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Tennessee axes head of vaccine unit for trying an outreach program to reach adolescents. It undermines parental authority, says Tennessee officials.


UPDATED: Wednesday, July 14, at 10:30 a.m.

Tennessee vaccine head fired as public health department recoils from adolescent outreach
After axing its immunizations head due to her stance on teen COVID-19 vaccination, the Tennessee Department of Health now looks to be winding down its adolescent vaccine outreach efforts for COVID-19 and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

As reported by The Tennessean and others, Michelle Fiscus, M.D., a pediatrician and the state’s medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs, was fired on Monday due to what she described as political interference from Republican state lawmakers.


Fiscus told press she had shared an internal memo laying out a 34-year-old legal precedent for minors aged 14 to 17 years to receive a vaccine without parental consent.

Shortly after, she said the public health department began hearing from legislators who were concerned that COVID-19 vaccine outreach targeting adolescents could undermine parents’ authority. Fiscus said that her firing was an effort to appease the lawmakers, whose concern she said was politically motivated.

“This is a failure of public health to protect the people of Tennessee,” Fiscus said Monday in a statement cited by the Tennessean. “When the people elected and appointed to lead this state put their political gains ahead of the public good, they have betrayed the people who have trusted them with their lives.”

Tennessee is one of several states in which new COVID-19 cases have increased in recent weeks.

At the same time, the health department has distributed internal emails telling staff to halt COVID-19 vaccine events on school property and cut off messaging directly targeted at minors, according to The Tennessean.

Another internal email went on to extend the rollback to other immunizations, specifying that the department should conduct “no proactive outreach regarding routine vaccines” as well as “no outreach whatsoever regarding the [human papillomavirus] vaccine],” according to reports. Informational sheets and other disseminated material regarding routine vaccinations will also be stripped of the public health department’s logo, per the email.

In statements to press, the department said that it is still conducting vaccine outreach efforts but is being “mindful” of the national conversation around vaccine hesitancy and avoiding tactics that could harm those efforts. (LOL)

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