Former Tennessee vaccine official said she was sent a muzzle before she was fired

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“At first I thought it was a joke and contacted a few friends, then when no one claimed it I realized it was something sent to me as a kind of message, ”Fiscus said.

On the advice of others, she said she reported the incident to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which confirmed to CNN that it was investigating the dog muzzle package.

Fiscus said he told her husband: “They obviously didn’t know me because they sent me a size three which is for beagles and I’m obviously a pit bull which requires a size six.” Fiscus said she kept the muzzle as a memento.

The memo Fiscus sent before she was fired

Fiscus told CNN that she sent the note to the center of the controversy because the doctors who administered the Covid-19 vaccines asked her what to do when minors show up for their vaccinations without a parent.

The policy has been in place for 34 years, was public on the Tennessee Department of Health website, and has been blessed by the governor’s office, she said.

But lawmakers quickly began contacting the health service to ask questions about the memo which some said violated parental authority. On Monday, Fiscus was fired. The Tennessee Department of Health told CNN by email on Tuesday that it could not comment on personnel issues.

Fiscus said his dismissal was a symptom of a trend in many public health departments across the country. In her statement, she sees a “tilt from the Department of Health to some of our lawmakers who felt it was inappropriate to share the doctrine of mature minors which has been Tennessee Supreme Court jurisprudence since 1987”.

Legislative leaders are now seeking answers from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee regarding his decision to fire the state’s top immunization expert amid a pandemic.

In a virtual meeting with state legislators on Wednesday, Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Raumesh Akbari said the decision to fire Fiscus had placed the state in a more dangerous position.

“We have all the tools we need to come out of this pandemic, but the failure of leadership at the top makes it difficult,” Akbari said.

An end to any vaccination campaign among adolescents

Prior to his dismissal, Fiscus said the department halted all adolescent vaccination campaigns, from Covid-19 communications to HPV recalls and recognition of National Immunization Awareness Month.

The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed on Wednesday that it was temporarily suspending all adolescent vaccination campaigns, even for vaccines unrelated to Covid-19, telling CNN the issue was “polarized.”

“We recognize where we are around the national conversation around vaccinations and it’s a polarized conversation, and it’s true in our state. And so we’re just taking this opportunity to assess our message and make sure we don’t. let’s not interfere with our efforts, ”spokeswoman Sarah Tanksley told CNN on a phone call.

Tanksley said Covid-19 and other childhood vaccines will still be available while the Department of Health reassesses the vaccination notification process. She said the goal was to ensure that vaccination reminders were sent to the teenager’s parents.

In a few cases, vaccination reminders were sent directly to minors whose contact details were in the department’s electronic health records, according to a statement given to CNN by the Tennessee Department of Health.

Tanksley said she was confident the Department of Health would continue to communicate successfully with parents and providers.

“It’s not a month-long evaluation period or anything like that,” she said.

But Dr Alex Jahangir, chairman of the Davidson County Board of Health in Tennessee, said Wednesday he was concerned the shutdown could lead to preventable outbreaks.

Jahangir said the robust immunization program for children in the United States has prevented disease outbreaks for decades.

“The best way to save millions of Tennessen is to encourage vaccinations, make them easy and not buy into a rhetoric that vaccinations are problematic,” he said. “I think the politicization of vaccinations can really have a really negative impact on Tennesseans and people in the United States.”