Tennessee’s former leading vaccine official, Michelle Fiscus, said that white, male, rural conservatives refuse the COVID-19 vaccine and are willing to risk the lives of others and themselves out of spite for the left. The former Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) Vaccine and Preventable Diseases and Immunization Program (VPDIP) director made these statements during an interview with PBS.
“But I think the other thing in Tennessee, and I think in a lot of our Southern states that’s happening, is this ideology that if you get this vaccine, you’re somehow placating to the left part of the political spectrum,” said Fiscus. “And so what we’re actually seeing is our most hesitant population in Tennessee is the white, male, rural conservatives, and that they are stating that they’re not going to get the vaccine really out of spite and are willing to put their own lives and the lives of the people that they love at risk because they feel that if they get the vaccine, then they have placated the left or done what the Biden Administration wants them to do.”
“Our most hesitant population in Tennessee is the white, male, rural conservatives…They feel that if they get the vaccine, then they have placated the left,” says Tennessee’s ousted vaccine chief, Dr. Michelle Fiscus. @hari @jasonbmartin @drfixus pic.twitter.com/NlAqOVMFk4
— Amanpour and Company (@AmanpourCoPBS) July 29, 2021
Fiscus was referring to a study published by TDH in April, as the TDH confirmed to The Tennessee Star. The portion of the study referenced by Fiscus had 96 participants, 75 of which were white. Sixteen were African-American, and 5 were Hispanic. The study didn’t specify how many of those participants were male or female, or how many were from urban, suburban, or rural areas.
Apart from “rural white conservatives,” the study grouped its respondents by no other political leanings in its first study. The second study included a brief graphic of moderate and liberal positions on vaccine hesitancy. Fiscus claimed this group was predominantly male, though the study didn’t elaborate. Fiscus also claimed that this group of people were refusing the vaccine out of spite for liberals and the Biden Administration – though the findings didn’t state that. Instead, the group shared that their hesitancy concerned the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.
As The Star reported earlier this month, TDH explained that Fiscus was fired due to inappropriate behavior – not for circulating information about the mature minor doctrine, as Fiscus had claimed.
– – –
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
