User:Anon423/sandbox/José R. Romero

José R. Romero is an American doctor currently serving as the Arkansas Department of Health Secretary, having been appointed on August 5, 2020 by Governor Asa Hutchinson. He had served as the interim Secretary of Health since late May, when preceding secretary Nate Smith announced his intention to resign in order to become the deputy director for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Service and Implementation Science division in Atlanta.

Early life and education
Romero was born in Mexico City.

Romero attended medical school at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, and had internships at Centro Médico del Noroeste and Stony Brook University Hospital, where he was also a resident and fellowship. He also had a fellowship at the University of Colorado.

Career
Romero is also the director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases section at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine professor in pediatrics. He had moved to Arkansas in 2008 when he became director of pediatric infectious disease for UAMS.

Romero had served as the Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health. He was the Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases section at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences from 2008 to 2020. He is currently a Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at UAMS. He also held the Horace C. Cabe Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and was director of Clinical Trials Research at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute.

He is also the chair of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advised the Food and Drug Administration on COVID-19 vaccines.

In 2021, Romero said publicly that the only way to protect children from the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 spreading among them was vaccination of the adults around them, as there was no vaccine for many children.

In 2018, Romero was named the CDC Childhood Immunization Champion in recognition for his promotion of childhood immunization in Arkansas and analysis of vaccine data during a series of influenza, pertussis, mumps, and measles outbreaks. He holds vaccination to be the most important medical intervention for quality and longevity of life, emphasizing the importance of childhood vaccination for lifelong benefits. He was a frequent vaccination consultant for the Arkansas Department of Health.