Tennesseans who won't get the COVID-19 vaccine describe “no one” as more trusted source of info than their own doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, public health experts and politicians of either party, per a new vaccine hesitancy survey the state didn't publicize. A quick thread. 1/ The Tennessee Department of Health published a vaccine hesitancy survey last April and announced a second round would follow. The second round was done just before the Omicron wave but the state decided not to push it out like the first. They gave me the results when I asked.

In Tennessee, a small predominately Black town is poised to get a huge economic boost from the construction of a big Ford factory. Then the state government gave them an ultimatum: dissolve your town charter, or we will seize control of your finances. tennesseelookout.com/2022/03/14/thi… Fantastic reporting by @anitawadhwani. The Lookout keeps swinging for the fences.

Tennessee’s medical licensing board on Tuesday deleted a COVID-19 anti-misinformation policy from its website to appease a GOP lawmaker they feared would otherwise push to dissolve the board entirely. There is a lot going on here. And this is a thread. tennessean.com/story/news/hea… Back in September, the Board of Medical Examiners unanimously adopted a policy against COVID-19 misinformation. It’s one paragraph. It says doctors have a duty to be responsible and if they spread nonsense about vaccines they may be disciplined. That's it. tn.gov/content/dam/tn…

Remember how bad the winter surge was? It was the worst of coronavirus … right? I used to think so. But for the millions of Tennesseans who remain unvaccinated, the delta surge was actually worse. Much worse. This is a quick thread on my latest story with the link at the end. I’ve covered COVID-19 almost exclusively for The @Tennessean for 19 months. In that time, I’ve written about the virus rising and falling and rising again. But the delta surge was something new. It was the first instance where the virus spiked AFTER many people were vaccinated.

In the dead of the night, Tennessee’s Republican lawmakers passed a big COVID-19 bill limiting when schools and governments can require masks. At a glance, it is hard to tell how restrictive the bill is. So I did the math. Short answer? VERY. A quick thread, article at the end. The bill outlaws mask mandates in each county until after the virus rises to 1,000 infections per 100K residents within 14 days. How high is that? Most Tennessee counties only reached this level in the worst weeks of the winter and the delta surges. By then, the damage was done.

Tennessee’s Republican lawmakers today used amendments to craft a COVID-19 omnibus bill weakening vaccine mandates and heavily restricting mask mandates in businesses and schools. Per bill, businesses can still require vaccination for employees/customers but can't require proof. Under the bill, businesses also can’t require employees/customers to wear masks unless in a county with 1,000+ infections per 100K residents in the past 14 days. No Tennessee county meets this threshold now. In fact, it is more than 3 times our average county infection rate.

The Tennessee state government now recommends vaccinated residents be denied access to monoclonal antibody treatment to preserve supplies for those who are unwilling to get vaccinated and remain most vulnerable by their own choice. A new story from me: tennessean.com/story/news/hea… In other words, if you took the responsible step of vaccination to slow the pandemic and protect yourself and others, it may now actually disqualify you from getting one of the most effective treatments for the virus. If you did nothing, you can still get the care.

Tennessee once texted 32,000 families to encourage teens to get vaccinated. Two days later, GOP lawmakers pressured the state to stop outreach to teens … and it did. Internal documents show the reversal was more sudden and dramatic than we knew. From me:
tennessean.com/story/news/hea… This story builds on prior reporting on Tennessee's vaccine backtracking. We already knew the health department barred staff from advocating for any child vaccinations. But, one month beforehand, it texted families to urge teens get vaccinated. What happened in between? Politics.

In Southern states with the slowest rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, the strongest indicator of very low vaccination rates is … Trump voters. Simply, where Trump got more votes, fewer get vaccinated.

That’s a big problem. And this is a thread 1/. tennessean.com/in-depth/news/… .@VincentDGabriel and I have chipped away at this big story since February. Yes, it is behind a paywall. Yes, you must be a subscriber to read it. But it will publish in @USATODAY Network papers throughout the south, so you can read it if you are a subscriber to any of them.

