COVID-19 roundup
Wednesday, Sep 8, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Insane and vile…
Some of the most powerful QAnon influencers are urging their hundreds of thousands of followers to harass a Chicago hospital into treating an anti-vaccine activist with ivermectin.
Veronica Wolski, who’s known for boosting anti-vaccine and QAnon conspiracies from a bridge in Chicago, was hospitalized two weeks ago after contracting COVID-19. She is a patient at Amita Resurrection Hospital in Chicago, according to posts on her Telegram channel.
Wolski’s supporters claim that after two weeks she had convinced a doctor in the hospital to administer ivermectin, but she was then told that the hospital system would not allow any doctor to prescribe the drug to treat COVID-19 because regulatory agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have not approved it.
This did not sit well with Wolski and her followers, so Wolski’s friends launched a campaign to force the hospital authorities to relent.
The campaign, organized via her Telegram channel, which is now being run by her friends, said that Wolski “is being held as a medical hostage” and that her “advocatives” have been barred from the premises.
As if hospital employees don’t already have their hands full they now have to deal with cranks and nutballs.
* More from the Sun-Times…
L. Lin Wood, an attorney who helped file lawsuits supporting former President Donald Trump’s unfounded voter fraud claims, is among the QAnon faithful who have contacted the staff at Resurrection about her case. He explained in a Telegram post Monday that he called the hospital and insisted to an employee that the woman “had a legal right to try ivermectin.”
“He informed me that ivermectin was not on the Amita protocol and [the woman] would not receive it,” Wood said of the exchange with an employee. “When I tried to respond, he was rude, talked over me, and hung up on me.”
Oh my goodness, such a ridiculous snowflake.
* Do they even need to wait on the state?…
In what may be first in the state, the [Springfield] School District 186 board of education Tuesday heard the first reading of a resolution requesting the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health consider including COVID-19 vaccinations into its regular schedule of immunization requirements.
The resolution was read into the record by board member Micah Miller, who represents Subdistrict 2. The resolution will be voted on by the school board at its Sept. 20 meeting.
The resolution includes all vaccinations approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
* More…
* More Than 80 COVID Outbreaks Reported in Illinois Schools: Some of the worst outbreaks have been occurring in western and southern Illinois, including in the North Macoupin school district in Macoupin County. There, between 11 and 16 cases of the virus remain active, according to officials. In nearly Staunton, more than 16 cases have been reported in the school district, according to officials. At East Side High School in St. Clair County, more than 16 cases have been reported, and at Okawville Elementary School, a similar number of cases have been reported.
* Daily US COVID cases up more than 300% from Labor Day last year: According to data from Health and Human Services, hospitalization rates are also up 157% compared with Labor Day weekend 2020, leaving medical facilities packed to the brim and their staffs exhausted and overwhelmed.
* Deaths of unvaccinated man in his 20s, unvaxed woman in her 30s and three other Sangamon County residents with COVID-19 reported
* Why the ACLU Flip-Flopped on Vaccine Mandates
* Brookfield Zoo starts vaccinating animals against COVID-19
- Horsing Around - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:09 pm:
Serious question: If Wolski wants that drug so badly why can’t one of her Telegram QAnon friends just go pick some up from the vet and give it to her?
What is it with the radical right’s constant need to blow everything out of proportion.
- NotRich - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:11 pm:
Loved the link to the Brookfield Zoo story>>
- thisjustinagain - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:12 pm:
Yes, Rich got it right. “Cranks and nutballs.” Time to start shutting down the social media accounts of these people, and the hospital filing police reports for harassing phone calls. No means no, Covidiots.
- Manchester - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:13 pm:
I suspect that Spfld. Dist. 186 is hoping for cover from IDPH and ISBE on the vaccination issue so they can tell the inevitable protesting wingnuts that the state requires it.
- illinifan - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:14 pm:
If Wolski does not want the treatment she is receiving at Amita can she can voluntarily discharge from the hospital, go home, and have her supporters provide the medical care she wants to receive. Don’t waste the time of busy medical staff if you plan to disregard what they recommend.
- Keyrock - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:17 pm:
I was surprised the Sun-Times story didn’t mention that Wood was sanctioned on Michigan and is apparently facing disciplinary proceedings in Georgia.
- Amurica - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:22 pm:
Can someone explain the logic of being antivax but accepting of taking an antiparasite drug for animals?
