Reporter with KFF Health News. Previously: The Tennessean, The Desert Sun and Pacific Daily News. Charisma is my dump stat. 615 218 8496, BrettK
@kff
.org
As many as one in 10 people have TMJ, and yet treatment is poor. Experts warn dentists do not understand TMJ, common treatments are not based on science, and patients are “often harmed” during care. Some never recover. By me,
@annawerner
&
@KFFHealthNews
.
I just voted. As I cast my ballot, I think of Guam, my former home, where about 150,000 Americans are denied this vote. Why? In 1901 the Supreme Court said Guam's “alien race” couldn’t comprehend “Anglo-Saxon principles.” It’s been 119 years, and this racism is still the law.
SCOOP: Tennessee Department of Health halts all vaccine outreach to kids – not just for COVID-19, but all diseases – amid pressure from GOP. Staff ordered to remove the agency logo from any documents providing vaccine info to the public, per internal dox.
In Tennessee, a small predominately Black town is poised to get a huge economic boost from the construction of a big Ford factory. Then the state government gave them an ultimatum: dissolve your town charter, or we will seize control of your finances.
BREAKING: Tennessee will resume nearly all forms of adolescent vaccine advocacy, per state health commissioner. Lots of vaccine outreach was halted this month due to GOP political pressure, prompting a media firestorm. We will publish a story as soon as I, you know, write it.
The agency will also end all COVID-19 vaccine events at schools, even though they've mostly served adults. And, if teens get a two-dose vaccine, it won't remind them to go back for their second dose. Teens are intentionally stripped from the mailing list for reminder postcards.
#BREAKING
Tennessee health officials overcounted active coronavirus infections by 13,800 cases, inadvertently inflating the size of the outbreak for months. Then they tried to fix it without telling anyone.
Today, The
@Tennessean
published one of the strangest stories of my career. Actually, the article itself isn't that weird, but the story behind the story is bonkers. This is a thread. Here we go. 1/
Tennessee just fired its top vaccine official. On the way out, she dropped a 1200+ word statement torching government leaders and lawmakers for politicizing the coronavirus vaccine. You can read the whole thing here.
Also, there is a lesson here for young journalists: Don’t dismiss the weirdos and SAVE YOUR NOTES. I was only able to write this story because I went to Bill's house in 2015 and still had my notes from our interview years ago.
@Poynter
Tennessee, I am begging you to care about this. This man, paid by your taxes, boasts about beating kids, treating them like murderers and locking them alone in cells for days. If we are too jaded to react to this, we have failed as a state and a society.
Other journalists have published good articles on this case over the past few years, but nobody has the details in the story we published this morning. I’d be honored if you read it.
The Tennessee state government now recommends vaccinated residents be denied access to monoclonal antibody treatment to preserve supplies for those who are unwilling to get vaccinated and remain most vulnerable by their own choice. A new story from me:
In other words, if you took the responsible step of vaccination to slow the pandemic and protect yourself and others, it may now actually disqualify you from getting one of the most effective treatments for the virus. If you did nothing, you can still get the care.
Tennessee has a dumb rule that you have to have an in-state address to access public records. This should not be. In light of this, I will help any out-of-state journalist circumvent this rule by co-signing your request. Competing publication? Don’t care. Let’s do this.
This new recommendation is a result of the feds capping supplies of antibody drugs. They did it because a few poorly-vaccinated southern states, including Tennessee, were using most the nation's supply.
Who loses out as a result? The vaccinated.
In Nashville remarks, first lady Jill Biden mentions the very low vaccination rate in Tennessee.
The crowd winces, then boos.
“Well,” she says, “you are booing yourselves.”
Crowd laughs.
BREAKING: Tennessee’s top medical licensing board just voted to delete a COVID-19 anti-misinformation policy from its website due to fears a GOP lawmaker would push to dissolve the entire board and replace all its members if it did not. Story to come.
To be clear, the state's recommendation is based on guidelines from the National Institutes of Health. A Vanderbilt expert told me this is the right choice to do the most good in a bad situation.
I think the salient question is this: Could we have avoided this bad situation?
