PUBLIC HEALTH > POLITICS

Ex-Kansas Health Chief: I Was ‘Fauci’d’ Out of the Job

Dr. Lee Norman says he blamed the fighting between Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and the Republican-led legislature.

The former top health official in Kansas says he was forced out of his job due to the Republican-led legislature’s fight with the state’s Democratic governor over COVID-19. “The shameful treatment in the Trump administration of public health leaders, I think, set the stage for having the same thing happen at the state level,” Dr. Lee Norman, who previously served as the head of Kansas’ health department, said in an interview with Kansas News Service. “[Anthony] Fauci was Fauci’d. And to be honest with you, I think I was Fauci’d.” Gov. Laura Kelly said last month Norman had stepped down from the job, calling him “the most consequential” official in the department’s history as the state fought against COVID. In the interview, Norman delivered a stark warning as the state has lost nearly half of its 105 local public health officials. “The brain drain out of public health puts us in peril going forward,” he said.