Thread by @DrEricDing

📍“I AM AFRAID FOR MY STATE”—On July 12, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the top vaccine official in Tennessee, was fired. She was scapegoated to appease Republicans angry about efforts to vaccinate kids. After losing her job, Fiscus wrote a blistering statement. 🧵
tennessean.com/story/news/hea…

2) “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. And along with our resignations or retirements or, as in my case, push from office, goes the institutional knowledge…

3) “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.”

4) “On May 6, 2021, in advance of the approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12-15 year olds and in response to multiple questions I had received regarding the rules around vaccinating minors, I reached out to Tennessee Department of Health’s general counsel

5) “to request a statement regarding Tennessee’s Mature Minor Doctrine that resulted from a Tennessee Supreme Court Ruling in Cardwell v Bechtol in 1987.

6) “In response, I received a document attached to an email stating, “Sure—Attached is the new summary of the doctrine that has just recently been posted to the website and is blessed by the Governor’s office. This is forward facing so feel free to distribute to anyone.”

7) “On May 10, 2021, I copied and pasted the language provided to me into a memo that was distributed only to providers who were administering COVID-19 vaccines.

8) “A recipient of that memo was upset that, according to Tennessee Supreme Court case law, minors ages 14-17 years are able to receive medical care in Tennessee without parental consent and posted the memo to social media.

9) “Within days, legislators were contacting TDH asking questions about the memo with some interpreting it as an attempt to undermine parental authority.”

🤷🏻‍♂️

10) “Let me be clear: this was an informational memo containing language approved by the TDH General Counsel which was sent to medical providers by the medical director of the immunization program… on guardrails set by the Tennessee Supreme Court for providing care to minors.

11) “What has occurred in the time between the release of this memo and today, when I was terminated from my position as medical director of the vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization program at the Tennessee Department of Health, can only be described as bizarre.” 🔥

12) “On May 19th, TDH was asked to appear before the Government Operations Committee due to the concern that the memo was “a bit of a prodding or encouraging to vaccinate children without parental consent.”

13) “This was followed by a series of requests from members of the Committee for data around the impact of COVID-19 on children and a request to appear before the Committee again on June 16.

14) “It was at that June 16th meeting… one member went on to call for “dissolving and reconstitution” of the Department of Health in the midst of a pandemic where one out of every 542 Tennesseans has died from #COVID19 on their watch & <38% of Tennesseans have been vaccinated.”

15) “It is the mission of the Tennessee Department of Health to “protect, promote and improve the health and prosperity of the people of Tennessee” and protecting them against the deadliest infectious disease event in more than 100 years IS our job.

16) “It’s the most important job we’ve had in recent history. Specifically, 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.

17) “Instead, our leaders are putting barriers in place to ensure the people of Tennessee remain at-risk, even with the delta variant bearing down upon us.

18) “What’s more is that the leadership of TDH has reacted to the sabre rattling from the Government Operations Committee by halting ALL vaccination outreach for children. Not just COVID-19 vaccine outreach for teens, but ALL communications around vaccines of any kind.” 🔥 😡

19) Folks— this hasn’t sunk in for most of you… but Tennessee has now suspended **all vaccine** outreach for kids for all diseases, not just #COVID19 vaccine. That’s how ridiculous the GOP retribution is.

https://twitter.com/brettkelman/status/1415023788777934850

20) best description: BONEHEADED.

https://twitter.com/weselymd/status/1415156718393233409