Watch WBRZ News 2 Thursday for the tell-all interview with Dr. Alex Billioux

BATON ROUGE – A new month brings big changes for high-profile Dr. Alex Billioux who, since the onset of the COVID crisis, has been the state’s very visual and top doctor spearheading the state health department’s response.

WBRZ was first to report in early-September, Billioux had resigned his job from the Louisiana Department of Health. This was his last week on the job.

In an interview with WBRZ reporter Johnston von Springer, Billioux discussed the early days of the pandemic, how decisions were made and gave his thoughts on the state’s re-opening plans.

Among the topics discussed was his thoughts on fans at sporting events: "The [medical experts'] public health position was, in the middle of a pandemic, it does not make sense to bring tens of thousands, literally 25,000 plus, people together; Whether we're talking about Saints' stadium or we're talking about Tiger Stadium.  We needed [people] to understand that a single football game could overwhelm the capacity in the region and lead to much more death."

Watch the interview throughout the day on WBRZ newscasts: Noon, 4, 5, 6, 6:30, 10 and 10:30. WBRZ newscasts are streamed live online here.

At the time news broke of Billioux’s resignation, he said he wanted to focus more time with his family.

 At LDH, Billioux was the manager of the Office of Public Health and is an internal medicine physician. His LinkedIn profile advertises his special focus on "improving individual and community health through innovative public health approaches."  

The Office of Public Health works in areas of awareness and prevention of disease.

Dr. Billioux studied medicine at Johns Hopkins University.  He attended the University of Oxford where he became a doctor of philosophy in clinical medicine.  His undergraduate studies were at Northwestern State University of Louisiana.

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