Missouri health director, face of vaccine rollout and COVID response, steps down

Missouri’s Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams, a central figure in the state’s pandemic response and vaccine rollout — as well as controversies involving abortion restrictions and medical marijuana — has resigned, Gov. Mike Parson announced Tuesday.

Parson’s office did not provide a reason for the resignation or a statement from Williams in a news release.

“Dr. Williams has been a huge asset to Missouri, especially this past year in dealing with COVID-19,” Parson said. “We greatly appreciate all the work he has done for the people of our state and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Parson has named Williams’ deputy chief of staff, Robert Knodell, acting director.

Knodell has also played a leading role in the vaccine rollout, appearing in legislative hearings alongside Williams.

Williams, an obstetrician and gynecologist who became health director under former Gov. Eric Greitens in 2017, was a key player in several episodes prior to the pandemic in which the health department was criticized for being driven by politics, not sound policy.

In 2019, his department refused to renew the license of Planned Parenthood’s clinic in St. Louis, Missouri’s only abortion provider. In the legal battle that ensued, Williams testified that his department, looking for evidence of failed abortions at the clinic, had kept a spreadsheet of patients’ menstrual cycles. The revelation led to an uproar and calls for his resignation.

Williams later said he never saw the spreadsheet until he gave a deposition in the case. A state judge last year granted the clinic a renewed license.

In a statement, Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region said the clinic had been calling for Williams’ resignation for two years.

“We’re disappointed it took this long, but we feel vindicated for every Missourian whose life was made harder because of Williams’ failure as a public health leader,” president and CEO Yamelsie Rodríguez said.

Williams’ department was probed by lawmakers last year over hundreds of license denials for the state’s fledgling medical marijuana program. The investigation focused on accusations of conflicts of interest within the department and the vendor it hired to score applications.

Williams was North Carolina’s health director in 2016 when he reversed, over the objections of government scientists, an advisory warning residents living near coal ash pits owned by electric utility Duke Energy that their water was unsafe to drink because of high levels of chromium.

The state’s governor at the time, Pat McCrory, was a Republican who spent 20 years working for Duke Energy.

Williams told The Star last year that other states have varying standards for chromium in water. North Carolina’s is relatively low.

“I would just point out to you that the last time I checked, the recensions I made are still in place four years later under a democratic governor and his appointed leaders,” he said in an email.

Since the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Missouri last spring, Williams has been the Parson administration’s main spokesman for a state response many criticized as too hands-off. He and Parson said it was best that most public health and closure decisions be made at the local level.

Parson resisted pressure to institute statewide business shutdowns or a mask mandate to slow the spread of the virus and stood by Williams. The pair held weekly briefings throughout the pandemic but have not made public appearances at the state capitol since last month.

In the past three months, Williams’ department has drawn criticism from mostly Democratic House lawmakers over the vaccine rollout. Parson’s administration had faced criticism that the vaccine was difficult to access in urban areas while rural vaccination events frequently had doses left over.

Lawmakers also accused the health department of being slow to answer questions.

“Director Williams unethically tracked the menstrual cycles of Missouri women without their knowledge or consent, bungled the implementation of legalized medical marijuana, led the state’s failed response to COVID-19 and routinely refused to answer basic questions from lawmakers,” House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday.

“Through it all he somehow managed to keep his job. With his sudden and unexplained resignation, one can’t help but wonder what finally convinced the governor to show him the door.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 12:26 PM.