Top Parson deputy becomes Missouri government’s most outspoken voice for vaccination

Robert Knodell was a surprising choice for Missouri’s acting health director. A career political operative, he had no medical or public health background. As Gov. Mike Parson’s deputy chief of staff, he was a principal player in a vaccine rollout that was widely criticized as uneven.

When Parson gave him the acting director’s role in April, replacing Randall Williams, Democrats criticized the selection as emblematic of the governor’s sluggish approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

But in recent days, as cases continue to rise, Knodell has become the administration’s most outspoken voice for vaccination, with a tone far more urgent than that of his boss.

In the past week, Knodell has displayed increasing frustration with vaccine misinformation, which he slammed as “baloney” and “costing lives.” In a mass email Thursday, he pleaded with state workers to get their shots.

“Let’s not pretend we are invincible,” he wrote. “Let’s stop this virus in its tracks, once and for good.”

“This is not an experimental vaccine — the simple use of this phrase is highly misleading,” he wrote. “Even after successfully completing all phases of clinical trials, hundreds of millions of doses have been safely administered, monitored and backed by high rates of effectiveness.”

And he reminded state workers many were eligible for Missouri’s vaccine incentive lotteries, announced last week.

The message came as an increasing number of employers are requiring their workers to be vaccinated. Some governments have stepped in with partial directives of their own. Jackson County is requiring employees to be regularly tested if they won’t get vaccinated, and the Biden administration imposing similar guidelines for federal workers and contractors.

Parson has flatly opposed any vaccine mandate but has acknowledged private employers can set their own rules. On Thursday, he told Fox News the Biden administration’s new rules for workers were a “mixed message” alongside new CDC guidelines.

“That’s problematic,” he said on Fox News. “We’re actually taking a step backwards trying to fight a virus that we are trying to win a battle with.”

His softer tone on vaccinations stands in contrast to Knodell’s.

In his letter to workers, Knodell slammed sources of vaccine misinformation for profiting off its spread and urged state employees to speak with their doctors about personal health concerns.

“The rhetoric from these individuals — the myths, conspiracy theories, the rumors with no valid context — is a bunch of baloney,” Knodell wrote in the email. “Does a person at high risk or with a new cancer diagnosis run to TikTok or Facebook memes for medical advice? No.”

He acknowledged the existence of breakthrough cases but said the delta variant “is not like what we saw a year ago.”

“If you have been on the fence, I understand,” he wrote. “But we ask you to consider yourself, your family, your friends or even strangers you come into contact with. You can’t always tell who will have a tougher time than others overcoming this virus.”

The email came just over a week after the state launched its vaccine lottery program, and the state received a wave of criticism on social media for promoting the vaccine.

On a call with reporters the next day, Knodell referred to groups “hoping this program receives a lot of bad press to help them undermining vaccine confidence.”

“It doesn’t take much of a stroll around social media, to see that there are individuals out there that have an agenda to undermine vaccine confidence by undermining this program,” he lamented on the call. “We’ve seen that in the last 18 hours.”

He took to his personal Twitter account the next day with a frustrated plea to take the shot.

Parson’s public statements on vaccination have continued to be more subdued. He has often qualified his encouragement by asking Missourians to “consider” getting vaccinated or telling them it’s the right thing to do “if they so choose.” When he criticized the politicization of COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation, he said he meant mainstream media outlets including The Star that had reported on the rising crisis.

Knodell’s email lays the blame more squarely.

“There are ... groups of people who have been actively working to discredit proven vaccine information, and many are sadly even cashing in big due to these types of efforts,” he wrote. “At the same time, the false information is being consumed. It is being believed. And it is costing lives. ... Enough is enough.”

Donald Kauerauf, a longtime Illinois health official, will be the next permanent director Sept. 1.