"The Tennessean reported Tuesday that all adolescent vaccine outreach,
for all diseases, would be halted, according to emails and an internal
report with state health department officials Friday and Monday."

<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/top-tennessee-health-official-says-she-was-fired-after-efforts-n1273887>

Top Tennessee health official says she was fired after efforts to get
teens vaccinated

In a statement to the Tennessean, Fiscus said she was worried for her
state.

"It was my job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access
so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against COVID-19," Fiscus
wrote. "I have now been terminated for doing exactly that."

Health Department spokesperson Sarah Tanksley said the agency would
not comment on the termination.

Fiscus said tension with GOP lawmakers escalated when she publicized a
public document on Tennessee's "Mature Minor Doctrine," a state
Supreme Court case ruling from 1987 that states Tennesseans 14 to 18
years old may be treated "without parental consent unless the
physician believes that the minor is not sufficiently mature to make
his or her own health care decisions."

"Within days, legislators were contacting TDH asking questions about
the memo with some interpreting it as an attempt to undermine parental
authority," Fiscus said, adding that her conduct was called
"reprehensible" by a Tennessee lawmaker.

"That member went on to call for the 'dissolving and reconstitution'
of the Department of Health in the midst of a pandemic where one out
of every 542 Tennesseans has died from Covid-19 on their watch and
less than 38 percent of Tennesseans have been vaccinated," Fiscus
wrote.

As of Monday, state and federal data showed 38 percent of Tennesseans
were fully vaccinated against Covid-19, lagging behind much of the
nation.

"I was told that I should have been more 'politically aware' and that
I 'poked the bear' when I sent a memo to medical providers clarifying
a 34-year-old Tennessee Supreme Court ruling. I am not a political
operative, I am a physician who was, until today, charged with
protecting the people of Tennessee, including its children, against
preventable diseases like Covid-19," Fiscus wrote.

In her statement, Fiscus alleged that the health department responded
to the GOP outcry by "halting ALL vaccination outreach for children."

"Not just Covid-19 vaccine outreach for teens, but ALL communications
around vaccines of any kind," Fiscus wrote.

The Tennessean reported Tuesday that all adolescent vaccine outreach,
for all diseases, would be halted, according to emails and an internal
report with state health department officials Friday and Monday.

The shift came two weeks after a June legislative hearing at which
Republican lawmakers admonished the agency for how it was
communicating about the vaccine, including through online posts. One
digital graphic, which had a photo of a smiling child with a bandaid
on his arm, said, "Tennesseans 12+ are eligible for vaccines. Give
COVID-19 vaccines a shot."

During the hearing, Republican Rep. Scott Cepicky held up a printout
of a Facebook ad saying teens were eligible, and he called the
agency’s advocacy "reprehensible" and likened it to peer pressure.

In an email to NBC News, Bill Christian, a spokesperson for the
Department of Health, did not comment on reports that the state had
halted all immunization outreach to minors but said that the
department "wants to remain a trustworthy source of information to
help individuals, including parents, make these decisions," Christian
wrote.

He added that an "intense national conversation" is affecting how many
families evaluate vaccinations in general.

"We are simply mindful of how certain tactics could hurt that
progress," Christian wrote.

Fiscus says the health department’s attorney provided her the letter
she shared with medical providers about the mature minor doctrine. The
attorney had said the letter had been "blessed by the governor’s
office."

At a June hearing, Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said she knew
of only eight times this year when the doctrine was invoked, and three
of them were for her own children, who received vaccines while she was
at work.

Lee Savio Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics,
called Fiscus’s termination "the most recent example of a concerning
trend of politicizing public health expertise."

The AAP is "concerned" about the report of the cancellation of vaccine
outreach to minors.

"Actions like this only increase the likelihood that we’ll see other
outbreaks of these diseases even as we continue to fight Covid-19,"
Beers said.

In a statement, Tennessee Democratic state senators condemned Fiscus'
firing.

