Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Jenna Link
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project
Interview # T20-A-L-2021-023
Jenna Link, the Administrator for the Warren County Health Department, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: May 24, 2021 Location: Monmouth, Illinois
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Philip Pogue, ALPL volunteer
Total Time: 1:26 / 1.43 hrs.
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on July 21, 2021.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2021 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Abstract
Jenna Link, Tumultuous 2020, T20-A-L-2021-023
Biographical Information/Overview of Interview: Jenna Link was born in Burlington, Iowa in 1972. She grew up in Henderson County and graduated from Union High School in 1990, where she was a member of the National Honor Society. Jenna went to Culver Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, and earned a BS in Biology and Psychology in 1994. She taught science for two years at Quincy High School before joining the newly formed Warren County Health Department in 2007. At the time of the interview Jenna serves as the administrator of the Warren County Health Department and is a Licensed Environmental Health Practitioner.
Jenna examines the role of the Warren County Health Department, a smaller rural Illinois department located in western Illinois as it dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and later implemented the nation’s vaccination program. She covers the period beginning with the state disaster drill in 2018 which dealt with a corona virus outbreak with no known remedies to the administration of vaccines in the county through May 2021. Warren County did not have early major COVID-19 cases until an outbreak at the Smithfield Packing Plant. Link discussed that the worst COVID-19 numbers came between late fall and early winter of 2020. She covered the changing vaccination program using first the Pfizer and then Moderna & Johnson and Johnson vaccines. She also addressed the impact of beginning with four state health regions before restoring the normal eleven Emergency Medical Service regions. She also discussed communications with the Illinois Department of Public Health, local schools and college, the medical community, day care, fitness centers and senior centers, local businesses plus local officials including the County Board. Jenna reviewed the use of contract tracing and the movement of the region in and out of various state restrictions. Additionally, Link reviewed the history of the Warren County Health Department since 2006. At the time of the interview 31.8 percent of the county’s population was fully vaccinated.
Subject Headings/Key Words: COVID-19 pandemic; Warren County Health Department; Health Department responsibilities during Pandemic; Illinois state pandemic disaster drill; Smithfield Packing Plant COVID-19 outbreak; vaccine rollout for Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson; Health Dept. coordination/communication with community;
Notes to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.
COPYRIGHT
The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955