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Opinion | Tennessee is the butt of jokes, but not everyone is laughing | Richard Ransom

“You get what you get when you fire your top vaccine expert due to pressure based on misinformation.”

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In Thursday’s Ransom Note: from embarrassment to laughingstock.

That's what Tennessee's anti-vax policy has gotten us in the past 24 hours. The late night comedians couldn't help themselves, even suggesting new state slogans. Jimmy Fallon went with: “Tennessee: come for the music, stay for the polio.” Stephen Colbert offered up: “Tennessee: the last place you'll ever visit.”

You get what you get when you fire your top vaccine expert due to pressure based on misinformation. One state lawmaker after another keep making public statements showing they either don't know Tennessee vaccine policy, listen and share outright falsehoods about what's in the vaccines or the effects they can have. The misinformation problem in this country is so bad Thursday the U.S. Surgeon General called it a public health threat.

The facts are this: anyone who dies from COVID now didn't have to. But don't take my word for it. Listen to Angela Morris whose 13-year-old is on a ventilator with COVID and now wishes she'd ignored all the people saying the virus was just another form of the flu.

“I just want people to get their kids their shots. Everybody just needs to get the shot. It's a much better route than the one we're in,” Morris said.

Join the conversation by email (rransom@localmemphis.com), Facebook, or Twitter.

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