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* Folks who refuse to trust a vaccine in wide usage that’s been approved by the FDA and instead demand an alleged treatment that the FDA has not approved and that its manufacturer and every legit medical association has warned against using never cease to amaze me. This death is heartbreaking, but there’s no getting around the fact that she celebrated her opposition to the vaccine and now the grifter crazies and their gullible followers are all predictably furious…
A hospitalized COVID-19 denier whose attempts to be treated with deworming drug ivermectin inspired a far-right harassment campaign against her hospital died early Monday, sparking cries among QAnon conspiracy theorists that she had been the victim of “medical murder.” Before her COVID-19 diagnosis, Veronica Wolski was a prominent Illinois booster of the QAnon conspiracy theory who recorded herself hanging pro-QAnon banners over bridges and flouting mask laws in stores, once declaring, “I have never once worn a mask.”
After she was hospitalized in Chicago two weeks ago with COVID-19, Wolski’s supporters in QAnon and other far-right groups besieged the medical center with hundreds of phone calls and even some death threats, demanding that she receive ivermectin, whose effectiveness as a COVID-19 treatment is unproven. Top QAnon leaders like former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn embraced her cause, with pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood calling the hospital and demanding she receive ivermectin shortly before Wolski’s death. On Monday morning, Wood announced in a post on social networking app Telegram that Wolski had died shortly after midnight and called her death a “medical murder,” urging his followers to “go to war.”
* More…
“I have just learned that Veronica Wolski saw the face of God this morning at 12:44 a.m.,” Wood said.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that these medical murders stop NOW and the perpetrators be brought to justice.
“Veronica will be on her bridge in Heaven looking down on us. We must do our best to make sure Veronica did not leave this Earth in vain.”
Just hours before reporting her death, Wood posted a video online where he called hospital staff and demanded that she be released from hospital, claiming the person on the call would be guilty of murder if she did not.
* More…
In the Telegram channel Wolski once ran, her supporters posted hundreds of messages of sympathy but also urged others to spam the social media account of Amita Health with messages about her “murder.”
Across other QAnon channels where Wolski is being hailed as a martyr, a patriot, and a hero, a common refrain is that she was “kidnapped and murdered” by the hospital and that this “medical tyranny” must end now.
“RIP one of the biggest Patriots of current times. I called that extermination camp Amita many times last night, and police district 16 to report attempted murder,” one typical commenter wrote.
* Related…
* Illinois anti-government militia leader to be sentenced in Minnesota mosque bombing
* Freedom Rally met with counter-protestors: A couple hundred people attended a Freedom Rally Sunday in a parking lot on Mulligan Drive in Bradley. The group has been organizing protests in Kankakee County against forced vaccinations and Gov. JB Pritzker’s mandated COVID-19 mitigations including required face masks. Counter-protesters gathered near the rally.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:04 am
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Rest in peace. From Bernie Sanders supporter to Qanon. It takes all kinds I suppose.
She lived free from masks and vaccines and died from a easily transmitted virus. I’d hope this would be a cautionary take for like-minded folks, but I know her death will not spark any changes at all.
Wear a mask, get vaccinated, or, if you can’t do those things, stay at home. Rights come with responsibilities.
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:10 am
Be aware these supporters are also in your local governments.
I have one on my county board. She’s also the Vice president of one of these national qanon orgs. Second in line to Kimberly Fletcher. Google it if you don’t know who she is and what she has already done.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:14 am
I am sort she died. I don’t understand why you would want to self medicate. And I certainly do not understand how you can admit yourself into a hospital or other treatment facility and then demand your own unapproved medication. I hope some people might learn from this but I doubt it.
Comment by DuPage Saint Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:15 am
If she had been released and then died at home, someone would then have blamed and sued the hospital for releasing her. If she had been given the medication that had been rejected by the FDA and the CDC and died, then the hospital would been blamed and sued for her death. The hospital chose to follow methods that had been approved for Covid treatment. There’s no murder here. Just conspiracy theorists and people without common sense wanting to dictate treatments. Ironic since they won’t follow advice of actual experts and get vaccinated.
I feel like I’m in a movie or a book. Real life has gotten unbelievably odd.
Comment by thoughts matter Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:18 am
This makes how close Lin Wood was to the president scarier than it already was, although unsurprising given how the biggest thing that made that president different was that he’s a conspiracy theorist.