"Well folks, this is just insane," said state Senate minority leader
Jeff Yarbro.

"The political firing of Dr. Fiscus isn’t just an embarrassment. It’s
reckless when cases and hospitalizations are rising and 62 percent (of
Tennesseans) remain unvaccinated."

<https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2021/07/12/tennessee-fires-top-vaccine-official-covid-19-shows-new-spread/7928699002/>

Tennessee fires top vaccine official as COVID-19 shows signs of new
spread
Brett Kelman
Nashville Tennessean

The Tennessee state government on Monday fired its top vaccination
official, becoming the latest of about two dozen states to lose years
of institutional knowledge about vaccines in the midst of the
coronavirus pandemic.

The termination comes as the virus shows new signs of spread in
Tennessee, and the more-transmissible delta variant surfaces in
greater numbers.

Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the medical director for vaccine-preventable
diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of
Health, said she was fired on Monday afternoon and provided a copy of
her termination letter. It provides no explanation for her
termination.

Fiscus said she was a scapegoat who was terminated to appease state
lawmakers angry about the department's efforts to vaccinate teenagers
against coronavirus. The agency has been dialing back efforts to
vaccinate teenagers since June.

"It was my job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access
so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against COVID-19," Fiscus
said in a written statement. "I have now been terminated for doing
exactly that."

Sarah Tanksley, a spokesperson for the health department, said the
agency would not comment on the termination.

Republican lawmakers began to criticize Fiscus by name during a
contentious hearing of the Joint Government Operations Committee on
June 16.

Lawmakers were angry about a letter Fiscus sent to medical providers
who administer vaccines explaining the state's "Mature Minor
Doctrine," a legal mechanism by which they are allowed to vaccinate
minors above the age of 14 without consent from their parents.

The letter was sent in response to questions from vaccine providers
but did not contain new information. The details of the Mature Minor
Doctrine have been publicly available on the health department’s
website since at least 2008. The doctrine was established in 1987,
according to the health department.

Fiscus said the language in the letter was provided to her by the
health department's attorney, who said at the time it had been
"blessed by the governor's office."

At the June 16 hearing, Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said to
her knowledge the doctrine had only been invoked eight times this
year. Three of those instances involved her own kids, who were
vaccinated while she was at work, she said.

Lawmakers were still angry. Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, who
repeatedly has spread vaccine misinformation during legislative
hearings, insisted the state was misinterpreting its legal authority.

Bowling urged Piercey to "take action" to "remove the fear, the
concerns and the anger that has gone across the state as a result of
(Fiscus') letter."

"It is very disconcerting to see the letter, or memo, from Dr. Fiscus
stating that Tennessee law allows the Department of Health to give
vaccinations to children 14 years of age," Bowling said. "Tennessee
law does not allow that."

Later in the same hearing, another lawmaker, Sen. Mark Pody,
R-Lebanon, cited "extreme disappointment" the health department would
allow children to be vaccinated through the Mature Minor Doctrine.
Lawmakers later discussed dissolving the entire agency to stop it from
promoting vaccines to teens.

Since this June hearing, the health department has steadily backed
down from its efforts to vaccinate minors. The agency halted all
online vaccination outreach to teens and deleted Facebook and Twitter
posts that gently recommended vaccines to anyone over the age of 12.
Internal emails obtained by The Tennessean revealed agency leaders
ordered county-level staff not to hold any vaccination events intended
specifically for adolescents.

COVID-19 infections rise, delta variant spreads
These changes will likely hamper Tennessee’s vaccination efforts,
which already lag behind much of the nation. As of Monday, federal and
state data showed 38% of Tennesseans were fully vaccinated and the
state’s rate of new vaccinations was idling.

At the current pace, Tennessee won’t reach 50% vaccinated until March,
according to health department estimates in an internal report
obtained by The Tennessean.

