Health Freedom Alabama to Scott Harris: GET OUT

Guest Opinion by Stephanie Durnin, Director, Health Freedom Alabama

Editor’s note: Recently, Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama’s State Health Officer, took part in an American Public Health Association panel entitled “Together Towards Better Health: The Future of Public Health.” The panel featured Health Officers from New York, Minnesota, California and Georgia, in addition to Alabama, and was moderated by Dr. Debra Houry. Until last August, Dr. Houry worked at the Centers for Disease Control as Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science, before resigning over conflicts with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his stance on vaccination.

During the panel, Dr. Harris opined on public health officials working with religious and faith – based organizations to carry out their mission of public health.

“Coming from a southern red State that's mostly rural, the faith communities are the natural allies for us,” Harris said. “And sometimes, we're a government agency, and this is a religious organization, and we get a little uncertain of our footing sometimes, and so on. But these are the hearts of most of our rural communities, at least in my State.

“And those are the people who really are the trusted messengers. They're the messengers. And so, finding more opportunities to work with them closely over things that no one can disagree on. Good nutrition and keeping kids healthy for school, and making sure women can deliver their babies safely, and there's no disagreement over any of those things. They're really natural allies that we need to work with even more than we do.”

ALPolitics.com reached out to several local organizations for their response to Dr. Harris’ remarks.

Health Freedom Alabama’s response is below:

This week, Alabama’s State Health Officer went before a national audience and called our churches his “natural allies.” He called our pastors “trusted messengers.” He announced he wants their help selling his department’s agenda to the people of this state.

We have one question for him: HOW DARE YOU?!

Natural allies? In 2020, Scott Harris treated Alabama’s churches like a contagion. His orders emptied our sanctuaries. Grandparents died without their church family at their side. Christians were told that gathering to worship God was a danger to public health, while the liquor stores and big-box chains stayed open.

That is how Scott Harris treated his “natural allies.”

Now the trust is gone. Alabamians have stopped listening to him, and he knows it. So what does he do? He comes crawling back to the very churches he locked, hat in hand, hoping to borrow the credibility of our pastors because he has none of his own left.

Not a chance. The pulpits of Alabama belong to God and His people. They do not belong to a bureaucrat who closed them, and they will never be a megaphone for his agenda.

And where did he go to unveil this scheme? To the people of Alabama? To a single Alabama pastor? Of course not. He went to a panel stacked with public health officials from California, New York, Minnesota, and Georgia, moderated by a former CDC official who walked out rather than serve under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

That is his crowd. That is his tribe. Those are the people whose applause he craves.

Scott Harris was appointed to serve Alabama. Instead, he spends his time auditioning for the national public health establishment, the same establishment that brought this country lockdowns, mandates, and the destruction of public trust.

Look at what he has cost us:

• He closed our churches.
• He shut down our businesses and stood silent while Alabama workers were told to take a shot or lose their jobs.
• He blocked and discouraged treatments that Alabama doctors and patients wanted to try. One answer was allowed, and it was his.
• His department poured more than $18.6 million of our money into vaccine advertising from 2019 to 2024. We know because Health Freedom Alabama dragged those records into the light. That is your money, spent to sell you a product you never asked for.
• A state report found his department approved nearly $28 million in poorly documented COVID vaccine grant spending. Nearly twenty-eight million dollars, and they cannot properly account for it.

Anywhere in the private sector, that record gets you fired. In Scott Harris’s world, it gets you a national stage, a seat among his blue-state friends, and a plan to take over our pulpits.

THIS ENDS NOW.

Scott Harris must be fired. His department must be investigated from top to bottom, every contract, every grant, every dollar. If any law was broken, he must be held to account, the same as any other Alabamian would be.

We call on Governor-elect Tommy Tuberville and every member of the Alabama Legislature: use every tool you have and remove him ON DAY ONE.

If Scott Harris is still warming that chair one second after Governor Tuberville takes the oath of office, the people of Alabama will be rightfully furious.

Dr. Harris has made it abundantly clear where his heart lies. It isn’t in Alabama. It’s with California, New York, and the rest of the mandate crowd. So let him go there. Let him retire somewhere his lockdowns are celebrated, his mandates are welcomed, and people still line up to comply.

Alabama is finished complying.

Pack your bags, Dr. Harris. Alabama is done with you. GET OUT.

Stephanie Durnin
Director, Health Freedom Alabama

Health Freedom Alabama was formed during the 2021 legislative session, when a grassroots coalition pushed to ban vaccine passports in Alabama. That effort led to passage of SB267, which was signed into law on May 24, 2021.

Since then, the group has focused on protecting parental rights and medical choice in Alabama. HFA works to educate and equip citizens while partnering with Dtate lawmakers to defend what it calls fundamental health freedoms. Citing the State motto, “We Dare Defend Our Rights,” the organization says it remains active in the legislative process and committed to guarding against government-mandated medical policies.

The full panel discussion, “Together Towards Better Health: The Future of Public Health,” may be seen on Vimeo and below. Dr. Harris’ statements on working with faith organizations begins at ~46:00.