Comment by Blake Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:18 am
Private hospitals and other medical groups are going to have to start turning these people away.
Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:30 am
The anti-government chickens are coming home to roost, unfortunately. This in part comes from years of demonizing and attacking government, from right wing media and the GOP. Now many politicize a pandemic and fear and mistrust a vaccine, when vaccines in the past barely raised eyebrows.
It’s one of the many vaccines people take—all the rest are without controversy or resistance.
Comment by Grandson of Man Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:33 am
==I feel like I’m in a movie or a book. Real life has gotten unbelievably odd.==
A movie like this is one I would have turned off because I would find it too unreal to be true, even as I usually temporarily suspend disbelief to watch fictional movies.
Comment by Glenn Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:43 am
Why listen to Merck which created and makes ivermectin? They say ‘please do not use our product for covid. It is for parasites’.
https://www.merck.com/news/merck-statement-on-ivermectin-use-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Only conclusion is people on social media must know far more about Merck’s product that Merck does.
Comment by zatoichi Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:46 am
=== Private hospitals and other medical groups are going to have to start turning these people away. ===
A visceral response to this idiocy and maliciousness is understandable, but unlike the GOP, medical providers have ethics and rules to which they have to comply. They need to be honored for their mission to help people rather than being attacked by loons.
Comment by Norseman Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:49 am
I am surprised that she sought out medical treatment from a hospital in the first place, if this is truly what she believed.
Comment by pawn Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 11:55 am
PA 99-0270 is inapplicable to the situation; the Act refers to “investigational medications”; Ivermectin is not investigational for Covid; multiple studies have found no benefit and have been challenged for poor study design. Also the Act says that medical decisions are not to be made by the government. Act also requires the drug or device to have at least passed an FDA Phase 1 trial. Finally, the law bars the State from interfering, but does not bar physician’s profession judgment from denying said experimental treatment.
Comment by thisjustinagain Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 12:01 pm
To add to thisjustinagain, the Act also contemplates that manufacturer of the investigational medication to make their drug available for this use, and the manufacturer has clearly stated that they do not believe their drug should be used for this purpose.
Comment by Juice Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 12:12 pm
My vaccinated MIL needed to be moved to an ICU bed this weekend. There were none available. She was eventually moved more than an hour away from family.
These people are literally harming others.
Comment by Highland, IL Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 12:32 pm
This rhetoric seems to be well outside the 1st Amendment, I.e. shouting “fire” in a crowded theater. It appears that the rabble is being roused yet again.
Comment by Grace Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 12:50 pm
No matter what one believes I wish both sides including all the talking heads on tv would quit with the demonization and name calling.
Comment by Yeah Right Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:01 pm
=== No matter what one believes===
Science or lunacy?
Yeah. It’s not both sides, no alternative facts… the pushback is to save lives.
My condolences to the family
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:04 pm
We would often see her on the overpasses with her homemade Qanon signs. They would change from time to time. She was pretty harmless, never rabble rousing over her beliefs. Sorry she passed. Her death sends a message that those who most need to heed it will ignore and/or twist to their own detriment.
Comment by Original Rambler Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:06 pm
The Illinois legislature & the US Congress need to make all public posting of any medical types of conspiracy theories illegal. Plus make any mob action against any hospital illegal (including jamming the hospital phones with conspiracy theories demands).
If she and her family truely believe Ivermectin would cure Covid-19, they have given it to her at home?
Comment by Mama Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:10 pm
My friend with an acute heart condition needed an ICU bed a couple weeks ago. Because none were available within the region (West Central IL/Eastern, IA), he was flight lifted to Columbia, MO (the V.A. hospital there).
Anyone care to guess how much our state-provided insurance had to pay for this “should-not-have-been-necessary” flight lift, due to this man-made crisis of hospital bed shortages?
Blaming Covid misplaces the blame. Irrational decisions are the cause. And my friend survived, unlike some others.
Comment by H-W Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:13 pm
The lesson is logical and obvious: If you refuse to be vaccinated against covid, you shouldn’t go to a hospital when you get covid.
– MrJM
Comment by MisterJayEm Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:17 pm
= Veronica Wolski saw the face of God this morning =
And God said, “why didn’t you take the vaccine I sent?”
