COVIDiots

[GoCubsGo]

I didn't either, though perhaps we should have. Rather, I was suspicious of “ovid” only. I know 'ovine' but had never heard that its synonym is “ovid”. So, I googled 'ovid sheep' and the fact check appeared at the top of the page.

There's nothing too stupid or too trivial for the internet.

[GoCubsGo]

I hear ivermectin is a cure for erectile dysfunction also.


Many people have said it.

Doctors who touted ivermectin as covid fix now pushing it for flu, RSV

[GoCubsGo]

He didn't make the last furlong.

[billy.pilgrim]

He didn't make the last furlong.

He's repairing the gene pool
Creating jobs
Not voting GQP
No longer striping store shelves of food
Not stress the supply line

Thanks trump

[Vrede too]

He didn't make the last furlong.

https://mobile.twitter.com/williamlegat ... 5816397825

He's repairing the gene pool
Creating jobs
Not voting GQP
No longer stripping store shelves of food
Not stressing the supply line

Thanks trump

Good call. 50 years old, unmarried (I wonder why?) and childless.
https://www.echovita.com/us/obituaries/ ... i-16080085
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2023/03/14/w ... e-effects/

[Vrede too]

(Novakaren) Djokovic to miss Miami Open over vaccine status

Novak Djokovic will miss next week's Miami Open after being denied an exemption that would have allowed him to enter the U.S. despite not being vaccinated against COVID-19, tournament director James Blake said Friday....

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott were among those calling on the Biden administration to allow Djokovic to enter the U.S. and compete at the tournament he has won six times, most recently in 2016.

Political and epidemiological impotence, no 'little blue pill' for that.

Djokovic, 35, is also missing the ongoing Masters tournament in Indian Wells, California, due to his inability to secure the exemption.

Not many tourney wins left in him at that age.

The U.S. currently bars unvaccinated foreigners from entry into the country, a policy that is expected to be lifted when the government ends its COVID-19 emergency declarations May 11.

Missed it by thaaat much.

... Djokovic, who missed last year's Australian Open after being deported from that country because of his vaccination status, has said he would skip Grand Slams rather than receive a COVID-19 shot.

He won his record-tying 22nd Grand Slam at the Australian Open in January. He has not played at Indian Wells or the Miami Open since 2019....

COVIDiot.

[O Really]

Expressions such as "cut off nose to spite face", "step on his own dick", "hoist by his own petard" come to mind.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/tennis ... 1e22&ei=21

[Vrede too]

David Crosby and Stephen Stills Ask to Remove Their Music From Spotify — Including Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Albums

David Crosby and Stephen Stills have joined Neil Young and Graham Nash in asking their labels to remove their collective recordings from Spotify.

According to the announcement, in support of stopping harmful misinformation about Covid-19 on Joe Rogan’s Spotify-hosted podcast, the musicians have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby-Nash, as well as Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects. Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings....

Sounds like David Crosby was likely vaxxed. Regardless:

David Crosby died during battle with COVID-19, according to Graham Nash

[Vrede too]

Florida surgeon general altered key findings in study on Covid-19 vaccine safety

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a state-driven study about Covid-19 vaccines last year to suggest that some doses pose a significantly higher health risk for young men than had been established by the broader medical community, according to a newly obtained document.

Ladapo's changes, released as part of a public records request, presented the risks of cardiac death to be more severe than previous versions of the study. He later used the final document in October to bolster disputed claims that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were dangerous to young men.

The surgeon general, a well-known Covid-19 vaccine skeptic, faced a backlash from the medical community after he made the assertions, which go against guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Pediatrics. But Ladapo’s statements aligned well with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stance against mandatory Covid-19 vaccination....

Ladapo should have lost his medical license 2 years ago, and absolutely should over this indefensible revelation. However, it's Florida, the Medical Board is probably as corrupt as Ladapo, Fascist DerSantis and the FL Leg. Maybe there are other actions that the feds can take.

IF there is someone who lost an unvaccinated loved one that didn't get a vaccine because of this falsified report, they should sue Ladapo, DeSantis and the state of Florida. I'm not in favor of a lot of lawsuits but sometimes it is the best way to make a point. Politicians and their minions seem to think they can say and do whatever they want.

[GoCubsGo]

Florida surgeon general altered key findings in study on Covid-19 vaccine safety

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a state-driven study about Covid-19 vaccines last year to suggest that some doses pose a significantly higher health risk for young men than had been established by the broader medical community, according to a newly obtained document.

Ladapo's changes, released as part of a public records request, presented the risks of cardiac death to be more severe than previous versions of the study. He later used the final document in October to bolster disputed claims that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were dangerous to young men.

The surgeon general, a well-known Covid-19 vaccine skeptic, faced a backlash from the medical community after he made the assertions, which go against guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Pediatrics. But Ladapo’s statements aligned well with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stance against mandatory Covid-19 vaccination....