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:27 pm:
It’s not like she’s in a prison hospital. Can’t she be transferred to a veterinary hospital for this kind of treatment?
- sal-says - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:27 pm:
So.
#TheInsanitiesGeneration that won’t take a safe vaccine already administered to over 200 million in America have no problem taking a de-wormer made for horses.
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:30 pm:
Why are all these anti-vaxxers in the hospital in the first place. Did someone take them there against their will.
It’s amazing how they suddenly trust medical professionals when they are actually sick.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:36 pm:
===but accepting of taking an antiparasite drug for animals===
High medical costs in this country have, over the decades, conditioned tens of millions of people to seek treatment on their own.
Some people are desperate. Some people are just plain gullible (you can fool some of the people all of the time). And some people are evil (there’s always a t-shirt grift or some such thing connected to this stuff) and they prey on the desperate and gullible.
- H-W - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 12:37 pm:
With regard to the first issue, cermak_rd - said it best on a different post today (Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 10:54 am)
=[T]he fallacy that one can become an epidemiologist, constitutional scholar, virologist, or really any specialty profession by just googling and reading social media is bizarre.=
If Wolski and her representatives want to act as doctors, they should open their own doctors’ offices. They can buy cattle and horse medications at Farm stores, and administer the drugs themselves. They can also choose to mask or not mask the patients and practitioners.
But the cannot go into hospitals, and tell real doctors how to doctor. Indeed, patients who insist on violating the wisdom and medical advice of medical professionals should be asked to leave the hospitals for non-compliance.
Crazy stuff these days.
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:00 pm:
===antiparasite drug for animals===
I’ll clarify here a little bit. It’s not just for animals. It’s been used in medicine for more than 40 years and has worked great for the things that it is intended to treat. It’s not exaggerating to say that it’s improved tens of millions of lives and it’s used to treat parasitic infections in people too.
At issue is that it’s not a COVID-19 treatment and a doctor isn’t likely to prescribe it to treat COVID-19. Headlice? Scabbies? Sure. Coronavirus? No. Since an ethical physician isn’t going to write a prescription for it that forces people to turn to other means to get it — the significantly less regulated over the counter version of the medicine for animals.
Just like how doomstay preppers will stock up on that Fish Mox.
- Sir Reel - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:01 pm:
The good news is that when Wolski gets her ivermectin, she’ll get rid of her worms.
The bad news is that she’ll still have Covid.
- Anotheretiree - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:10 pm:
Can’t waste too much time on the dewormer’s. They are unreachable. More concerned about the 20 something who died ,and the 30’s year old. That makes 4 sub 40 year old’s dead in Sangamon County recently. Dr.’s describe this Delta variant patients as “younger, sicker, quicker.” They aren’t yet sure why its so different than Aplha in some younger patients.
- Ron Burgundy - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:15 pm:
If she wants the stuff so bad, rather than pressuring the hospital, just leave on her own and find a quack that will provide it. If she can leave on her own.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:17 pm:
google the patient. you will find someone with that name who routinely….since June 7 of 2016 and into the fall…stood on an overpass over the Kennedy near O’Hare with signs for….Bernie Sanders. if this is the patient, it just makes too much sense. the far right meeting the far left.
- Ron Burgundy - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:20 pm:
As for Mr. Wood, if he is not the patient’s legal representative, and can’t provide documentation that he is, they were absolutely right to hang up on him.
- wildcat12 - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:21 pm:
So, they won’t take a vaccine because it “wasn’t approved” by the FDA. But, they’re harassing medical staff to give them a treatment not approved by the FDA to treat COVID. OK.
- wildcat12 - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:25 pm:
–High medical costs in this country have, over the decades, conditioned tens of millions of people to seek treatment on their own.–
Agreed, but there is a free vaccine that would greatly reduce the likelihood of needing treatment at all, so there’s really still no sense in it. Preventing the infection is much better than becoming desperate for a cure.
- Merica - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:32 pm:
Why did Prizker promise to follow the science and is now ignoring it? The ER’s are full. Why are we still re-opening? Why are kids still in school when the outbreak is moving like a wildfire?
- Pundent - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:38 pm:
=Why did Prizker promise to follow the science and is now ignoring it?=
We now have a vaccine. But unfortunately it can’t cure stupidity.
