[TheZookie007]

Meanwhile, in Florida:

US News & World Report: "FACT FOCUS: Florida Doctors Did Not Walk off the Job"
A news conference held by doctors in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to urge the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19 was undermined online as false reports claimed the physicians had walked off the job.

By JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK and ALI SWENSON, Associated Press

A news conference held by doctors in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to urge the public to get vaccinated amid a statewide surge of COVID-19 was undermined online as false reports claimed the physicians had walked off the job.

Doctors who participated in Monday's event told The Associated Press that they did not walk off the job or refuse to treat patients. The false claims, they said, have led to threats and harassment toward their colleagues and hospitals.

Here’s a closer look at the facts around this event.

CLAIM: A group of 75 doctors in Florida walked out of their jobs to protest the number of unvaccinated patients overwhelming the state’s hospitals.

THE FACTS: No, that’s not true. The news conference took place before office hours and was intended to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear masks, according to doctors who participated. It wasn’t a protest or walkout.

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” covered the news conference early Monday morning with a misleading on-screen caption: “SOUTH FLORIDA DOCTORS WALK OUT IN PROTEST.”

The network clarified on air Tuesday morning that doctors didn’t walk away from their jobs, but social media users and other news outlets had already picked up the language. Some criticized the doctors for allegedly withholding treatment.

“BREAKING REPORT: More Than 75 Doctors WALK OUT OF SOUTH FLORIDA HOSPITAL Rather Than Treat the Unvaccinated,” read one widely shared tweet.

Dr. Jennifer Buczyner, a neurologist who organized the news conference, said she was frustrated by the false assertion.

“This was a physician driven press conference to encourage our community to get vaccinated and talk about the impact this has had on our community,” Buczyner told the AP in an email.

Indeed, an email sent to doctors inviting them to participate did not use the words “protest” or “walkout.” Rather, the email, which was reviewed by the AP, urged local medical staff to attend a “Community ‘Get Vaccinated’ event” that would be covered by news media. It said the purpose of the event was to “encourage our community to get vaccinated and take this seriously.”

The event was held in the parking lot of a medical office and was organized by doctors, but included participation from the leadership and staff at a number of local hospitals. It came as Florida has seen more than 21,000 new COVID-19 cases being added per day in mid-August. There were 16,820 people hospitalized in Florida with the disease Tuesday, according to federal government figures, down from a record of more than 17,000 last week.

Buczyner, who is the stroke director for Jupiter Medical Center, said the news conference was over by 7:15 a.m., and she saw 25 patients afterward. She said some doctors came to the news conference after working 12-hour shifts or right before their shifts began.

Dr. Naveen Reddy, a gastroenterologist in Jupiter, Florida, said he attended the news conference and was on time to perform a 7:30 a.m. endoscopy afterward. “So there was not even a delay in care,” Reddy said. He said that he went on to see patients in his office, several more at a surgical center, and then visited two hospitals.

Shelly Weiss Friedberg, a public relations director at Tenet Healthcare, which operates Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, confirmed the news conference was not a hospital event or a walkout.

The doctors “held the event at 6 a.m. before office hours so it wouldn’t interfere with patient visits,” she said.

Buczyner said the mischaracterization of the event had diluted the news conference’s objective to encourage vaccinations and had led to harassment.

“The hospitals and our offices are receiving hate calls,” Buczyner said. “This was supposed to be a heartfelt positive message.”

MSNBC did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[rtpoe]

Now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full approval, what's your excuse?

(Love the Paper Cut Finder, by the way....)

[TheZookie007]

Now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full approval, what's your excuse?

(Love the Paper Cut Finder, by the way....)

Yes, I am waiting for their newest harebrained excuse/conspiracy theory to emerge...I am sure I shall not have to wait long either. 

[TheZookie007]

And right on cue:

"It's quite extraordinary, people who claim they don't want to be sheep are literally taking medications to de-worm sheep, horses, and cows, as a treatment for COVID. I mean how sad is it that Tractor Supply Company has to have warnings that these agents are not for human use?"

