Closing Out: The Taxpayers Of Tennessee Have Shelled Out $150,000 -- Due To The Unlawful Firing Of A State MD Who Offered Legal Rights Advice To Teens, About COVID-19 Vaccines...

We covered her firing in real time in 2021 -- when the Governor of Tennessee (GOP) refused to let science rule the planning and implementation of a Tennessee Department of Health roll-out to combat the pandemic. [Specifically, the state fired her for correctly advising teens over the age of 14 that under applicable federal law, they did not need their parents' consent to get a vaccine dose. Life-saving advice, that.]

Here, about two and a quarter years later, she has seen a settlement of her wrongful termination claims. This costs the taxpayers of Tennessee -- for their government's feckless flat-Earth approach to vaccine science. Here's a bit from NPR, back then -- and the full settlement agreement:

. . .Dr. Michelle Fiscus was caught up in a controversy after she passed along legal guidance to health providers saying teenagers do not need parents' consent to receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot -- a position established by decades of state law. Fiscus was named medical director of Tennessee's immunization program in early 2019. Later that same year, she was elected to the American Academy of Pediatrics' board of directors as a district chair, representing five states. . . .

"Specifically, it was MY job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against COVID-19," Fiscus said in a scathing statement about her firing. "I have now been terminated for doing exactly that. . . ."

Fiscus said that "the 'leaders' of this state who have put their heads in the sand and denied the existence of COVID-19 or who thought they knew better than the scientists who have spent their lives working to prevent disease. . . they are what is 'reprehensible.' I am ashamed of them. I am afraid for my state. . . .

As we said in July of 2021 -- If she sues, she will win her job back. [She has seen a settlement.] She simply provided accurate medical information and disclosed, as allowed by existing law, what teens' rights are in the USA -- with the objective of educating vulnerable teens, about their right to protect themselves. Crazy, that firing.

Finally now, the 2021 injustice is. . . undone (though the defamatory nature of the 2021 firing cannot be put back in the bottle -- the Genie is out, on that). So the least we can do is run this, to repair her reputation. She is a fine scientist. Onward, with a baby girls' sleep-ova' tonight! Woot. . . .

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