency departments together with St. Joseph East in Lexington and helped staffing at St. Joseph Mt. Sterling and Bourbon Community Hospital.
Dr. Steven Stack, who turned Kentucky’s public well being commissioner in February 2020, received dumped with ice water by his colleagues at Lexington’s St. Joseph East in 2014 as half of a fund raiser.
In 2006, Stack was the primary emergency doctor ever elected to the American Medical Association board of trustees. He subsequently served as board chair and in 2015-2016 turned the AMA’s youngest president since 1854.
In 2018, Stack joined the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business as an adjunct professor. He had acquired a Master’s diploma in enterprise from the varsity.
Stack additionally served on a number of nationwide boards coping with well being care coverage and well being data expertise earlier than becoming a member of Kentucky’s authorities.
‘Many hands work for light lifting’
Stack had met briefly Andy Beshear at a number of occasions earlier than Beshear turned governor in December 2019.
Beshear’s transition workforce took purposes for numerous jobs within the new administration and Stack utilized for state public well being commissioner.
“I enjoy engaging with other people and hopefully having the opportunity to influence them,” he stated. “That involves some component of leadership. I thought I would enjoy the opportunity to know what it was like to serve in a government-appointed job.”
In his job interview with Beshear, stated Stack, “The only thing he ever asked of me to do was to do my job the best I could.”
As the state public well being chief, Stack heads a division with about 450 workers and an working funds of about $380 million. Its mission is to enhance the well being and security of folks in Kentucky.
Stack stated his management type is just not one of telling folks what to do however “to work with people to help them maximize their full potential. Many hands work for light lifting.”
The wage for the job is among the many highest in state authorities at $212,738 a yr.
Within a month on the job, Stack would throw 40-hour work weeks out the window and be examined like no different Kentucky public well being commissioner.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear seems on as Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky public well being commissioner, speaks in regards to the novel coronavirus throughout a media convention on the state Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., on Sunday, April 5, 2020.
Science over politics
On March 6, 2020, Beshear introduced the primary case of COVID-19 in Kentucky. He additionally declared a state of emergency.
“The death of more than 7,000 people here for a condition that didn’t exist until 2020 is a tragedy,” stated Stack. “The silver lining, if there is one, is that the projections were too dire.”
Throughout the pandemic, numerous companies and political opponents criticized the Beshear administration’s dealing with of the virus, particularly calling for early reopening. Stack’s residence mail field was vandalized with messages that COVID-19 was a hoax.
Stack stated it’s comprehensible that when persons are fearful and indignant, they may disagree with folks “driving the bus.”
“When that happens, there is a whole lot of times when you agree with the frustrations, you share the difficulties and uncertainties but you still have to make decisions with the best information available and the best good-faith manner you can. That is difficult.”
Stack stated he discovered from his classical research that there all the time has been public criticism of authorities however he acknowledged that the cries of dissent from sound medical recommendation took “an emotional toll.” The job with all of the deaths and public scrutiny was all the time with him.
“What kept me going?” Stack requested. “A lot of people out there who I think and hope saw someone who cared,” he stated answering his query.
Especially pleasing to him, stated Stack, was that Beshear all the time sided with science over politics. “He made his decisions on the best of his ability and the science we gave him and the best information we had.”
At some of the information conferences, Stack’s voice choked and eyes moistened. He had an uncle in Ohio die from COVID-19.
“I think one of the things we need our leaders to do more is to be willing to show their own vulnerability,” stated Stack. “When we put up these veneers and this facade that somehow we are impervious to the pressures and stresses, that plays into this false appearance for others that it’s not OK to say I don’t know, that it’s not OK to be scared, that it’s not OK to be fearful or uncertain.
“It is OK to for all those things. It would be a lot better if we acknowledge those things.”
Sheila Schuster, a veteran well being care advocate in Louisville, stated Stack’s “compassion was reassuring. He always was open, transparent. You can tell he is smart but he never talked down to people.”
Ben Chandler, president and chief govt officer of Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, stated Stack did “a remarkable job. In addition to his knowledge, he is a gifted communicator.”
State Republican Sen. Ralph Alvarado, a Winchester doctor, who chairs the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, “politely declined” to touch upon Stack’s efficiency throughout the pandemic. House Health and Welfare Chair Kimberly Poore Moser, a Republican retired nurse from Independence, didn’t reply when requested for remark.
‘How to nearly neutralize this threat’
Stack stated his company will carry on monitoring the virus. COVID-19 is vaccine manageable, he stated. “We have learned effectively how to nearly neutralize this threat.”
Asked if he has pledged to Beshear to remain on because the state’s doctor for the remainder of Beshear’s time period, Stack stated he serves on the pleasure of the governor. “I enjoy my collaboration with the governor. It’s a privilege to serve with and for him.”
Does he have any political aspirations? “I would be happy never to have my name on a ballot,” he stated.
At the June 11 information convention by which Beshear signed paperwork within the Capitol Rotunda to carry most of the COVID-19 restrictions to attempt to return the state to some normalcy, the governor gave the primary signing pen to Stack, who was sporting a bow tie, his clothes trademark.
Beshear thanked Stack for “his incredible work, for his resolve, for his willingness to take just as many slings and arrows as I have and for always sticking with the right thing to do.”
That night time, Stack “went to dinner at a restaurant with my wife. That is something we had not done for a long time.”
