There are two things that irritate me about the situation with fired Tennessee vaccine official Dr. Michelle Fiscus. One is that we’re out here firing state employees because some of our Republicans hadn’t yet gotten the word that Republicans are now all about vaccines and think it’s important for everyone to get them. Because of this fluke of timing, because she was trying to get people vaccinated before Republicans changed their approach (seemingly last week or the week before) and realized that COVID-19 is a dangerous virus and kills people, a knowledgeable and respected medical professional is no longer in the position where she was being effective.
It’s like kicking a firefighter out of your house when he tells you that you have a grease fire on your stove and he’s going to try to put it out, and then standing around all confused when your house is burning down. Too bad you got rid of the expert who knows how to help you.
But at least our Republicans still have Phil Valentine to sing them anti-vax songs and tell them how stupid it is to get vacci-- oh, wait. Oops, their stupid social policies have taken one of their loudest voices out of commission — Valentine, who has downplayed the severity of the pandemic, has been hospitalized and put on oxygen due to a severe case of COVID-19. Who could have ever predicted that an antivaxxer would get COVID and suddenly realize that maybe all the people who recommended getting vaccines weren’t just communists and killjoys?
Which brings me to the second thing that irritates me about the Fiscus situation: Every step of the way, the state has been dumber than rocks about this. I do not encourage or support any kind of corruption or using deceit to try to destroy your political enemies — let me be clear about that. But if you’re going to choose evil, you have to be smart about it. Get your bad ducks in a row, so to speak, before you make your move.
As an outside observer, it doesn’t appear that the state had anyone smart in charge of this political skullduggery. They fired Fiscus before they had an unassailable reason to fire her. The reasons they trotted out after the fact appear to have been easily disproven by paperwork Fiscus had. And her claims that they lied about her are backed up by her proof of other shit they’ve lied about.
Dr. Fiscus could have kept her mouth shut or softened what she said about how decisions about COVID are made at the state level when her paycheck depended on it. Now, no paycheck? No reason to not share the disturbing things she says she observed — everything from state health commissioner Lisa Piercey not being completely honest with lawmakers about a COVID testing contract to Piercey suggesting the unreliable COVID tests at the center of that controversy be used “in a healthier population, like college kids.”
Fiscus’ most disturbing allegation so far is that distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was — and possibly is still being — hampered by Gov. Bill Lee's religious beliefs. Phil Williams at NewsChannel5 has been all over this. He reports, “Fiscus said Lee claimed he wasn’t convinced of the effectiveness of the vaccine, but he also had concerns about the use of fetal cell lines in producing the vaccine.”
It is, of course, horrific that the governor would let his half-assed understanding of science and religion stand in the way of getting as many vaccines in the arms of Tennesseans as possible. Did you vote for Gov. Lee’s pastor to be making decisions about your health care? Me neither.
But this is beside the point I’m trying to make. Every single thing that Dr. Fiscus has disclosed so far is and has been known to other people in the health department. And yet, every time she makes a fresh allegation, everyone at the state has a brief moment of standing there like a deer caught in headlights, like they just had no idea they were ever going to be asked about this stuff.
It’s embarrassing.
Ray Blanton’s administration had a guy killed and no one knew for sure who did it for decades. This administration can’t, oh, I don’t know, have a meeting to figure out what damaging information might come out if they fire a person before they fire said person? That’s too much to ask?
Can we not have just a little effective scheming with our nefarious acts?
