BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Five years ago, Lee Norman was trying to dissuade Kansans from ingesting chemical cleaners to prevent COVID-19, preparing for the end of a statewide stay-at-home order and deciding whether to send tests for everyone in long-term care facilities and prisons.
Norman, then secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, jokes that reflecting on those years is like taking “a walk down bad memory lane.”
“We were meeting 24/7, 365,” Norman said on the Kansas Reflector podcast. “And trying to figure out — without having enough resources, without having (a) vaccine, without having any medications and without having any testing — what the heck we were going to do with this lethal virus that has now landed in the United States.”
Within two years of the first cases in Kansas, Norman stepped down from his cabinet post at the request of Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration.
The first case was recorded March 7, 2020, and about a week later, Kelly declared a state of emergency.
Less than a week after that, she ordered K-12 schools closed.
By the end of the month, national case counts inched toward 100,000, deaths reached 1,000, President Donald Trump signed a $2 trillion stimulus bill and Kelly issued a stay-at-home order for the entire state.
The first four weeks went “swimmingly well,” even amid uncertainty and shock, Norman said.
But, he said, things quickly became contentious as executive action from the governor, public health recommendations and attempts at understanding a brand new virus unfolded.
“You know, four weeks was pretty unusual to have that kind of engagement,” he said. “And after that, it became distinctly unfun.”
He admitted public health was slow to address the social and psychological impacts of the pandemic. But by the point he and other public health officials realized that, he said, resistance to following public health guidance had already begun to take shape.
The politicization that crept into Norman’s role during the COVID-19 pandemic still exists in public health today. The 2025 Kansas Legislature passed bills in April that hinder the governor’s authority to limit public gatherings and pare back vaccination requirements for children.
Norman, who now works in the private sector, said investing in public health infrastructure is key for preparing for future health crises.
As Kansans faced last year a spike in tuberculosis cases and more recently a growing measles outbreak, Norman emphasized the importance of vaccinations and adhering to public health guidance.
The governor signed into law in April modifications to vaccine requirements for children that make it easier for parents to claim religious exemptions as justification for their unvaccinated children. The governor vetoed another piece of legislation that created a pathway for people to sue state and county health officials for their decisions about quarantines and other public health guidance. The Legislature overrode Kelly’s veto, making the change law.
Masks and limiting large gatherings work, Norman said. They have for centuries, he added.
“Half of everybody, kind of wants to undo the benefits of public health, and mock it even, which is particularly hurtful,” Norman said. “I think that the Legislature needs to, one, respect personal autonomy and responsibility, and then secondly, if people are want to have more autonomy, I think they have to listen to very, very good guidance.”