"The idiom 'Healthy As A Horse' does not mean one should literally take medicine for horses."

"We went from 'that isn’t fully tested and FDA approved' to 'my horse seems okay with this' really quickly."   

"Funny [that] the right calls everyone sheep and [yet] they're [the same ones] eating livestock meds by the truckload. Isn't irony fun?"

"Imagine [consuming] a neurotoxin, being on the point of death, being rushed to a hospital and not being admitted because they have their hands full treating CoVid-19 patients who had refused the vaccine... just sayin'."

[TheZookie007]

Now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full approval, what's your excuse?

Here's one!

[3deroticer]

I thought it was funny when one lady refer people as sheep in her evangelical faith system and not realize that Jesus refer to the believers as God's flock of sheep. Sheep are the people who believes not doubt.

[TheZookie007]

Yahoo! News: "Warnings About the Sturgis Rally Have Come Tragically True"

"In western South Dakota’s Meade County, more than one in three COVID-19 tests are currently returning positive, and over the last three weeks, seven-day average case counts have increased by 3,400 percent. This exponential growth in cases is likely attributable to the 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew an estimated half a million visitors to Meade County and its environs from Aug. 6 through 15, potentially acting as a superspreader event.

The pandemic is surging nationally, not just proximal to biker chaos in South Dakota. Defined in large part by the emergence of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the United States is experiencing its fourth surge of COVID-19 right now, and our nationwide case counts have increased by 64.4 percent over the last 21 days. (For more on our methodology, see our note at the bottom of this column.)

But while Southern states have been the main drivers of this surge thus far, the recent spike in cases in South Dakota warrants special concern.

The state more broadly has witnessed a 686.8 percent increase in daily case counts over the past three weeks, currently more than 10 times the nationwide rate. Meade County’s post-Sturgis uptick is certainly a contributor to this state-level increase, but neighboring counties have experienced a sharp incline in cases, too—ranging from a 1,900 percent increase in the past three weeks in Butte to a 1,050 percent increase in Lawrence."


___
Who could have seen this coming? Other than every human being with a pair of brain cells to rub together, I mean?

Just an unnecessary tragedy in the making.

[StrikezOne]

Well, there have been MANY developments with all things Covid. But first things first. The fake news Ivermectin story that even reached this forum:

The stupid.... I just can't.....

Ivermectin is a drug used to fight parasitic worms in livestock.

The Mississippi Poison Control Center has received an increasing number of calls from individuals with potential ivermectin exposure taken to treat or prevent COVID-19 infection. At least 70% of the recent calls have been related to ingestion of livestock or animal formulations of ivermectin purchased at livestock supply centers. 85% of the callers had mild symptoms, but one individual was instructed to seek further evaluation due to the amount of ivermectin reportedly ingested.

“Animal drugs are highly concentrated for large animals and can be highly toxic in humans,” the report said. “Some of the symptoms associated with ivermectin toxicity include rash, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, neurologic disorders, and potentially severe hepatitis requiring hospitalization.”

https://www.magnoliastatelive.com/2021/08/20/mississippi-poison-control-reports-increase-in-calls-related-to-ingestion-of-livestock-dewormer-ivermectin/

The truth is it was more like 2%, not 70%. AP themselves issued a correction.

Then there was that Rolling Stone story about gun shot victims waiting outside because Ivermectin overdoses filled up the hospital beds.... Yeah that was fake news as well.

And everyone ran with these stories to smear the use of Ivermectin to treat Covid, from late night pundits, to blue check marks on twitter. It seems people dont want there to be an alternative treatment to Covid because then the whole vaccine approval and usage wouldnt be necessary. Everyone is going to keep trying to blackout the use of Ivermectin and deny its efficacy. 

Oscar De La Hoya = fully vaccinated, ended up in the hospital.
Joe Rogan = not vaccinated, got better in 2 days taking Ivermectin.

The creator of Ivermectin was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for its use in humans.

[Cutter]

Where I work as of Monday, we begin daily screenings for C-19.

If you have not by now, get the damn shot so we can all get on with our lives. 

It's free.

[TheZookie007]

A reminder of actual science:

* antiparasitic drugs are ineffective against viruses;

* Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug; the type that certain people are making a run on to feed stores is not meant for human consumption, it's meant for horses;

* COVID-19, as can be told from its name, is a virus;

* instead of wasting money to buy a drug that's neither effective against the disease nor meant for human consumption, go to your local pharmacy and get any of the vaccines you like, for free.

Why make things so hard, when it's really so simple? 

[TheZookie007]

Speaking of people who should know better deliberately spreading misinformation:

A few days ago, noted epidemiologist and anaconda-wrangler Nicki Minaj made a number of tweets. The first few were actually quite reasonable:

"They want you to get vaccinated for the Met [Gala]. if I get vaccinated it won’t for the Met. It’ll be once I feel I’ve done enough research. I’m working on that now. In the meantime my loves, be safe. Wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face. Not that loose one 🙏♥️"

"Love u babe. I was prepping for [the MTV Video Music Awards telecast] then i shot a video & guess who got COVID? Do u know what it is not to be able to kiss or hold your tiny baby for over a week? A baby who is only used to his mama? “get vaccinated” Drake had just told me he got covid w|THE VACCINE tho so chile"

But then she started going off the rails with this one:

"My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied"

Nothing says "I know what I'm talking about" more like citing an unnamed cousin's friend's alleged swollen balls.

For the record: no one, ever, has suffered from swollen testicles due to receiving any COVID-19 vaccine. That is not how vaccines work. But plenty of men have contracted STDs that cause that to happen. So, if this alleged cousin's alleged friend actually exists, his fiancée dumped him for trying to lie about cheating on her.

And while vaccines against COVID-19 don't cause impotence in men or in women, catching COVID can cause erectile dysfunction.

Needless to say, actual scientists and health officials had to devote valuable time to debunking this bullshit.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, told Jake Tapper on CNN that while he didn't blame Minaj for repeating her cousin's story, the vaccine doesn't cause reproductive issues or testicular swelling: "There’s no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen."

The Honorable Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh, Minister of Health for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago wearily spoke publicly about how the country investigated Minaj's alleged cousin's friend's claim and, of course, found it to be false.

"Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim," Deyalsingh said in a video shared on Twitter on Wednesday. "As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad or, I dare say ... anywhere else in the world."

Needless to say, late-night comedians such as Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and Trevor Noah have been having a field day with this news item, but it has serious consequences. Tourism in Trinidad and Tobago has taken quite a hit due to the pandemic. So when one of the most famous people of Trinidadian descent spouts such nonsense on Twitter (where she has 22.7 million followers) there are bound to be some stupid people trying to hop on the crazy train with her.

[Cutter]

What shot did the cousin get is my question. 

It could have been a sperm booster which explains the reaction.

Also which vaccine shots are available in Trinidad?

[MaxBigfoot]

Finally got my first shot yesterday.  Pfizer-Biontech.  So far, no adverse reactions, just a little soreness in the shoulder I got shot in.

[TheZookie007]

What shot did the cousin get is my question. 

It could have been a sperm booster which explains the reaction.

Also which vaccine shots are available in Trinidad?

According to the Pan-American Health Organization and the COVID-19 Country Tracker: from AstraZeneca, from Johnson & Johnson, from Pfizer, and from SinoPharm.

And none of the vaccines is a sperm booster

[TheZookie007]

Finally got my first shot yesterday.  Pfizer-Biontech.  So far, no adverse reactions, just a little soreness in the shoulder I got shot in.

Did you take a couple of glasses of water about an hour before you got it? That should help reduce the post-vaccine soreness at the injection spot, especially when you take the second shot in two or three weeks.