Springfield News-Leader
JEFFERSON CITY — A longtime Illinois public health official specializing in emergency management will serve as Missouri's next health director.
Donald Kauerauf will start Sept. 1, filling a position that will have been vacant since April, and will lead a department currently responding to one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the country. Kauerauf will cross the Mississippi after more than 30 years of government experience, having served most recently as chair of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, a position he held during the pandemic.
In his introductory remarks at a press conference Wednesday, Kauerauf said his emphasis in emergency management was critical for modern public health policymaking, and encouraged vaccination and the work of local authorities as the best tools for Missouri to fight the Delta variant. He said that in assessing Missouri's pandemic response, he wouldn't have done anything different, and that the state stayed within federal guidance.