LDS allow 'crisis' use
Deal OKs injections in Davis church buildings
In a memo of understanding, approved by the Davis County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, the LDS Church has agreed to allow the county's health department to use at least one large meetinghouse in each of the county's 55 stakes for emergency health-care response during a crisis.
"It sounds like a really smart thing to do," said Commissioner Carol Page.
It is the first such agreement in the state.
"It may be a pattern for other areas," said Richard Ebert Jr., the LDS Church's director for temporal affairs for northern Utah. "We're not trying to take over the health department."
"Using these easily identifiable locations that are close to home will eliminate traffic congestion, parking hassles and long waiting times in a neighborhood setting, allowing many people walkable access," said Ron Garrison, chairman of the Davis County Board of Health.
In a crisis, 200 volunteers from each stake could staff each stake center because the health department's 160 employees, most of whom are not medically trained, would quickly become overburdened, said Lewis Garrett, director of the Davis County Health Department.
At least three "neutral" locations — one each in the northern, middle and southern parts of the county — also will be established for people who may not feel comfortable going to a religious building, Garrison said.
Dani Eyer, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, said there need to be objective criteria when looking for locations to meet public needs, such as public health emergencies, school graduations or hosting polling places during elections.
But churches shouldn't use public service events to proselytize, she said.
A reasonable observer should be able to tell that a particular religion isn't being endorsed, Eyer said.
"If the church meets the objective criteria, it should be used and not eliminated because it's a church," she said.
Which LDS meetinghouses the health department may use hasn't been decided yet, but they likely will be ones known as stake centers.
Garrett said that although the LDS Church was the health department's first contact, other faith-based or volunteer organizations are invited to become part of the emergency response effort.
Health officials believe the H5N1 virus, known as the avian flu, generally seems most likely to cause a widespread flu outbreak. But no vaccine exists.
The program using the stake centers couldn't work without enough vaccines, Garrett said.
Provided enough vaccines, health department officials have calculated each vaccination would take three minutes, and with enough volunteers, those administering the vaccines could get a break every 30 minutes.
"We don't know what we'd be facing," Garrett said. "We saw what happened in New Orleans. We did not want to replicate what happened there."
"We hope we never use the model," Garrison said.
E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com
You can be the first to comment on this story.