Indiana Health Commissioner Has No Plans To Leave State Government Anytime Soon

Indiana’s top state health officials say they have no plans to leave their posts any time soon.

A few top Holcomb administration officials have left state government in recent months, notably Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Dr. Jennifer Sullivan. That’s fairly common as an administration transitions from a first term to a second, as Holcomb’s did.

But State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said she’s not going anywhere – despite being "worn out" as COVID-19 surges again.

"It’s hard to kind of get geared up again and get the team fired up. I saw it on the faces of all my colleagues and I hear it across the state in our public health people," Box said. "And I really hear it from our hospital systems that are really short on staffing because they have lost so many individual nurses and respiratory therapists and medical assistants because they’ve just said, 'I can’t do this anymore.'"

Indiana Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver echoed Box’s sentiment and joked that Box wouldn’t let her leave.

Box and Weaver have been the two most visible members of Holcomb's administration – behind the governor himself – throughout the pandemic. Weaver has served as the state's "vaccine czar," coordinating Indiana's distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Contact reporter Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.