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Missouri’s appearing well being director resigned after state GOP lawmakers complained he was not conservative sufficient.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Missouri’s appearing well being director is out of a job – one other public well being official dealing with backlash over COVID-19 prevention measures. Robust opposition got here from conservatives. Sarah Kellogg of St. Louis Public Radio studies.
SARAH KELLOGG, BYLINE: It was in July that Republican Governor Mike Parson introduced that Don Kauerauf would function the director of the Division of Well being and Senior Providers. Kauerauf got here out of retirement after serving because the assistant director of the Illinois Division of Public Well being. He began the Missouri job in September. Kauerauf mentioned a transparent answer for lowering Missouri’s COVID fee was to extend the state’s vaccination fee, however he was additionally in opposition to vaccine and masks mandates. It is a place Kauerauf repeated throughout his listening to this previous week to make his appointment everlasting.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD KAUERAUF: I’ve mentioned it earlier than. You realize, lots of people in my place – they attempt to vilify people who aren’t vaccinated. I am not going to try this. It is their alternative. If they’ve the right info and so they resolve to not get vaccinated, I respect that.
KELLOGG: As a result of Kauerauf started his job when the Missouri Senate was not in session, he was in a position to function director however needed to obtain approval inside 30 days after the Senate reconvened in January. However simply hours earlier than he sat all the way down to reply senators’ questions, greater than 100 residents gathered within the Missouri Capitol rotunda to protest his nomination. They claimed he was not conservative sufficient. Many wore stickers with Kauerauf’s identify with a no image in entrance. Others introduced indicators studying cease Kauerauf mandates and cease communism; Missourians need medical freedom.
Senator Mike Moon spoke on the Senate ground for hours in opposition to the nomination, saying he heard from greater than 1,000 Missourians.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE MOON: Now, I admit, among the statements made by a few of these people have been off base. I do not assume they have been all off base, and that is why I requested most of the questions that I requested.
KELLOGG: With dissent over the nomination and a need to adjourn earlier than a snowstorm hit the Capitol, the Senate agreed to not take motion on Kauerauf’s appointment. Solely someday after testifying for a job he already held for greater than 4 months, Kauerauf resigned. Governor Parson was fast to blast the Senate’s actions. In an announcement, he known as the occasions surrounding Kauerauf’s appointment, quote, “nothing wanting disgraceful, unquestionably flawed and a humiliation to the state and the folks we serve.”
Don Kauerauf is one other instance of a public well being determine who has confronted vitriol from each lawmakers and the general public through the pandemic. Lawrence Gostin teaches international well being regulation at Georgetown College. He says what occurred in Missouri has been enjoying out all throughout the nation.
LAWRENCE GOSTIN: I’ve seen public well being professionals picketed, threatened, their households threatened and actually hounded out of workplace. And whereas we have tens of 1000’s of people that ought to be in public well being and are not, extra are leaving every single day.
KELLOGG: Because the pandemic started, legislators in quite a lot of states have restricted the powers of well being officers. Gostin says these actions have penalties that can final after the pandemic.
GOSTIN: The COVID pandemic ought to have made it – public well being – empowered, extra versatile, extra nimble, extra assets. And as a substitute, it has been the alternative.
KELLOGG: For his half, Senate Majority Chief Caleb Rowden hopes the method for approving the following nominee for Missouri’s well being director will not get snarled once more in COVID politics.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CALEB ROWDEN: I simply assume we now have to be aware about saying, you – we’re going to solely advise and consent to individuals who look and sound and agree with every thing I’ve to say or we’re not going to go down that highway. That is a harmful slope.
KELLOGG: For now, Missouri has one other interim well being director in the course of a pandemic. For NPR Information, I am Sarah Kellogg in Jefferson Metropolis, Mo.
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