Tennessee once texted 32,000 families to encourage teens to get vaccinated. Two days later, GOP lawmakers pressured the state to stop outreach to teens … and it did. Internal documents show the reversal was more sudden and dramatic than we knew. From me:
Five little monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said “While this may be a telemedicine visit, you will still be charged a hospital facility fee of several hundred dollars.”
I have some personal news. After 15 years of reporting at three Gannett newspapers, including the past 4 years at The Tennessean, I’m moving on to something new. Next week is my last in this job. I'm joining Kaiser Health News as an investigative reporter on March 1.
BREAKING: The Tennessee state government just fired its head vaccine official. She says she was scapegoated to appease Republican lawmakers who were angry about routine efforts to vaccinate minors. Scoop from me.
The state of Florida now has the 41st highest covid rate in the country. Cases are down 57% in the past 14 days without a mask mandate or vaccine mandates. Just sharing the data since most in the media won’t.
Tennessee Sen. Joey Hensley, a small-town doctor and staunchly conservative lawmaker, admitted through an attorney today that he prescribed opioids to an employee, his lover and his second cousin.
That’s not three separate people. It’s one.
I just lost my 401K match for the rest of the year, so the next troll who tells me "The media loves the coronavirus" is gonna get blocked and then unblocked just so I can block them again.
By now, Bill’s whistleblower lawsuit is unsealed. It shows he communicated with the feds about the creams I saw in his home office back in 2015. A federal investigation into the conspiracy began 3 weeks after he handed over the creams to NCIS. Bill was right. It was true.
As of today, four people have pleaded guilty in this cream case – two doctors, a nurse practitioner and an ex-Marine. Three more suspects have been charged. More indictments are likely. The feds are also trying to seize property in East Tennessee, including this mansion estate.
One last thing I should add: As my story stays, the state's recommendation does not include vaccinated people who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed. They would still qualify for monoclonal antibody therapy.
Over the past week, 11% of new COVID-19 infections in Tennessee are among children age 10 and under. This statistic has never been this high before. And I don't think we are seeing the full effect of kids going back to school yet.
They can't get vaccinated. But you can.
Tennessee is reporting an average of 2,325 COVID-19 infections per day, up 938% since July 1. Deaths per day up from 3 to 10. Average positivity rate up from 2.7% to 14.8%. The last time we had an average rate this high was January, near the worst of it. This is very bad.
Today, at the Pride Festival, I met a man attending his first-ever pride event. He was supporting his daughter, who came out this year. First, he tried to change her. Then he changed himself. He held back tears as he spoke. I held back tears as I listened. Happy Pride, Nashville.
Today, The
@Tennessean
published an investigation in which I identify dozens of links between known coronavirus clusters in Nashville through an analysis of contact tracing data. This is my most complex journalism of 2020. And this is a thread. 1/
Over the past five years, more than half of American adults have gone into debt due to medical or dental bills. Remarkable reporting by
@NoamLevey
on a broken system that is stripping this nation for parts.
I'm seeing replies to this saying that Ford should step in and stop this. While that may seem unlikely, the company has thrown its weight around in Tennessee politics before. When Ford said jump, Tennessee jumped.
It is worth noting Tennessee lawmakers spent days crafting bills to weaken COVID-19 regulations without any testimony from doctors or small business owners, but when they get a worried text from Ford on Friday night, bills start getting amended right away.
Tennessee officials are backing off efforts to vaccinate teens against COVID-19 amid pressure from Republican lawmakers, per internal emails. The health dept also deleted a pro-vaccine Facebook post and digital flyer that featured teens. Scoop from me.
Lonnie Norman, the mayor of Manchester, Tenn., a small town where Bonnaroo is held, has died from the coronavirus, according to
@WPLN
citing local radio journalists.
I read everything I can find about her case. It turns out Susan Vergot and another doctor, Carl Lindblad, prescribed needless pain cream to California Marines to defraud a military insurance program called Tricare.
The Tennessee legislature is barring journalists from
@TNLookout
from the House floor. I am disappointed but not surprised. The Lookout does some of the best accountability journalism in the state, and if I was one of these politicians, I would be terrified of them too.
The Lookout was denied access to the House floor, something we've regularly had access to in the past, including during the special session held four months ago. Neither
@stockard_sam
nor I was on the "approved" list.
I start reading all our old health stories, studying my new home and my new beat. One night, I come across a short, forgettable story about two doctors at an East Tennessee clinic who confessed to defrauding the military with pain cream.
#BREAKING
Every current Meharry Medical College student will be eligible for a $100,000 scholarship thanks to a $34M donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies, announced this morning. Details to come later today.
Federal prosecutions just submitted 3,810 fully redacted pages in a health care fraud case I'm watching. If I accidentally hit print, a new black hole will form.
It is now 2018. After years of covering cops in the California desert, I got a new job as the health care reporter at The Tennessean in Nashville. I'm out of my element and I'm scared. I decide to work twice as hard so no one will notice.
Tennessee has surpassed 29,000 COVID-19 deaths, per the latest CDC data. We have the 7th highest death rate among all U.S. states and territories. If we were a nation of our own, we would be reporting the 8th worst death rate in the world.
Tennessee has surpassed 28,000 deaths from COVID-19, per the latest CDC data. We remain tied for the 6th highest death rate among all U.S. states and territories. If we were a nation of our own, we would be reporting the 9th worst death rate in the world.
Tennessee has 26 counties that have detected coronavirus. It also has at least 20 counties that have no hospital, largely because we lead the nation in rural hospital closures. For the moment, there is no overlap between these two groups. That seems unlikely to last.
Then Bill says something that sticks with me. The Tennessee doctor is named Susy. He says this twice: “Who has ever heard of a doctor named Susy?” I’m insulted. My mother, a bad ass who could do anything, is named Susan.
Vice President Mike Pence says "only in America" could a COVID-19 vaccine be created in under a year, describing a vaccine that was co-developed by a German company and is already approved for use in the UK.
Virtually every public health expert predicted prior to Thanksgiving we would face a huge COVID-19 surge after the holiday.
Today, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said the state now faces a post-Thanksgiving surge "we couldn't have imagined … or we certainly didn't want to imagine."
I have been covering coronavirus exclusively for three-and-a-half months and there are more masks use at this Nashville BLM protest than any event or gathering I’ve seen, hands down.
Tennessee's test positivity rate over the past week was 34%. That means that, of all the tests we know about, one in every three was positive. We have never seen stats like this before and they show no signs of slowing.
Get vaxxed. Get boosted. Buckle up.
Tennessee is now averaging 47 new coronavirus hospitalizations per day, the most ever. This is the most compelling sign the outbreak is worsening. Some may dismiss increased cases as merely the result of more testing, but tests don't put people in the hospital. The virus does.
Like many of you, I am appalled by the reprehensible ad that published today. As a reporter, I have no involvement in advertisements and learn about them when they publish, like readers do. As a Nashvillian, I want an explanation.
Tennessee may no longer release daily COVID-19 data, but I can still pull some stats from the CDC. The state reported 17,684 new infections and 37 deaths yesterday. That's our highest single-day infection total ever, and it doesn't include the results of countless at-home tests.
Dear
@Gannett
: I’ve worked for you for 11 years. We do important journalism in many great communities that depend on us. Through thick and thin, I have loved this job. Please don’t sell to these hedge-fund vampires.
Driving back to Nashville, listening as a talk radio host posits that COVID-19 must have been designed in a lab because it gave him diarrhea so bad he could not attend the Jan. 6 riots. It’s been a hell of a year.
So … let me get this straight.
Nashville schools: We require masks.
Doctors: Good, you should.
Governor: No, you can't.
Schools: We will anyway.
District attorney: I'll allow it.
GOP lawmakers: We won't allow it.
Feds: We suggest you allow it.
Governor: I won't not allow it.
Bill tells me a story. He says he stumbled upon a conspiracy where doctors in Tennessee are prescribing bullshit pain/scar cream to Marines in California. He thinks the goal is to defraud the government. Bill says he is working with the feds to catch these people.
I drive to Bill’s house. His home office is a wild mess – weird electronics and case files and shotgun shells are scattered across his desk. I can’t remember if he had a claymore or if that was Ron Swanson. Maybe both.