Ladapo should have lost his medical license 2 years ago, and absolutely should over this indefensible revelation. However, it's Florida, the Medical Board is probably as corrupt as Ladapo, Fascist DerSantis and the FL Leg. Maybe there are other actions that the feds can take.

IF there is someone who lost an unvaccinated loved one that didn't get a vaccine because of this falsified report, they should sue Ladapo, DeSantis and the state of Florida. I'm not in favor of a lot of lawsuits but sometimes it is the best way to make a point. Politicians and their minions seem to think they can say and do whatever they want.

Seems like it could be criminal.

Is he AMA anything?

Would they yank their certification?

[Vrede too]

Seems like it could be criminal.

I think he has the power to edit, but did he kill people in the process? Maybe that would be criminal.

Is the AMA anything?

Would they yank their certification?

The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students....

The AMA could berate Ladapo for ethical lapses, but AFAIK its only power is to cancel his voluntary membership (if he has one) and there are no professional consequences to not being a member. State medical boards have all the power, and the FDA has some power over things like prescribing authority.

[GoCubsGo]

Would they yank their certification?

The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students....

The AMA could berate Ladapo for ethical lapses, but AFAIK its only power is to cancel his voluntary membership (if he has one) and there are no professional consequences to not being a member. State medical boards have all the power, and the FDA has some power over things like prescribing authority.

That's what I was thought but didn't know.

[Vrede too]

Seems like it could be criminal.

I think he has the power to edit (data), but did he kill people in the process? Maybe that would be criminal.

Is the AMA anything?

Would they yank their certification?

The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students....

The AMA could berate (Florida Surgeon General Joseph) Ladapo for ethical lapses, but AFAIK its only power is to cancel his voluntary membership (if he has one) and there are no professional consequences to not being a member. State medical boards have all the power, and the FDA has some power over things like prescribing authority.

That's what I was thought but didn't know.

The Steep Cost of Ron DeSantis’ Vaccine Turnabout

... While Florida was an early leader in the share of residents older than 65 who were vaccinated, it had fallen to the middle of the pack by the end of July 2021. When it came to younger residents, Florida lagged behind the national average in every age group.

That left the state particularly vulnerable when the delta variant hit that month. Floridians died at a higher rate, adjusted for age, than residents of almost any other state during the delta wave, according to the Times analysis. With less than 7% of the nation’s population, Florida accounted for 14% of deaths between the start of July and the end of October.

Of the 23,000 Floridians who died, 9,000 were younger than 65. Despite the governor’s insistence at the time that “our entire vulnerable population has basically been vaccinated,” a vast majority of the 23,000 were either unvaccinated or had not yet completed the two-dose regimen.

A high vaccination rate was especially important in Florida, which trails only Maine in the share of residents age 65 and older. By the end of July, Florida had vaccinated about 60% of adults, just shy of the national average. Had it reached a vaccination rate of 74% — the average for five New England states at the time — it could have prevented more than 16,000 deaths and more than 61,000 hospitalizations that summer, according to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet....

But in Florida, unlike the nation as a whole — and states like New York and California that DeSantis likes to single out — most people who died from COVID died after vaccines became available to all adults, not before. As the governor’s political positions began to shift, so did his state’s death rate, for the worse....

“These were preventable deaths,” Rivkees, who resigned as Florida’s surgeon general in September 2021, said in a recent interview. “It breaks my heart thinking that things could have turned out differently if people embraced vaccines instead of this anti-vax stuff.”

... As of this summer, more than 345,000 Americans younger than 70 have died of the virus, and more than 3.5 million have been hospitalized with COVID. The disease has killed nearly 2,300 children and adolescents, and nearly 200,000 have been hospitalized....

DeSantis accused the media in early August of “lying” about COVID patients flooding hospitals. Two weeks later, Mary Mayhew, head of the Florida Hospital Association, said, “There can be no question that many Florida hospitals are stretched to their absolute limits.”

Mickey Smith was then the CEO of Oak Hill, the biggest hospital in Hernando County. As the delta variant raged through the county that month, he documented the impact on the 346-bed hospital in almost daily staff memos.

The morgue was filled to capacity. Oxygen was in such demand that the supplier would only partly fill Oak Hill’s tank. Ambulances were lined up outside to unload new patients, some of whom had to be shunted to a hastily erected outdoor tent.

“Our patients are younger and sicker,” Smith wrote. Of 17 patients on ventilators in intensive care Aug. 13, 2021, more than half were younger than 55. Only one was vaccinated.

“People say that the decision about vaccination is a personal one and it doesn’t affect anyone else,” Smith wrote. “Tell that to the kids who lost their mom.”

... He also instigated, with fanfare, a state grand jury investigation into possible “misconduct” by scientists and by Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccine manufacturers. No charges have been brought.

While the pandemic waned, leaving more than 80,000 Floridians and 1.13 million Americans dead, the governor continued to push policies that kept him at the vanguard of the anti-vaccine and anti-mandate conversation. A new state law, signed by DeSantis in May, bans government agencies, businesses and schools from requiring COVID testing, vaccination or mask wearing....

