(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Utah Public Health Laboratory, 4431 S, 2700 West in Taylorsville, pictured on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. In the two decades before the COVID-19 outbreak, state and local health leaders had been bracing for a pandemic, spending hours in work group meetings, drafting planning documents and conducting training exercises for a disaster response. Yet, officials and advocates agree it was impossible to fully prepare for the novel coronavirus that emerged in late 2019 — and tore through a global population with no acquired immunity and few health interventions to stop it.
Bethany began covering state government at The Tribune right in time for the 2018 election. She's a proud Maryland Terrapin and worked at newspapers in the D.C. area and in Orlando, Florida, before coming to Utah. Her aspiration is to one day keep an orchid alive for more than a month.