Statement from the Tennessee Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

The following is a statement from the Tennessee Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists:

“We have learned countless lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. One is the importance of listening to the scientists and public health officials who have worked tirelessly for the last year-and-a-half to help keep our communities safe, disseminate evidence-based information, and put infrastructures in place to end this pandemic. The attacks on these public health services and servants is disturbing, and they represent a developing and very concerning trend of putting politics before science in healthcare. 

“Another undisputable lesson we have learned is about the importance of community-wide acceptance of vaccination. As obstetrician-gynecologists, we have long recommended routine vaccination for our patients—whether it be the flu and Tdap vaccines during pregnancy or the human papillomavirus vaccine to protect our adolescent and young adult patients from cancers in the future. We also encourage all eligible people to choose to receive the COVID-19 vaccines, to protect them as individuals, to save lives, and to help our communities return to normal.

“We understand, along with our colleagues at the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, that vaccination is about using proven science to prevent disease in a safe, effective way and is the key to ending this deadly pandemic. It should be about evidence-based care and what is best for patients and communities. As obstetrician-gynecologists who live and work in Tennessee, we strongly urge our state policymakers to listen to the experts and to work together to encourage vaccination against COVID-19 and other preventable diseases.”

Additional Reading

Statement from Lee Savio Beers, MD, FAAP, President, American Academy of Pediatrics

Statement from the Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics