Tennessee halts vaccine-outreach efforts for adolescents

Get vaccinated or face getting COVID-19 from the Delta variant.

That is what health officials throughout the US are essentially saying as they deal with a growing number of people in hospitals as the variant claims more victims. But lawmakers in some states are still saying no to vaccination-outreach efforts.

Tennessee, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, is halting vaccination-outreach efforts for teens and younger children, not only for COVID-19, but all diseases, including measles and other illnesses, amid "pressure from Republican lawmakers", the Tennessean reported.

The newspaper said an internal report it obtained shows that the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) will also halt all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property and no longer send postcards or other notices reminding teenagers to get their second dose of COVID-19 vaccines.

TDH Chief Medical Officer Tim Jones wrote in an email obtained by the newspaper that staff should administer "no proactive outreach regarding routine vaccines" and "no outreach whatsoever regarding the HPV vaccine".

"Any kinds of information sheets or other materials that we make available for dissemination should have the TDH logo removed," he wrote.

The changes in Tennessee are being put in place as the COVID-19 pandemic shows signs of surging in the state. After months of declining infections, the average number of coronavirus cases per day has more than doubled in the past two weeks, from 177 to 418. The average test-positivity rate has jumped from 2.2 percent to 5.4 percent in the same time period, according to the Tennessean.

On Tuesday, Michelle Fiscus, who was the state's top vaccine official, said she was fired this week amid scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department's outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against COVID-19.

Fiscus, who was the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the TDH, accused the state's elected leaders of putting politics over the health of children by firing her for her efforts to get more Tennesseans vaccinated.

Fiscus had passed along legal guidance to health providers saying teenagers don't need parents' consent to receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot, a position established by decades of state law.

"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 about her firing. "I have now been terminated for doing exactly that.

"It's just a huge symptom of just how toxic the whole political landscape has become," Fiscus said in an interview on Tuesday. "This virus is apolitical — it doesn't care who you are or where you live or which president you preferred. It's just been a very difficult thing for us to overcome."

A review published in December by Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press found that at least 181 state and local public health leaders in 38 states had resigned, retired or been fired since April 1, 2020.

"COVID-19 vaccination should be a condition of employment for all healthcare personnel," the coalition's statement reads, warning that "a sufficient vaccination rate is unlikely to be achieved" without such a mandate.

It was signed by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and five other medical groups.

According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, three weeks ago only a half-dozen health systems in the US and nearly all hospitals in Washington DC had required all staff be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Federal officials have balked at instituting requirements on healthcare workers, and many healthcare organizations have said they don't plan to require their staff members to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to The Washington Post.

As of Tuesday, the Delta variant initially identified in India, accounted for about 58 percent of coronavirus cases in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was 31.1 percent for the two weeks prior.