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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Days after being sacked under pressure from Republican lawmakers, the former Tennessee director of vaccinations point by point refuted a letter recommending her withdrawal and other claims from state officials regarding the program that ‘she directed which offers shots for children.
The July 9 letter from the Chief Medical Officer of State said Michelle Fiscus should be removed due to complaints about her leadership approach and her handling of a letter explaining the immunization rights of minors for COVID injections. 19, an effort that fulminated GOP lawmakers.
Fiscus accused Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey of firing her “to appease a handful of outraged and ill-informed lawmakers.”
In his rebuttal, Fiscus described Chief Medical Officer Tim Jones as a “trusted friend and colleague” who warned her in late June that her job was in jeopardy. She said Jones and her supervisor, state epidemiologist John Dunn, expressed their continued support for her. despite political pressure.
A complaint in the letter states that Fiscus demanded money from the Department of Health for a new nonprofit she had founded, in a “substantial conflict of interest”.
Fiscus retorts that his work plan included the creation of an Immunize Tennessee coalition, which Jones praised in a document provided by Fiscus, saying that “Shelley took the initiative to launch a statewide coalition that was very successful “.
About the group, Fiscus said, “I have brought together stakeholders who have incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporation. I am not part of the board of directors, I am not part of the payroll and I only occupy an ex officio advisory role to the board. … There is no conflict of interest because I do not benefit materially from the coalition.
Jones’ letter also accuses Fiscus of disseminating “his own interpretation” of the Tennessee Mature Minor Doctrine, which dates back to a 1987 State Supreme Court case and allows children 14 years of age and older to ” be vaccinated without parental consent. At a legislative hearing in June, Republican Representative Scott Cepicky called the agency’s advocacy on adolescent vaccination, including online posts, “reprehensible”.
Fiscus retorts that the letter she sent to providers regarding the vaccination of minors was verbatim from documents provided by the department’s chief legal adviser, Grant Mullins, “except for the introductory paragraph and the last line. “. Attached is the new Doctrine Summary which has just been posted to the website and which is blessed by the Governor’s office on the subject.
Responding to the “blessing” request, Republican Gov. Bill Lee spokesman Casey Black said, “No one speaks for the governor other than this office. “
In May, the health commissioner herself explained Fiscus’ note on the mature minors doctrine in a letter in response to a lawmaker, which was obtained by the Associated Press and confirmed on Friday by the spokesperson for the Department of Health, Sarah Tanksley.
“We hope the memo will inform the state’s vaccine partners of the current state of the law in Tennessee so that they can each make the best decisions for their patients,” Piercey wrote to GOP Representative Robin Smith, adding that many providers still choose to obtain parental consent. first.
Regarding the letter’s complaints about his leadership style and conflicts with staff, Fiscus said, “This is a pandemic of historic proportions and a deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine that has brought me down. forced, as well as members of my team, to work in an extraordinary way. hours for months. It was stressful and sometimes there were disagreements.
But Fiscus noted consistent praise for his performance at work, including years of performance reviews deeming his work “outstanding,” most recently from October 2019 to September 2020.
She also included a recent text message which she said came from the same doctor on the ward with whom the recommendation to terminate indicates she had a disagreement.
“What you may not know from our interactions is that I truly believe you are TDH’s greatest treasure. This is complete and comprehensive (expletive) and I am incredibly proud of you, of the work you you did and your response to this situation.Stay strong and keep up the good fight! reads the text, which Fiscus said he shared with his permission.
Fiscus also responded to the governor’s office regarding her claims that the health ministry had stopped vaccinating minors against all diseases, not just COVID-19, which she saved via the department’s email records. The question is posed by a statement from Lee’s spokesperson: “Despite misleading information, the Department of Health has not stopped the Vaccines for Children program which provides information and access to vaccines to parents in Tennessee. “
But Fiscus notes that she never said the children’s immunization program was interrupted. What has been stopped, she said, are “partnerships between local health departments and outside agencies, such as schools, to provide vaccines outside of a local health department” and ” any attempt to communicate to parents that their children need a critical routine immunizations during this back-to-school period.
This is a significant change from the department’s standard operations that “will result in lower immunization coverage rates, especially among poor and minority populations,” she said.
“The information I have shared is not ‘misleading’, it is the governor’s office response which both dodges the questions asked and hijacks the narrative from the topic in question,” Fiscus wrote.
On Thursday, the department directed parents seeking information on childhood vaccines to state websites.
Lee’s office and the Department of Health declined to comment directly on Fiscus’ dismissal. The Department of Health provided its personnel file to the media through public record requests.
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