Arkansas' health secretary is leaving for a job with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, becoming at least the third high-level official in the state to depart for a position with the federal agency since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Jose Romero, who has led the state Department of Health since the summer of 2020, said he will start his new job as director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on June 5.
He said his last day at work as Arkansas' health secretary will be May 5.
Announcing the development at a news conference at the state Capitol on Tuesday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Romero provided leadership "during the most difficult days of this pandemic."
"There hasn't been a greater partner that I've had during this pandemic," Hutchinson said. "He's supported me. He's supported our state. He's understood the political dynamics as well as the epidemiology of dealing with this pandemic, and while it's a great loss to Arkansas, he's developed a very, very strong team at the Department of Health that I know will be able to continue with great vigor and continued leadership."
The announcement came as Arkansas continued to post some of its lowest coronavirus case numbers since the early days of the pandemic.
The number of cases that were considered active, representing people who have tested positive and are still potentially infectious, fell below 1,000 for the first time in almost 23 months.
Romero said Tuesday he accepted the CDC job for the same reason he became health secretary: "to improve the health of individuals." He said the move wasn't related to "pushback" he received from state legislators over the state's response to the pandemic.
"I had no delusion that this was going to be a cakewalk," Romero said. "I knew that I was going to encounter difficulty with my decisions, and my decisions have always been evidence- and science-based. That in no way has changed throughout the pandemic or [in response to] the pushback that I've received."
He added, "I've never run from anything. I may run to something, but I am not running from anything. I never have in my career, and I will not start now."
CRITICS IN THE LEGISLATURE
Hutchinson named Romero, 66, interim health secretary in May 2020, after then-Health Secretary Nate Smith accepted a job as the CDC's deputy director for public health service and implementation science.
Romero was elevated from the interim position to health secretary in August 2020.
The next month, more than a dozen lawmakers filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court, with Romero named as the sole defendant, challenging restrictions that the Health Department had imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
A judge dismissed the suit, and lawmakers dropped their appeal of the ruling after Hutchinson signed a law curbing the powers of the governor and Health Department during public health emergencies.
The displeasure of some lawmakers with Romero's actions also led to a rare confirmation hearing in the Senate Rules Committee April 2021.
When he didn't attend the hearing, Republican Sens. Trent Garner of El Dorado and Jason Rapert of Conway, urged senators not to confirm him.
Hutchinson said at the time that it was "understood that there was no need for further testimony since Dr. Romero has already testified numerous times before various legislative committees." The committee voted 7-3 to forward the confirmation to the full Senate, which then approved it in a 25-8 vote.
House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee Chairman Rep. Jack Ladyman, R-Jonesboro, said Tuesday that Romero is the second consecutive health secretary to leave for a job with the CDC, "so our secretaries must be doing a good job." He said Romero "kept things going and didn't miss a beat" after Smith's departure.
"We got through the majority of the pandemic much better than other states did," Ladyman said.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, who led the legal challenge to the Health Department's rules, said of Romero, "I wish him well."
"No ill feeling or ill will," Sullivan said. "We strongly disagreed, and we do that a lot in Little Rock, but that's how it works."
Garner said Tuesday that it's time for a new leader at the Health Department, and Romero moving on naturally from that position is good.
He said the Senate Rules Committee should have a confirmation hearing to consider the qualifications and positions on vital issues of whomever the governor selects as Romero's replacement.
"The days of giving the governor the benefit of the doubt on important appointed positions is over," Garner said.
HEALTH 'HEROES'
In addition to leading the Health Department, Romero was chairman from Oct. 30, 2018, to June 30 of the CDC's advisory committee on immunization practices, which has issued recommendations on the use of COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
He has been a fixture at Hutchinson's regular news conferences that initially focused on COVID-19 but more recently have encompassed a broader range of topics.
At the news conference on Tuesday, Romero expressed gratitude to the governor and staff at the Health Department.
"We've all talked about the health care providers as being heroes," Romero said. "What's not said often enough is that public health officials are also the heroes of this. They've given up their weekends, working continuously, giving up their vacations, to sieve, to go through the data necessary to make decisions. And without them, we would have been in a very weak position."
He said encouraging comments and letters he received from the public helped him "through the darkest periods of this pandemic." He paused for a few seconds after becoming emotional while thanking his wife, Cozett, for supporting him and acting as his "sounding board." Romero's chief of staff, Stephanie Williams, left in June for a job as a public health adviser at the CDC.
Romero is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, which pays his $273,779 annual salary, UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said.
UAMS "contracts out" Romero's time to other entities, which then reimburse the university, she said.
She said 80% of his time is contracted to the Health Department, 10.5% is contracted to Arkansas Children's Hospital and 9.5% is contracted to the Conway Human Development Center.
Hutchinson spokeswoman Shealyn Sowers said the governor plans to name a replacement for Romero "soon."
BOOSTERS URGED
At the news conference, Hutchinson, Romero and Hutchinson's wife, Susan, received their second COVID-19 booster doses and urged eligible Arkansans to do the same.
Federal regulators last week authorized the additional doses for people who received their first booster dose at least four months ago and are age 50 or older or have compromised immune systems.
The CDC also said people age 18 and older who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for their initial shot and booster can get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine as a second booster four months after their first booster.
Hutchinson also encouraged other Arkansans to stay up to date on their vaccines, whether that means starting the vaccination process or getting the first booster dose.
"Everybody thinks that COVID is gone, but those that follow this closely understand that it could very well come back this summer or fall as it did last year, and so COVID is not totally in the rear view mirror," Hutchinson said.
While infection provides some immunity, "what is important is that that immunity does not last forever," Hutchinson said.
"There's a period of time that after you've had COVID that you need to start your immunization to continue the protection down the road," he said.
Romero added that people who have been infected and then get vaccinated develop higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than those that are gained from infection alone.