CLAYTON, Mo. — The St. Louis County Council on Tuesday delayed a vote to confirm Dr. Faisal Khan as county health director until after they meet with him to discuss a possible new mask mandate as well as fallout from a contentious public meeting in July where he lost his composure.
Khan, as acting health director, appeared before the council on July 27 to answer questions about a public health order issued the day before. In the lobby outside the council chamber, he gave an anti-mask protester the middle finger as he was leaving the county building.
Khan admitted to the act, but wrote in a blistering letter that that he'd been subjected to racist and xenophobic slurs during his testimony and was "shoulder-bumped" by members of the audience as he left the chambers. The letter, which sharply criticized Councilman Tim Fitch, R-3rd District, Council Chair Rita Heard Days, D-1st District, and others, drew national notice, including from PBS's "NewsHour," CNN and MSNBC.