Fascist DerSantis is a mass murderer, and he desperately lies about it.

[GoCubsGo]

Fascist DerSantis is a mass murderer, and he desperately lies about it.

Less than three years and everyone, especially pols conveniently forgets this shit.

[Vrede too]

Fascist DerSantis is a mass murderer, and he desperately lies about it.

Less than three years and everyone, especially pols conveniently forgets this shit.

Fortunately, not everyone forgets.

Among those spreading medical misinformation during the pandemic: 52 doctors

Medical misinformation swirled across social media during the pandemic, but some of it was in a class of its own: It came from medical doctors.

Doctors, of course, are just as human and error-prone as everyone else, but because they spend years studying science and how the body works, presumably they know more than average about how to interpret medical information. So why were they the sending out stuff that wasn't true?

A new study can't answer that question with any certainty, but it does try to quantify how many doctors were misleading the public, where they came from and what their specialties were.

Most surprising, perhaps, is that there were only 52 of them found in a fairly exhaustive search of social media sites.

"This was actually comforting to see that they didn't find more," said Dominique Brossard, chair of the department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the new study but studies medical misinformation.

Roughly 1 million Americans hold medical licenses in the United States, so 52 is a tiny fraction of the total....

That's how very wingnutty the 52 were.

What the 52 said ...

Controlling the message

Goff said she could not speculate on the motives of the doctors spreading misinformation. Several offered telehealth visits and charged patients for providing therapies that were not supported by science, so perhaps they had a financial motive, Goff said. Some may also have earned money by growing their online presence, she said.

She and her co-authors chose not to name the 52 doctors, because they did not want to give the medical professionals more attention for their behavior. "Our purpose wasn't to call out specific people, more to call out the phenomenon," she said.

In March 2021, the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate published a report finding than 12 anti-vaxxers were responsible for the majority of anti-vaccine content on social media. The report called out Facebook and Twitter in particular for not doing enough to control the false messages spread by this "dirty dozen." ...

Consequences? ...

Mass murderers, MDs and lay people alike.

[GoCubsGo]

Mass murderers, MDs and lay people alike.

No mention of Scot Atlas?

[Vrede too]

No mention of Scot Atlas?

He's probably one of the 52, however:

... She and her co-authors chose not to name the 52 doctors, because they did not want to give the medical professionals more attention for their behavior. "Our purpose wasn't to call out specific people, more to call out the phenomenon," she said....

[GoCubsGo]

No mention of Scot Atlas?

He's probably one of the 52, however:

... She and her co-authors chose not to name the 52 doctors, because they did not want to give the medical professionals more attention for their behavior. "Our purpose wasn't to call out specific people, more to call out the phenomenon," she said....

I feel kind of gyped without names.

[Vrede too]

I feel kind of (ripped off) without names.

I feel the same. I would harass a local one. However,

Should there be consequences for doctors who spread misinformation?

That's a tricky question, all the experts said, in part because it's not always clear which facts are scientifically established and which are open to dispute.

The authors can make the common sense point, but risking defamation suits would require far more rigor in examining COVIDiots. In theory, that could be done by:

The American Medical Association adopted a policy in June 2022 to limit medical disinformation, including ensuring that medical licensing boards can take disciplinary action against health professionals who spread health-related disinformation.

Yet even that can be stymied:

But a judge ruled in January that the state of California, where the study found the highest number of misinforming doctors, does not have the power to penalize doctors who spread misinformation or disinformation. "COVID-19 is a quickly evolving area of science that in many aspects eludes consensus," the judge decided....

Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb was appointed by George H. W. Bush. From the article about the California case:

... The American Civil Liberties Union filed briefs supporting the plaintiffs in both cases, saying that while the state did have the power to punish doctors for spreading harmful false information, AB 2098 was a "blunt instrument" that went too far.

If California is having such difficulty I can see the study authors being leery about naming names. Also, reactions from named COVIDiot MDs would likely distract from the central point which I'm sure is valid.

Plus, since all of the 52 were found on social media, I'm sure that they've been individually called out. Searching "doctor spreading COVID misinformation" returns rich results.

The Disinformation Dozen list does include Charlotte osteopath Rashid Buttar . He died on May 18, 2023 at age 57. No word on whether it was COVID that killed his unvaxxed ass.

Idk if any are in IL, but searching "north carolina doctor spreading COVID misinformation" led me to Buttar.

[O Really]

The law is rarely black/white and is subject to interpretation, and specific facts and circumstances. To think that a professionally licenced person can freely use his professional status to spread total bullshit is not the way it's supposed to work. Lawyers, accountants, engineers, probably cosmeticians would lose their licence for doing that. CPA, in TV interview: "I think there are flaws in the US tax laws and I recommend that people refuse to pay taxes until further study has been done..." Engineer: "Don't waste money on fancy circuit testers. Just insert a knife into any outlet and you'll be able to see if there is power."