In the days before Tennessee stopped encouraging teenagers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, Republican lawmakers met privately with the state health commissioner and a representative of the governor’s office to discuss specifically how to dial back vaccination advocacy to minors. Those same lawmakers on Wednesday shut down opposition comments from Democrats and the public in a highly-anticipated hearing.
This behind-the-scenes meeting appears to have appeased members of the conservative supermajority, who just last month accused the Department of Health of pressuring teens to get vaccinated and proposed dissolving the agency.
Since then, the health department instructed staff to end all outreach about adolescent vaccinations – not just coronavirus, but for all diseases – and cancelled COVID-19 vaccination events on school property or intended specifically for teenagers.
Tennessee Nathan Bedford Forrest bust museum exhibit opens to public
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Tennessee to restart vaccine outreach paused amid GOP pressure
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Forty-two years after the bust of Confederate General and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest was installed in the Tennessee Capitol, the statue of the former slave trader was removed from the building Friday, loaded onto a truck and driven away.
Traveling down two streets Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks boulevards a crew of workers delivered the bust to the Tennessee State Museum, where it will be on display with additional context about Forrest s life.
The process of moving the busts of Forrest and U.S. Admirals David Farragut and Albert Gleaves began sometime before 7 a.m. prior to when reporters were allowed in the Capitol and instructed to arrive.
The Tennessee state government will resume all forms of vaccine outreach, with the narrow exception of social media posts aimed specifically at children, after halting many forms of advocacy this month in response to conservative pressure, the state s top health official said Friday.
Tennessee also faces a new “surge” of coronavirus that shows no signs of slowing, and deaths from the virus are expected to spike in coming weeks, the health official warned.
Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said the Tennessee Department of Health will restart outreach efforts recommending vaccines for children and once again hold events on school property offering the COVID-19 vaccine, including some next week. Department staff are no longer instructed to strip the agency logo from public-facing vaccine information, she said.