Today, The @Tennessean published an investigation in which I identify dozens of links between known coronavirus clusters in Nashville through an analysis of contact tracing data. This is my most complex journalism of 2020. And this is a thread. 1/ tennessean.com/in-depth/news/… My story is behind the paywall, so you must be a subscriber to read it. If you aren’t a subscriber, this thread will highlight some of our findings. But please consider a sub to support journalism like this. We need you. tennessean.subscriber.services/?gclid=CjwKCAi…

Today I return to covering the coronavirus in Tennessee after a much-needed vacation. This thread is will recap major outbreak trends over the past 10 days or so, just in case you need a refresher. (I did.) It's not pretty. 1/ After weeks of flattening, the coronavirus outbreak in Tennessee has begun to grow again. Since a low point on Oct. 3, active infections have risen 34% to about 18,000. This is bad. public.flourish.studio/visualisation/…

Tennessee’s coronavirus stats went wonky today because both the Nashville and state governments separately changed how they present data. I know many of you attempt to follow this closely, so I’m going to try to explain it all. This is going to get weedy. .@TNDeptofHealth made two major changes. First, they revised how they define “recovered” coronavirus patients, resulting in a big reduction in the count of active infections in every county. Second, they corrected about 1,700 cases that were listed in the wrong county. Whoopsie.

In the past month, Tennessee has made incredible gains in the campaign against coronavirus. But we have so much to lose. This is a short thread about how it could all go wrong. tennessean.com/story/news/hea… Today, I spent about an hour listening to health policy researchers at Vanderbilt University (@VUHealthPol). They’ve been quietly modeling the coronavirus in our state for a few weeks. I was anxious to see what they knew. There is a lot to unpack here. Here we go.

Yesterday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) ordered Tennesseans to stay home, saying cell phone tracking data helped convince him to take stronger action to stop coronavirus. I dug into that data, wanting to understand what he saw. This is a thread. tennessean.com/story/news/hea… First, it is important to know Lee did not want to do this. At every step of the virus outbreak, he has resisted ordering Tennesseans around. Lee, a small-government Republican, said he believed in advising, not mandating. But, as the outbreak grew, he had to change his tactics.

The Tennessee government got 1,800+ public comments on its plan for a Medicaid block grant. I read them all so you don’t have to. This is a thread about health care, journalism and how a heap of public records dissolved my brain into soup. It will be more fun than it sounds. 1/ If you haven’t heard, @GovBillLee wants to convert TennCare to a block grant. The state would get more control over billions in federal money that funds insurance for poor families, kids and people with disabilities. It's complicated but important. 2/ tennessean.com/story/news/pol…

For 4 years, Tennessee's state health agency investigated a nurse practitioner who dressed like a rock star and called himself a doctor. It found evidence he was doing bad things. Did it stop him from prescribing? From seeing patients? No. This is a thread. It’s gonna get weird. For the last few months, @CStephenson731 and I have been researching "Rock Doc" Jeff Young. Our story publishes today in @Tennessean and @JSunNews. You need to be a subscriber to read it. Just in case you aren’t one yet, I’m going to tweet some highlights. tennessean.com/story/news/hea…

For the past few months, I have been investigating Tennessee’s state Medicaid system, which most people know as TennCare. Today, the @Tennessean published this story, written by myself and @mreicher. It is a whopper. This is a thread. tennessean.com/story/news/inv… We should start with this: TennCare is IMPORTANT. It insures about 1.4 million people, mostly low-income kids. TennCare is also our states’ most expensive program. It is easy to dismiss TennCare as too complex or too boring (and it is!) but it is our duty to care.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has become my favorite video game of all time. In my head, I can’t stop casting a RDR movie. Wanna help? First, I think it’s obvious that Ian McShane is Dutch. Yes, I know he was already in Deadwood. I don’t care. It’s too perfect. If this man had a plan, I would follow.

Today, The @Tennessean published one of the strangest stories of my career. Actually, the article itself isn't that weird, but the story behind the story is bonkers. This is a thread. Here we go. 1/ I began this reporting four years ago at another newspaper 1,900 miles away. In 2015, I was working at @MyDesert in Palm Springs, California. It was a few days before I took a vacation. A private eye I knew – Bill – called me. He said he found something big. It felt clandestine.