U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw this month said that Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) Commissioner Lisa Piercey and TDOH Chief Medical Officer Tim Jones have qualified immunity against claims from former TDOH official Michelle Fiscus. Qualified immunity protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff’s rights.
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Officials in multiple jurisdictions throughout Tennessee have detected cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Shelby County reported the first case of the new variant. New cases were discovered on Thursday by both the Metro Nashville Public Health Department and the Hamilton County Health Department.
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Michelle Fiscus, Tennessee’s former top vaccine officer, has sued the Tennessee Department of Health and its top two officers over her firing in July.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville, says Fiscus is suing for injunctive relief and damages caused by the firing and “defamatory statements” she claims were made by Department of Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey and Chief Medical Officer Tim Jones.
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Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) Commissioner Lisa Piercey took a vacation to Greece this month, but department officials on Friday refused to answer questions about the precautions she took to protect herself against COVID-19. The Tennessee Star specifically asked the department the following questions Friday:
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Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the recently fired director of the Tennessee Department of Health’s (TDH) Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and Immunization Program (VPDIP), blasted Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey this week for the latter’s handling of a $26.5 million COVID-testing contract.
“We knew that she was not being truthful with that committee,” Fiscus said to NewsChannel 5, referring to testimony Piercey gave before the state legislature last December.
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State Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) on Friday accused the media of trying to drive a wedge between him and Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) Commissioner Lisa Piercey when it comes to giving the COVID-19 vaccine to children. Roberts co-chairs the legislature’s Joint Government Operations Committee. He voiced concerns this week about state officials administering the vaccine to children without parental consent. Roberts said Thursday that he and Piercey agreed that administering the COVID-19 vaccine to children — without parental consent — violates TDOH policy.
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Tennessee State Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield), who co-chairs the legislature’s Joint Government Operations Committee, this week said he had to clear up misinformation about administering the COVID-19 vaccine to children throughout the state. Roberts said in an emailed statement that he and certain other committee members worried Tennessee had marketed the vaccine to minors and administered it without parental consent.
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Contrary to current claims, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) reportedly fired its previous Vaccine-Preventable and Infectious Diseases State Medical Director Dr. Michelle Fiscus due to months of unprofessional behavior and poor job performance. TDH Chief Medical Officer Tim Jones detailed issues with Fiscus at length in a recommendation for termination email to TDH Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey.
Although Fiscus claims that she was fired for informing the public about the mature minor doctrine, TDH offered a laundry list of the issues Fiscus has reportedly caused. According to their records, Fiscus consistently engaged in inappropriate behaviors such as mistreating her colleagues and ignoring superiors. Her behavior reportedly caused two senior leaders to resign. She’d also been pushing TDH over the last three months to award funds to her nonprofit organization – though it had no staff or other major funds.
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Tennessee will no longer send the COVID-19 vaccine to the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) for allocation after a state investigation revealed mismanagement and waste of more than 2,400 vaccine doses this month.
The state instead will send the doses to the city of Memphis and local hospitals.
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The Nashville-based NewsChannel 5 reported this week that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer money on COVID-19 testing that, ultimately, did not benefit the state. State officials awarded the contract to Nomi Health. NewsChannel 5 reported this as a $26.5 million, no-bid contract. In their report, the station quoted several people who questioned Nomi’s credentials.
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Governor Bill Lee announced during the weekly Tuesday briefing that Tennessee will receive around 2 million rapid viral tests for COVID-19. The tests from BinaxNOW will come in staggered shipments throughout the end of the year.
BinaxNOW tests are significantly more cost-effective and quicker at giving results. They are also more comfortable than the standard deep nasal swab. Instead of going up the nose and into the back of the throat, swabs will go just inside the nose.
A 44-year-old Williamson County man and his household contacts remain quarantined at home after he tested positive for the Coronavirus.
This is the first confirmed case of the Coronavirus in Tennessee, according to state officials.
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