Ousted vaccine chief in Tennessee didn’t mail herself dog muzzle, Amazon says
A former top health official in charge of Tennessee’s vaccine rollout was accused of mailing herself a threatening package from Amazon that contained a dog muzzle.
Dr. Michelle Fiscus vehemently denied the accusations — with good reason, new evidence suggests.
The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, tasked with investigating the muzzle, previously determined it was bought with an American Express card in Fiscus’ name.
But a spokesperson for Amazon confirmed in a statement to McClatchy News on Thursday that an unauthorized person registered an account using Dr. Fiscus’ credit card. That fraudulent account was then used to purchase the muzzle, the spokesperson said.
Fiscus is the former medical director at the Tennessee Department of Health. She was fired in July after Republican lawmakers complained about her approach to vaccinating teenagers against COVID-19, the Associated Press reported.
In the days that followed, Fiscus appeared on national news outlets such as CNN and NBC News decrying her termination as politically motivated and disclosing that someone mailed her a silicon dog muzzle as a threat before she was fired.
“They obviously didn’t know me because they sent me a size three which is for beagles and I’m obviously a pit bull, which requires a size six,” she told CNN.
Fiscus made headlines again a month later when state officials released the results of their investigation into the muzzle. According to a memorandum detailing their findings, there were two Amazon accounts in Fiscus’ name — one she showed investigators and a second created in March 2021 used to buy the muzzle.
Both listed the same Amex card, and investigators concluded there was “no evidence to indicate that the dog muzzle was intended to threaten Dr. Fiscus.”
Fiscus denied purchasing the muzzle in a series of tweets, saying she was the one who asked Homeland Security to investigate and that a second Amazon account appeared to have been made in her name.
“No, I didn’t send it to myself,” she said.
Fiscus has since sued the commissioner and the chief medical officer at the Tennessee Department of Health for defamation, citing in-part statements they made regarding her termination and the results of the muzzle investigation.
Attorneys representing Fiscus said in the lawsuit she lost and canceled the Amex card more than a year before it was used to buy the muzzle.
“Unknown actors mailed the dog muzzle to Dr. Fiscus and did so in a strategic manner to make it seem as though Dr. Fiscus had ordered, paid for, and mailed the muzzle to herself, when she had not,” her attorneys said.
WSMV reported it obtained a screen grab of conversations between Fiscus and a representative from American Express that show the Amex card was reported as lost and was closed in 2020.
The Metro Nashville Police Department is investigating who sent the package, according to the lawsuit.
“The muzzle controversy was a further effort to discredit Dr. Fiscus and malign her reputation,” her attorneys said.
Fiscus and her attorneys did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health declined to comment on pending litigation, and a spokesperson for the Tennessee Office of Homeland Security said its prior investigation remains. He also confirmed there is an open criminal investigation by Nashville Police.
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Ousted vaccine chief in Tennessee didn’t mail herself dog muzzle, Amazon says."
