Both the Hamilton County Health Department and the city of Chattanooga are continuing to advocate for childhood vaccinations, including the COVID-19 vaccine, despite the Tennessee Department of Health’s recent decision to halt all youth vaccine outreach and fire its immunization programs director amid political pressure.
In a Monday email, the Tennessee Department of Health’s chief medical officer instructed county-level staff to conduct “no proactive outreach regarding routine vaccines” and to strip the state’s logo from any vaccine-related materials, according to a news article in The Tennessean of Nashville.
Routine childhood vaccines protect youth and their peers against 16 different preventable diseases that can be serious or even deadly, such as measles, mumps, tetanus, pertussis and polio. Promoting such vaccines has long been a key mission of the department.
In April, the Tennessee Department of Health issued a news release urging parents to get their kids caught up on their routine vaccines and checkups, stating that “there are thousands of children in Tennessee who are behind on vaccinations because of the pandemic.”
“It is critical that all children are up-to-date with their childhood vaccinations so they are protected and so that Tennessee avoids additional disease outbreaks,” Dr. Lisa Piercey, state health commissioner, stated in the release.