Tennessee vaccine boss claims she was fired by lawmakers for spreading truth about vaccine: I’m scared for my state

Dr Michelle Fiscus says ‘I am afraid for my state’ amid officials’ efforts to stop youth vaccinations

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A top Tennessee medical director has said she was pushed out of her job because of her stance on vaccinating teens against Covid-19.

The Delta coronavirus variant has surged in the state, with 125 recorded cases as of Monday this week.

Dr Michelle Fiscus, the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, said she had been fired because state lawmakers were angry about the department’s efforts to vaccinate teenagers against coronavirus.

In a damning statement published in The Tennessean, Dr Fiscus said: “It was my job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against Covid-19. I have now been terminated for doing exactly that.”

Last month, Republican lawmakers criticised Dr Fiscus for a letter she sent to medical providers explaining the state’s “Mature Minor Doctrine”, which allows them to vaccinate minors above the age of 14 without parental consent. According to the department of health, the doctrine was not new, having been established in 1987, with details publicly available on the department’s website since 2008.

Under conservative pressure, vaccination events and online campaigns focused on adolescents were stopped.

In her statement, Fiscus said: “Some of our politicians have bought into the anti-vaccine misinformation campaign rather than taking the time to speak with the medical experts. They believe what they choose to believe rather than what is factual and evidence-based. And it is the people of Tennessee who will suffer the consequences of the actions of the very people they put into power.”

“I am ashamed of them. I am afraid for my state. I am angry for the amazing people of the Tennessee Department of Health who have been mistreated by an uneducated public and leaders who have only their own interests in mind. And I am deeply saddened for the people of Tennessee, who will continue to become sick and die from this vaccine-preventable disease because they choose to listen to the nonsense spread by ignorant people,” Dr Fiscus added.

A copy of her termination letter shown to The Tennessean gives no reason for her dismissal, and a spokesperson for the health department said the agency would not be commenting.

Dr Fiscus warned that with her departure and others’, valuable knowledge was being lost.

“Today I became the 25th of 64 state and territorial immunization program directors to leave their position during this pandemic. That’s nearly 40% of us” read her statement.

“And along with our resignations or retirements or, as in my case, push from office, goes the institutional knowledge and leadership of our respective COVID-19 vaccine responses.  I will not sit quietly by while our public health infrastructure is eroded in the midst of a pandemic.”