‘Out for Blood’: Inside Tennessee’s Self-Imposed Vaccine Fiasco
NASHVILLE—Less than a week before she was ousted as the top vaccine official in Tennessee, Dr. Michelle Fiscus received a package at her office. It had been sent via Amazon without any note or indication of who might be behind it, she told The Daily Beast.
Inside was a black leather muzzle with nylon straps that looked to be made to fit a dog.
Fiscus, who became head of the state’s immunization program in January of 2019 and practiced as a pediatrician in Middle Tennessee for 17 years, already knew she had a target on her back. At a June legislative hearing, she’d been singled out by name by Republican state lawmakers upset about the health department’s teen-focused vaccine outreach; at least one of them even threatened to dissolve the department over it.
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