Nashville General Hospital paid a consultant $850 dollars an hour to determine if it should pay its CEO as much as $900,000 a year, affirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that I went into the wrong profession.
It is worth noting Tennessee lawmakers spent days crafting bills to weaken COVID-19 regulations without any testimony from doctors or small business owners, but when they get a worried text from Ford on Friday night, bills start getting amended right away.
Tennessee has the most COVID-19 infections of all U.S. states, adjusted for population, both in the past week AND over the length of the entire pandemic, per
@nytimes
analysis of federal virus data.
My first month at The Tennessean some news broke about Miranda Lambert and in the middle of the newsroom I said “Who the hell is Miranda Lambert?” and there were actual gasps.
1. Charter school wants to open in Tennessee.
2. Application denied, school seems too profit driven.
3. Charter executives give governor's campaign $43K.
4. Charter school Oked to open in Tennessee.
Great reporting by
@friedmanadam5
and
@TNLookout
.
I've obtained some new internal COVID-19 documents from inside the Tennessee Department of Health. According to these records, the agency predicts at our current pace it will be March 2022 before 50% of Tennesseans are fully vaccinated. That's not good.
Tennessee told the family of a disabled man, who was on TennCare for 31 years, that he no longer qualified. As his parents tried to protect his insurance, he died of pneumonia. Then the state said it was an error. Medicaid horror from
@KFFHealthNews
:
Tennessee reported 19,593 new COVID-19 infections and 29 more deaths to the CDC yesterday. That's our highest single-day total ever, and it obviously does not include countless at-home tests that are never reported to state officials.
I began this reporting four years ago at another newspaper 1,900 miles away. In 2015, I was working at
@MyDesert
in Palm Springs, California. It was a few days before I took a vacation. A private eye I knew – Bill – called me. He said he found something big. It felt clandestine.
I liked Bill, but I didn’t exactly trust him. He was a long-winded 70-something curmudgeon with a gravely voice who always told stories about his own greatness. (We have that in common.). With Bill, it was hard to tell truth from a boast. But I was so intrigued.
In the dead of the night, Tennessee’s Republican lawmakers passed a big COVID-19 bill limiting when schools and governments can require masks. At a glance, it is hard to tell how restrictive the bill is. So I did the math. Short answer? VERY. A quick thread, article at the end.
I don’t buy it. I think Bill either discovered nothing or inflated his role in a small investigation. But I interview him just in case. Proof, he says, will come from a whistleblower lawsuit, but suit will be sealed for a while. I have to believe him, he says. I don't.
Tennessee is not only leading the nation in all-time COVID-19 infections — our lead is growing.
Two days ago, we were ahead of the
#2
state, North Dakota, by 35 infections per 100K people.
Now we are up by 758.
Just to be totally clear, this is not a contest we want to win.
I just watched four Tennessee pastors urge school boards to openly defy the governor by requiring masks, which was likened to the civil disobedience used to integrate American schools. We live in interesting and terrifying times. Then again, many of us always have.
Bill hands me a tube of prescription skin cream. (It looks like the blue creams in this photo.) I notice the name on the tube is not Bill. This is someone else's medicine. Bill says the cream is worth thousands of dollars. I roll my eyes.
As Gannett once again lays off many journalists today, I propose an alternative. Stop wasting $7.5 million on a CEO. Instead, hire me for just 120K. This saves the company enough money to retain 100+ journalists. I will also immediately resign, saving two more jobs. DMs open.
I thank Bill and leave. I go on vacation to attend the wedding of one of my best friends. We are drunk and merry. I forget all about the pain cream. I go back to work and focus on other stories.
Tennessee reports 41 more COVID-19 deaths today, the worst single-day death toll since March 24. The state's weekly positivity rate is now 16%+, the highest since mid-January, back when the outbreak was very bad.
Get vaccinated. Please. We can stop this.
Republicans said the health officials were “peer pressuring” kids to get vaccinated. So officials deleted a digital flyer it used to recommend vaccinations.
You may ask yourself: How pushy was the flyer?
This is it.