- Cubs in '16 - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:43 pm:
So the anti-vaxxers are advocating taking a drug that treats parasitic conditions for a virus? Perhaps they need to take the advanced Medicine For Dummies course where things like the difference between parasites, viruses, and bacteria are covered.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 1:50 pm:
there’s video of Q woman. so much psychobabble.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 2:00 pm:
Merck is the company that makes the version of ivermectin intended for use by humans, and thus they would make money if people started using it. Notably they are telling people not to use ivermectin to treat Covid-19.
- Chris - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 2:14 pm:
re: the District 186 resolution:
Assuming the ‘all FDA approved vaccines’ is accurately reported, that would be a horrible idea. The list of FDA-approved vaccines is quite long, and includes vaccines for Ebola, Dengue fever, Plague, Rabies, etc.
We can know that they didn’t actually mean that, but this is an example of where a more deliberative process would likely lead to a policy more in keeping with intent.
Can you imagine the uproar if the HPV vaccine were required to attend school?
- thoughts matter - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 2:17 pm:
== So, they won’t take a vaccine because it “wasn’t approved” by the FDA. But, they’re harassing medical staff to give them a treatment not approved by the FDA to treat COVID. OK.==
Which tells you that, for the people willing to take this drug, their objection to the vaccine had actually nothing to do with the emergency approval. Instead they object to the vaccine for other non logical reasons. Are they sure that the deworming medication doesn’t cause any of the things they think the vaccine causes? I understand the unvaccinated people who are now in the hospital for Covid being willing to try anything at this point …. But why are their non infected friends going along with this?
- thoughts matter - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 2:19 pm:
== Why are we still re-opening? Why are kids still in school when the outbreak is moving like a wildfire?==
Because judges do things like force North Mac district to reopen?
- lake county democrat - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 2:28 pm:
I’m a member of the ACLU (not card-carrying: too much in my wallet already), and I don’t disagree with them on this issue, but I will say that in general today’s ACLU seems a lot more politically sensitive than it was in the last century.
- aovermy@yahoo.com - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 3:05 pm:
Merica,
Because it is about balance. We know that many children did abysmally last year with online courses. Particularly the ones most at risk of dropping out. We know that mental health was affected (in some ways good–less bullies, but in other ways very badly). We know that parents have to work for their families to thrive.
So in the end we have to have schools open. And frankly, we will see, but I think that’s going to go better in regions where you have high levels of vaccination. If you have 80%+ vaxed in some areas and you have decent ventilation (like Naperville’s big improvement projects) or you have high levels of natural immunity, then Covid should be manageable.
- Merica - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 3:59 pm:
Aovermy: The evidence clearly shows that remote learning does not work well, of course. But you are equating two things that are not the same. Mental health considerations, education, those are secondary to life. The Delta and Mu variants of this disease threaten young lives, and the lives of those who are fully vaccinated.
The pharmaceutical companies recommend a booster every 5 months. Here we are 9 months later. No booster is implemented and no vaccine for children.
Last week my friends healthy mother passed away from pancreatitis, because there was no ER bed open in Central Illinois. By the time she was flown to Chicago, it was too late.
Our medical community in Springfield is beyond maxed out, yet we pretend everything is ok.
Ask any parent at 186. In some cases half the class is out sick. Parents don’t get their kids tested, but they all most likely have Delta. The parents of these kids still go to work, infecting others, including many state employees who have been forced to return to work at the worst possible time imaginable.
We won’t know for many months still, that’s how this virus works, its always one step ahead of policy makers.
- Jibba - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:06 pm:
===was not on the Amita protocol and [the woman] would not receive it===
More information than he should have been able to get.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:25 pm:
=The Delta and Mu variants of this disease threaten young lives, and the lives of those who are fully vaccinated.=
To the extent that young lives (
- Smalls - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:28 pm:
I’m all for her receiving this treatment, along with all the other anti-vaxers. Natural selection at its finest.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:33 pm:
=The Delta and Mu variants of this disease threaten young lives, and the lives of those who are fully vaccinated.=
Let’s try this again.
To the extent that young lives (
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:34 pm:
=== and the lives of those who are fully vaccinated===
That’s not proved.
- Jason Bourne - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 8:29 pm:
Whether Wolski receives her deworming or not, this will get spun by the centaurs we apparently share this realm with. The Hospital should just offer her a discharge and she can go get the treatment at home. It’s past time we quit trying to save these Darwin Award aspirants and just let nature take it’s course and cull the herd.