Investigation finds ex-Tennessee vaccine official bought ‘threatening package’ that was sent to her

An investigation right into a canine muzzle allegedly mailed to a former vaccine supervisor’s Tennessee residence as a type of intimidation was closed Monday after it was revealed that the muzzle was bought with her personal bank card.

Dr. Michelle Fiscus, a pediatrician, was terminated in July as Tennessee’s medical director of vaccine-preventable ailments and immunization, after she printed a memo advocating for minors to get hold of medical care with out their dad and mom’ permission.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper had Fiscus on 360 to discuss in regards to the “dog muzzle.” On the present, Fiscus quipped that whoever sent her the canine muzzle “obviously didn’t know” her, as a result of the muzzle that was sent was “a size 3 which is for Beagles and,” Fiscus stated, she’s “obviously a Pitbull.”

Fiscus had described her termination as a political transfer by Republican officers searching for retribution towards her. She instructed investigators that the muzzle was a risk intoning that she ought to “stop talking about vaccinating people.”

But According to the well being division, Fiscus was fired for awful interpersonal communication abilities, poor administration and trying to direct state funds to a nonprofit she based.

Fiscus and her husband had claimed in a number of interviews that the muzzle was sent anonymously to her state workplace earlier than her termination.

But an investigation by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security found that the muzzle was bought from Fiscus’ personal American Express bank card, in accordance to Axios.

Fiscus had falsely claimed to have obtained the muzzle as a risk every week earlier than her termination and denied the veracity of the report on Monday in a tweet, “Hold tight. No, I didn’t send it to myself.”

In an announcement, Fiscus stated she “requested that Homeland Security obtain a subpoena as Amazon refused to release details of the account that ordered the muzzle that was delivered to my office on July 3, 2021.”

“We have now learned that a second Amazon account had been established under my name,” Fiscus’ assertion continued, “using what appears to be a temporary phone, possibly in Washington state. I have asked Homeland Security for the unredacted report so that I can investigate further and am awaiting their response.”

The TDOSHS subpoenaed Amazon data and found two accounts within the official’s identify, one which Fiscus allowed the company to evaluation and one other which was used to buy the muzzle. Fiscus is now claiming that the second account related to her was fabricated by another person in an elaborate plot to ship her a canine muzzle and basically body her for sending it to herself.

According to the report, the American Express card used as cost on the account was a match for the primary American Express card that was used to buy the muzzle on the second Amazon account which was in Fiscus’s identify.

“Based on the information provided to us by Amazon via subpoena, and on information derived from interviews, there is no evidence to indicate that the dog muzzle was intended to threaten Dr. Fiscus,” the report reads.

The report concluded, “The results of this investigation indicate that purchases from both Amazon accounts were charged to the same American Express credit card in the name of Dr. Michelle D. Fiscus. At this time, there appears to be no threat toward Dr. Fiscus associated with receipt of the dog muzzle.”