The Right Wing War on Vaccines
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 July 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s becoming harder to get all Americans vaccinated. While millions of people still get the shots each week, some conservatives are becoming more difficult to convince, and some politicians are increasingly hostile towards the public health departments tasked with helping fight COVID-19.
Guests: Michelle Fiscus, former medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, and Dan Diamond, health policy and politics reporter at The Washington Post.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, What Next listeners, this is Mary Harris. Before we start the episode today, I just wanted to give a shout out to our newest listeners. There have been a bunch of you over the last couple of weeks. If you like what you're hearing, please consider subscribing to us if you don't already. Just go over to What Next on whatever app you're listening on. You can leave us a review too. We love that. And I like hearing feedback from you guys too. So what are we doing well? What could we be doing better? What stories would you like to hear us cover? Email me at what next at slate.com. Okay, onto the show. |
| 0:39.3 | Thank you. |
| 0:40.3 | A reminder again, as I announced before we started, there is a sign-up sheet for the public. |
| 0:46.0 | It will be by the... |
| 0:47.6 | The best place to start the story of what happened to Dr. Michelle Fiscus is with the hearing. |
| 0:53.1 | First on our agenda is a presentation from the Department of Health. |
| 0:58.4 | Please come forward. |
| 0:59.9 | This is last month in Nashville, Tennessee, the state capital. |
| 1:03.9 | Dr. Fiscus isn't actually here, but her boss is, the head of the Department of Public Health. |
| 1:10.4 | Good afternoon, Chairman and members. Thank you for Public Health. Good afternoon, chairman, and members. |
| 1:13.4 | Thank you for having me. |
| 1:14.2 | I'm Lisa Pearsie. |
| 1:15.1 | Dr. Fiscus's boss is here to talk about Dr. Fiscus. |
| 1:19.5 | Specifically, this letter Dr. Fiscus sent out telling health providers who offer COVID vaccines |
| 1:24.9 | that they are legally allowed to give shots to some minors without their |
| 1:30.0 | parents' consent. Republican lawmakers were not thrilled with this legal interpretation. |
| 1:36.3 | But the commissioner of the Department of Health, she tries to explain why this rule and this |
| 1:41.2 | letter are really not a big deal. She explains how she had her staff |
| 1:45.8 | tracked down each and every kid who took advantage of this allowance at state vaccination sites. |
| 1:51.7 | And out of all of the sites, all 89 rural health departments, they came up with less than 10 |
| 1:59.2 | kids that had presented unaccompanied. |
| 2:02.7 | Five of them were there for services, some other kind of service. |
... |
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