Main Street Nashville
NASHVILLE WEATHER
physicians-mutual-dental-insurance-banners

Tennessee facing ‘a pandemic of the unvaccinated’





Tennessee Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey briefs reporters in a virtual news conference Friday.Screenshot

Tennessee Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey briefs reporters in a virtual news conference Friday.Screenshot

Calling it “a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey is encouraging Tennesseans to get a COVID-19 vaccine, as the state has seen a 200% increase in cases of the virus since July 1.

“In almost all of the cases of severe illness resulting in hospitalization and death, almost all of them are amongst the unvaccinated,” Piercey said during a briefing Friday morning.

About 97% of hospitalizations and 98% of recorded COVID-19 related deaths are now among the unvaccinated.

While vaccines are effective, rare instances of breakthrough cases have occurred among fully vaccinated individuals. The department is aware of about 1,000 such cases. Of those, 195 were hospitalized and 27 have died.

“It is going up, but I want to keep it in context: We are not anywhere close, at this point, to where we were in November, December or January,” Piercey said. “But it is a noticeable uptick and doesn’t currently show any signs of slowing.”

The Delta variant is the predominant strain of the virus present in Tennessee right now, particularly in West Tennessee near Memphis. Piercey estimates that about 80% of COVID-19 cases in the state are the Delta variant, mirroring national rates.

“The Delta variant is here in Tennessee, and it is widespread,” Piercey said.

There are currently more than 500 people hospitalized with COVID-19, and the department reported 1,412 new cases statewide on Friday.

Mature minor doctrine

The Department of Health has come under fire from state lawmakers in recent weeks over a memo sent by former vaccine chief Dr. Michelle Fiscus explaining how Tennessee’s mature minor doctrine applies to the COVID-19 vaccine. Under the doctrine, children aged 14 and older are legally able to make medical decisions with or without parental consent.

Fiscus was fired from the department earlier this month. The memo is one of several reasons for Fiscus’ termination, according to her personnel file.

Piercey said Friday that children will continue to be able to receive vaccines without parental consent under the mature minor doctrine.

“There are very nuanced and fringe situations where that might occur, and none of us want to get in the way of that,” Piercey said. “We are still operating under that policy; we just understand that it was for very fringe and nuanced cases.”

Vaccine outreach to children

As a result of concern from state lawmakers, the department has shifted away from any kind of marketing or messaging directed at children, Piercey said.

“We wanted to leave no room for interpretation about where we are shooting, and we are shooting to get the message to parents,” Piercey said. “There was a perception that we were marketing to children, and that totally was against our view about the importance of parental authority.”

Piercey said the department removed 11 social media posts encouraging the COVID-19 vaccine that depicted a child without a parent. The department logo was also removed from certain outreach documents as staff internally reviewed content to ensure it was directed toward parents only. Marketing materials, flyers, postcards and all public-facing documents were reviewed in the process.

“Nothing has been stopped permanently. We put a pause on many things, and then we have resumed all of those things,” Piercey said.

Piercey says in the future, the department will continue advertising and marketing images that depict children “because we still think it’s very important,” but in the future, parents will also be included.

Meanwhile, the department is moving forward with back-to-school vaccine partnerships. It will also continue the “Give it a Shot” COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

“I want to reassure you that the department’s commitment to immunization is completely unchanged,” Piercey said.

Leave a Reply