Ex-vaccine chief Michelle Fiscus sues for defamation
Dr. Michelle Fiscus, a former state vaccine official who became a vocal critic of Tennessee’s conservative leadership and its handling of the coronavirus, claims in a new lawsuit she was targeted by an organized effort to defame and discredit her.
Fiscus, who was fired in July, alleges that state officials intentionally released false information about her job performance in an “intentional effort to stigmatize” her.
Separately, Fiscus said she was mailed a dog muzzle by an unknown person in a manner designed to make it appear she had sent the muzzle to herself. The muzzle was actually purchased on an Amazon account that someone set up in her name, using a credit card she reported lost more than a year beforehand, Fiscus claims in her lawsuit.
She also alleges state law enforcement did not follow through on an investigation that could reveal the muzzle’s true sender.
“I did not order this muzzle from Amazon, and I do not know who ordered the muzzle from Amazon,” Fiscus wrote in sworn declaration, filed in federal court under penalty of perjury.
Ficsus’ lawsuit, filed Thursday against the top two officials in the Tennessee Department of Health, is the latest development in a high-profile scandal that spans her abrupt firing, state lawmakers pressuring public health officials and Tennessee’s overall vaccination strategy.
The lawsuit alleges Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey and her second-in-command, Dr. Tim Jones, released a false and defamatory memo that damaged her “standing and associations in the community” and made it harder for her to find a new job.
The suit includes documents showing the agency denied Fiscus a hearing with the potential to clear her name and attempted to charge her about $654,000 in public records fees to access emails and text messages sent by department leaders in the three months surrounding her firing.
Health department spokesperson Sarah Tanksley said the agency would not comment on the lawsuit.
Fiscus, 52, who was formerly a pediatrician in Williamson County, served as the top vaccine official in the state health department throughout much of the coronavirus pandemic. She was fired on July 12 as the department, under pressure from conservative lawmakers, dramatically scaled back its efforts to promote the coronavirus vaccine – and any other vaccines – to teenagers.
In the hours after she was fired, Fiscus released a 1,200-word statement that accused the health department of scapegoating her to appease lawmakers who “bought into the anti-vaccine misinformation campaign.” After The Tennessean reported Fiscus’ termination, she launched into a national media spotlight, criticizing the state government in interviews with The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC, among others.
Days later, the health department released some documents from Fiscus’ personnel file to journalists. Those documents included a copy of a memo, dated July 9, sent from Jones to Piercey that painted Fiscus as a poor manager and recommended she be fired.
Much of Fiscus’ lawsuit focuses directly on this memo. In the suit, Fiscus said she hadn’t seen the memo before it was released to the press and that it contained numerous false statements about her job performance.
For example, the memo said Fiscus attempted to funnel state money to an unnamed nonprofit organization she founded and led, which was described as a “substantial conflict of interest.” In her lawsuit, Fiscus identifies that nonprofit as ImmunizeTN, a pro-vaccine organization.
“The charge that Dr. Fiscus had a ‘substantial conflict of interest’ with ImmunizeTN was completely false,” the lawsuit states, “as Dr. Fiscus has no financial interest in ImmunizeTN; is not on the board of directors; is not on the payroll; and serves only in an ex-officio advisory capacity to the board.”
The termination memo also criticized Fiscus for a May letter she sent to vaccine providers about the mature minor doctrine, a longstanding legal tenet that allows vaccines to be given to Tennessee children above the age of 14 without consent from their parents. The letter angered some vaccine-hesitant parents and infuriated conservative lawmakers, who publicly criticized Fiscus by name.
The termination memo said Fiscus did not review the letter with department legal counsel and included “her own interpretation” of the doctrine. In her lawsuit, Fiscus said the language in the letter was provided directly by the department’s attorney and is the same language on the department website.
In the days before she was fired by the health department, Fiscus received an anonymous Amazon package containing a black dog muzzle.
She reported the muzzle to one of her department colleagues, who in turn alerted the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security out of concern the muzzle was a threat.
Weeks later, the agency closed its investigation and released a report pointing back at Fiscus. The report said Fiscus gave investigators access to her Amazon account, which showed no signs of the muzzle being ordered, but a subpoena to Amazon revealed the muzzle came from a second account, also in Fiscus’ name. The muzzle was bought with a credit card that was “an exact number match” for the card on Fiscus’ account, the report stated.
What the report didn’t say, however, was that it was not actually the same card, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states the card that bought the muzzle was actually lost and canceled by Fiscus more than a year earlier. The card could still be used on Amazon because it was previously approved for recurring charges, Fiscus wrote in her sworn declaration.
Fiscus recently reported the muzzle to the Nashville police, which is conducting another investigation into the sender. She told The Tennessean last month she wanted the case to be investigated by a law enforcement agency unaffiliated with the state government.