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

The Tennessee Department of Health has not stopped all efforts to vaccinate children





Tennessee Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey holds a COVID-19 vaccine update Tuesday at the Music City Center vaccination site.Vivian Jones / Main Street Nashville

Tennessee Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey holds a COVID-19 vaccine update Tuesday at the Music City Center vaccination site.Vivian Jones / Main Street Nashville

Amid criticism from Republican lawmakers about vaccinating children without parental consent, Tennessee’s state Department of Health is no longer communicating directly with children about vaccinations, but will outreach to their parents instead.

Internal documents show that the health department will stop holding COVID-19 vaccine events at schools and facilities that primarily serve children, and stop sending postcards to youth reminding them to get a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Tennessean first reported.

Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey has directed the department not to observe National Immunization Awareness Month in August, as it did last year with a proclamation from Gov. Bill Lee, emails sent last week to former immunizations chief Dr. Michelle Fiscus show.

The changes came after criticism from Republican lawmakers that the department was “marketing the COVID-19 vaccine to children,” and outrage over an internal memo sent by Fiscus outlining how children can legally receive the vaccine without parental consent.

 

 

Outreach to parents will continue

But while state outreach directly to children has stopped, contact with parents regarding their child’s vaccinations will continue, officials say.

TDH spokesman Bill Christian says that the department has “in no way halted the immunizations for children program.”

“TDH understands the importance of childhood immunizations, the impacts to overall health for Tennesseans, and we continue to support those outreach efforts,” Christian said. “Providing information and access are routine public health functions, and that has not changed.”

Casey Black, a spokeswoman for Gov. Bill Lee, says outreach to parents regarding child immunizations will continue.

“The Department of Health has not halted the Vaccines for Children Program that provides information and vaccine access to Tennessee parents,” Black told Main Street Nashville. “The department is mindful of ensuring parents, not kids, are the intended audience for any outreach efforts regarding medical decisions for children and has simply re-evaluated some tactics like reminder postcards and follow-up communications.”

In a statement published in the Tennessean after her firing on Monday, Fiscus also claimed the department would not provide back-to-school messaging for parents who did not get their children vaccinated for measles last year due to the pandemic, and claimed that postcard reminders for the COVID-19 vaccine would not be sent to parents of teens.

The Department of Health has not responded to questions on whether these specific outreaches to parents will occur.

The Vaccines for Children program, established by Congress in 1993, provides information to parents regarding common childhood immunizations, and provides free vaccines to children who would otherwise not have access. More than 600 physicians and health department clinics in Tennessee participate. Those efforts will continue, Black said.

Tennessee’s childhood vaccination rates are above the national average for every common vaccine, including DTaP, MMR, Varicella, HPV, and the flu shot, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Childhood immunization requirements remain in place across the state, and vaccinations for children continue to be available at county health departments statewide.

White House weighs in

During a White House press conference on Wednesday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki fielded two questions from the press corps about how Tennessee officials “halted all adolescent vaccine outreach, not just for coronavirus vaccines.”

Psaki declined to comment on Fiscus’ firing, but expressed concern over “misinformation” over vaccines.

“We’re going to continue to work with partners in states like Tennessee, and in states across the country to ensure that we are pushing back against misinformation,” Psaki said.

“Certainly any effort that prevents accurate information, information based on data, on science to the COVID-19 vaccine or any other vaccine is of concern to the federal government,” she added.

Back-to-school vaccinations

in Davidson County

The Metro Public Health Department is independent of the state Department of Health, but is continuing to encourage back-to-school vaccinations.

Speaking with Jake Tapper on CNN on Wednesday, Nashville COVID-19 Task Force chief Dr. Alex Jahangir said that vaccinations remain critical for school children.

“I think the best way to save millions of Tennesseans is to encourage vaccinations, to make them easy, and not buy into any rhetoric that vaccinations are problematic, or there’s anything bad about them,” Jahangir said. “I think the politicization of vaccinations can truly have a really negative impact on Tennesseans and people around the U.S.”

Metro Nashville Public Schools is hosting six afternoon back-to-school vaccine events at middle schools across the county for 7th graders through the end of next week. Doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will also be available at those events.

Required back-to-school vaccinations for Kindergarteners and 7th graders are available at the Lentz Public Health Center, East Public Health Center, and Woodbine Public Health Center, five days per week.

Leave a Reply