Comment by JoanP Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:20 pm
“Veronica Wolski saw the face of God”
I wonder how that conversation went.
Ms. Wolski- God why didn’t you save me?
God - I tried many times but you refused to accept being saved.
Ms. Wolski- What do you mean? You never did anything.
God - I had many people tell you that the covid virus was real. I had many people tell you to wear a mask to protect you and your family. I had many people tell you to get vaccinated. I had many people tell you not to use ivermectin. Rather than believe what I was saying through my messengers, you chose to believe information that was built on lies and ultimately you died because of it.
Comment by Huh? Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:23 pm
@thisjustinagain
PA 99-0270 is inapplicable to the situation….Act also requires … to have at least passed an FDA Phase 1 trial.
Agree that Right to try doesn’t apply- but it’s because it’s *not* an investigational drug. It *is* an FDA approved drug for human use. Therefore it’s usage would simply be a case of off label use.
-for clarification I do not condone it’s use in this nor are there any in vivo studies that do
Comment by jimbo Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:31 pm
Why doesn’t the QAnon crowd establish their own “hospitals” where they can administer all these “great” medications? Oh, I forgot, they’re crackpots.
Comment by Sir Reel Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:34 pm
“Veronica Wolski saw the face of God” Evidence please.
Comment by Skeptic Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:36 pm
All these folks know is “double down”.
Comment by Stones Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:41 pm
The 2022 campaign season is going to require the Illinois GOP to weigh in on this kind of stuff and at this time they don’t really seem to have an adequate or reasonable response to it.
They really lost a chance when they failed to vote on the resolution condemning Chris Miller. They’ve created a situation where it looks like their party rubber stamps people that do things like announce they’re going to war with a hospital — a hospital full of well trained professionals fulfilling their oaths and don’t their best to save the lives of every COVID-19 patient, to the point where they would rather risk everything than give a patient a treatment that they don’t need, won’t work, and could have complications that would have resulted in a more immediate death.
These people are dangerous and the GOP has built out their tent to include these folks within their ranks and by doing so they’re defining the party.
They’ve already demonstrated the violent rhetoric isn’t empty rhetoric. We need to beware.
Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 1:48 pm
——
These people are dangerous and the GOP has built out their tent to include these folks within their ranks and by doing so they’re defining the party.
They’ve already demonstrated the violent rhetoric isn’t empty rhetoric. We need to beware.
——
Unfortunately, many folks see the violent and crazy ones as outliers, which at present time they are not. That’s the base.
Comment by dan l Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 2:15 pm
“I.e. shouting “fire” in a crowded theater”
Depending on the context, even that might be protected. The original case that stated that in dicta was overruled a long time ago. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/its-time-to-stop-using-the-fire-in-a-crowded-theater-quote/264449/
Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 2:37 pm
I feel nothing but sorry for this woman suffering from fearful ignorance…and nothing but contempt for those others who know better…like both Darren Bailey and T.G. Devore who must have memorized P.T. Barnum’s credo…
” Every crowd has a silver lining”.
Comment by Dotnonymous Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 2:56 pm
there was a significant chunk of Bernie supporters who were really out there. this one stood on the bridge with Bernie signs until well into late 2016. there’s video of her. it’s worth watching to experience the mind of a kook sounding relatively sane. but not.
Comment by Amalia Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 3:55 pm
Amalia, I remember her. Used to wave to her when I was driving the Kennedy on my way to Naperville. So sorry for her and her family.
Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 4:42 pm
= it’s worth watching to experience the mind of a kook sounding relatively sane. but not.=
It only serves to illustrate how tragic this story is for many of these individuals. She obviously needed help. Instead she got Lin Wood looking to exploit her death for his own twisted benefit. And he and his supporters will have no qualms in doing this all over again.
Comment by Pundent Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 5:12 pm
Cermak according to her FB posts she interpreted all those waves as support for her kooky positions.
Comment by Marine Life Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 5:56 pm
Lose lose situation when dealing with these Q followers. No matter what the hospital did or how this turned out there was going to a conspiracy somewhere.
Comment by Jason Bourne Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 7:33 pm
===I wonder how that conversation went.
Ms. Wolski- God why didn’t you save me? ====
I was thinking about how to comment but Huh? said it best, please reread his comment.
Comment by Snarkie from Schaumburg Monday, Sep 13, 21 @ 9:04 pm