The Tennessee Department of Health is suspending outreach for all types of childhood and adolescent vaccinations, the Tennessean reported this week. A

Fights over COVID-19 vaccines are spilling over to other types of shots

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2021-07-15 16:00:05

The Tennessee Department of Health is suspending outreach for all types of childhood and adolescent vaccinations, the Tennessean reported this week. Along with stopping COVID-19 vaccine events at schools, the department will no longer do outreach for the HPV vaccine, isn’t planning for flu shot clinics at schools, and is taking the department’s logo off of back-to-school vaccination information sheets. The shift in policy came after Republican lawmakers in the state got upset that the department was promoting COVID-19 shots for teenagers.

It’s a strong signal that the politicization and backlash around the COVID-19 shots, driven by conservative politicians and right-wing commentators, is spilling over to other types of vaccinations. It’s not the first time politics has impacted unrelated public health work during the pandemic — over a dozen states have proposed limiting public health powers as part of backlash to pandemic-related restrictions. But it’s the first time the target has been standard vaccines.

“It’s insane,” says Seth Kalichman, a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut who’s studied anti-vaxxers. “It’s exactly the kind of overgeneralization that can occur with misinformation.”