Tennessee has also begun to show some signs of a rebounding virus.
After months of declining infections, the average number of new
infections per day has more than doubled since a low point on June 23
- climbing from 169 to 351 as of Friday. The state’s average test
positivity rate increased from about 2% to about 4.5% in the same time
period. Daily hospitalizations and deaths remain in the single digits.

Tennessee is also detecting a growing number of infections from the
delta variant, a more transmissible form of coronavirus that sparked
new outbreaks among unvaccinated populations in Arkansas and Missouri.

The count of known delta variant cases rose from 27 on June 24 to 125
as of Thursday, according to state virus data. The count is likely
higher because the variant can only be detected by subjecting virus
samples to genomic sequencing, which is done sparingly.

Fiscus is at least the 25th official to leave a state’s top
vaccination position since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic,
according to a USA TODAY investigation published earlier this month.
Most of these officials quit or retired earlier than planned,
sometimes because of frustration with the politicization of the virus,
USA TODAY reported. While these officials are not well known to the
general public, they are a backbone of the nation’s vaccination
system, both within a pandemic and without.

Brett Kelman is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be
reached at 615-259-8287 or at brett.kelman@tennessean.com. Follow him
on Twitter at @brettkelman.

Fixing illiterate subject line.

In article <0boteg9pu3vj86517kfmsono1qj536f3hc@4ax.com>,
Terry del Fuego <t_del_fuego@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Fixing illiterate subject line.

Do note, though, that there are some textual differences (besides the
Subject line) between the two postings (of essentially the same article).

--
The randomly chosen signature file that would have appeared here is more than 4
lines long. As such, it violates one or more Usenet RFCs. In order to remain
in compliance with said RFCs, the actual sig can be found at the following URL:
http://user.xmission.com/~gazelle/Sigs/Noam

On Wed, 14 Jul 2021 19:03:25 -0000 (UTC), gazelle@shell.xmission.com
(Kenny McCormack) wrote:

>Do note, though, that there are some textual differences (besides the
>Subject line) between the two postings (of essentially the same article).

They weren't intended to be identical. I stupidly didn't notice my
horrendous spelling until AFTER posting the second one. At pre-0600, a
stray all-vertical letter is hard to see in a serif-free font. Of
course, I never should have typed it in the first place.

It's especially personally embarrassing to me because it's such a
beautiful story that I really wanted to share. Everything else aside,
I have to at least *consider* voting for a party that openly embraces
universal infanticide. Obviously it would be preferable if they went
the extra mile and limited it to *male* infanticide, but, as they say,
dead baby steps.

In article <84c0fgtg2fep3se0ms0ufct6sd5lp6d7tu@4ax.com>,
Terry del Fuego <t_del_fuego@hotmail.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 14 Jul 2021 19:03:25 -0000 (UTC), gazelle@shell.xmission.com
>(Kenny McCormack) wrote:
>
>>Do note, though, that there are some textual differences (besides the
>>Subject line) between the two postings (of essentially the same article).
>
>They weren't intended to be identical. I stupidly didn't notice my
>horrendous spelling until AFTER posting the second one. At pre-0600, a
>stray all-vertical letter is hard to see in a serif-free font. Of
>course, I never should have typed it in the first place.
>
>It's especially personally embarrassing to me because it's such a
>beautiful story that I really wanted to share. Everything else aside,
>I have to at least *consider* voting for a party that openly embraces
>universal infanticide. Obviously it would be preferable if they went
>the extra mile and limited it to *male* infanticide, but, as they say,
>dead baby steps.

Excellent post! All around.

Yeah, how much longer until we hear about mass polio outbreaks in TN?

And, yes, I think I have my fact straight here. They say smallpox is
completely gone from the world, except for a few labs in various countries
(and, yes, the last person to get smallpox got it from a lab-leak, showing
that, yes, these things happen).

But polio is still out there in the wild. If you aren't vaccinated against
it, you're at risk.

--
Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to
play chess with a pigeon --- it knocks the pieces over, craps on the
board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.