Tennessee's former top vaccine official has settled a lawsuit against two high-ranking individuals from the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), but it still needs to be approved by state officials.
Governor Bill Lee announced on Thursday that Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey will depart from state government May 31 and enter the private sector.
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In the state’s vaccination plan, Tennessee prisoners are one of the last groups to get the vaccine. They’re ahead of young, healthy people, but behind every other priority group, like the elderly, medical professionals and the people who staff the prisons they live in.
Credit Tennessee Department of Health
But some prisoners are now going to be eligible sooner. State health commissioner Lisa Piercey says those who fit the current requirements for phase 1c can now get the vaccine, too.
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“Think about how many people that are incarcerated right now qualify as of today, 65-plus or a host of medical conditions,” she says. “Unfortunately, we know that incarcerated people are more likely to have health conditions, chronic health conditions, for a lot of different reasons. And so those people are in phase today.”
A state health official said no harm will come to Shelby Countians who received an expired COVID-19 vaccine from the Shelby County Health Department, though.