Photo: Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey
Photo Credit: Tennessee Department of Health / Facebook
Published July 15, 2021
By Jon Styf [The Center Square contributor] –
The Tennessee Department of Health said Wednesday it has “in no way halted the immunizations for children program” on the heels of the state firing its top vaccine official and discontinuing adolescent vaccine outreach for other vaccines.
“You talk about demoralizing,” Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Raumesh Akbari said Wednesday. “They are basically being accused almost of committing something akin to a crime. They were being threatened with being completely removed, during a pandemic.”
Dr. Michelle Fiscus told the Tennessean on Monday she was fired as the result of sending a memo to vaccine providers about the Mature Minor Doctrine, which related case law from 1987 interpreted to say minors could choose to get health care, including a vaccine, without parental consent.
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“Specifically, it was MY job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against COVID-19,” Fiscus wrote in a statement provided to the newspaper. “I have now been terminated for doing exactly that.”
The doctrine came up last month at Tennessee’s Government Operations meeting, when several Republican lawmakers asked Department of Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey about the memo.
“The Department of Health is targeting our youth,” said Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka. “We know how impressionable our young people are and wanting to fit in in life. Personally, I think it’s reprehensible that we would do that to our youth in Tennessee.”
Fiscus told The Tennessean she was told the summary of the doctrine was “blessed by the Governor’s office” before it was sent.
Gov. Bill Lee’s press secretary, Casey Black, would not comment on that assertion Wednesday, but she said only her office speaks for the governor, pointing to a recent comment he made on vaccines.
“From my perspective, what is appropriate from the Department of Health is to provide information on access to vaccines for adults for their personal choice and for decisions about their children,” Lee said. “That is what is appropriate, and that’s what we will continue to do.”
Piercey said in June she is for adults making their own choices and she sees the department’s role as educating about vaccines and having vaccines available. She said about 20% of COVID-19 cases in the state have been in residents under age 18, but only 370 people in that age group, or 0.3%, have been hospitalized.
Tennessee has a 38.1% vaccination rate, eighth-lowest in the country.
“It looks like that there is a mission here, an agenda here, to have children vaccinated without parental consent,” Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, said at the June meeting.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said during Wednesday’s conference call that it was “embarrassing” and “dangerous” to the state for this to happen. It also sets a “dangerous precedent,” he said.
“It just makes you wonder where the grownups are because this is catering to ideological Facebook conspiracy theory stuff and disregarding the actual well-being of communities throughout the state,” Yarbro said.
About the Author:
Jon Styf is a freelance writer for Tennessee and South Carolina.
Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
5 Responses
I don’t know why people have their head so far up their *&% about this vaccine that they are willing to play Russian Roulette with the life of their children and this vaccines.
People needs to pull it out far enough to ask why all the censoring of information about the vaccine,
What is it and why is it this information so damaging it need to be suppressed???
The fact is there has never been a pandemic, in March 2020 when a pandemic was declared, there were 15% fewer deaths nationwide than any March before it,
“WHERE WAS THE PANDEMIC”?????
Everything from the flu to Motorcycle accidents to old age has been listed as a Covid death,
CDC admits a 1600% inflating of deaths, only about 6% actually cause by covid.
Now a Doctor in Canada who has given 900 shots is discovering blood clots in 62% of his patients.
Micro-clots just a deadly over time as the Heart-attack kind.
https://vaccineimpact.com/2021/canadian-doctor-62-of-patients-vaccinated-for-covid-have-permanent-heart-damage
County Governments/School Boards would be well advised not try and force this vaccine on people/school Children,
I don’t think for one minute I am the only one who is willing to take up arms to prevent it.
Nuff said.
ESSER Funds for the schools to push the masking and jab. Go look for those funds on the internet and the State page of the Board of Indoctrination (education). They are being bribed to damage and indoctrinate our children. The truth is slowing coming out how they are hiding the number of Adverse effects of this jab. It is GENE THERAPY not a vaccine.
Funny how unhealthy all of the Department of Health workers look. Remind me why should I be taking health advice from them? Perhaps they need to stop parroting pharmaceutical recommendations and educate themselves on what it really means to be healthy. Hint: it doesn’t involve vaccines!
Please stop the push for children and young adults to get this deadly “vaccine”! It is experimental and no one shud be forced coerced or otherwise ostracized for their decision. No science supports the risks of taking or not taking the vaccine. What science does say is that there is effective preventative tx as well as effective txmts if you get covid. I personally know of a women dying after the covid shot and a man who was in icu for 3 weeks with blood clots after his covid shot. Everyone I know who’ve had covid have survived. All with comorbid conditions. 2 were hospitalized and each recovered well with txmt of hydroxychloroquine antibiotics and zinc.
It is definitely a crime to force an experimental vaccine on anyone especially children.
Why can we not do away with the law regarding Mature Minor, or change it to be anyone under the age of 18 must have parental consent for any type of vaccine or medical procedure? I would also like to see all vaccines or medical procedures done in a physicians office, not in a school.