GOP Governor Ron DeSantis is weaponizing Florida’s court system to attack the vaccines that would have saved the lives of the Floridians he sacrified to COVID. Mr. DeSantis wants a grand jury to investigate the rare cases of heart inflamation attributed to vaccinations, when such conditions are seven times more frequent among those suffering from COVID. Since anti-vaccine rhetoric is killing more Republicans than Democrats, you’d think self-serving MAGA hacks like Ron DeSantis would avoid bad-mouthing vaccines.
Dr. Janja Lalich explains the cult-like nature of many online conspiracy theory groups, how people get caught up in them, and what can be done to help those who have fallen into them. A Wired video.
Related:
“Why people believe Covid conspiracy theories: could folklore hold the answer?” Anna Leach and Miles Probyn, The Guardian
Republican state lawmakers in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia have proposed legislation that allows quack doctors to prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to prevent and treat Covid-19 which, despite pronouncements on Fox News and right-wing podcasts, they do not do. North Dakota and Tennessee have already passed such laws, even though:
” … those treatments have not proven effective at preventing or treating Covid and infectious disease experts see the bills as examples of right-wing lawmakers politicizing medicine – a trend that is increasing as the pandemic wears on in America in to its third year amid an increasingly fraught political atmosphere.
And so it goes with the latest suspect Covid-19 treatment that has become about more than just a drug, but rather about whether to trust established public health organizations or doctors who stray from their guidelines, and podcast and cable news hosts.”
— “Concern as Republicans push to make dubious Covid cure prescriptions easier,” Eric Berger, The Guardian
More:
“Republicans Are Changing State Medical Board Rules So It’s Easier For Doctors To Prescribe Hydroxychloroquine And Ivermectin,” Kadia Goba, BuzzFeed News
The Medical Director of Orange County, Florida, has been put on leave for encouraging his staff to get vaccinated. Dr. Raul Pino, an epidemiologist, emailed his staff on January 6th, noting that only 77 of 568 employees had been fully vaccinated and boosted, and another 219 had received two shots:
“I am sorry but in the absence of reasonable and real reasons it is irresponsible not to be vaccinated. We have been at this for two years, we were the first to give vaccines to the masses, we have done more than 300,000 and we are not even at 50% pathetic. I have a hard time understanding how we can be in public health and not practice it.”
“Florida Department of Health confirms Dr. Raul Pino put on leave for encouraging Orange County Department of Health employees to get vaccinated,” Danielle Prieur, WMFE
“Florida health official placed on leave after encouraging employees to get vaccinated,” Timothy Bella, Washington Post
Alexander Stockton visited Mountain Home, Arkansas, in the Ozarks, and found residents “Dying in the Name of Vaccine Freedom,” and taking their neighbors with them. A New York Times OpEd video.
Days after anti-vax doctors met in Florida, seven of them came down with COVID-19. The fringe medicos met on November 6th at Ocala’s World Equestrian Center, so naturally they pushed ivermectin horse de-wormer as a coronavirus cure. As the Daily Beast points out, the Equestrian Center requires all participating ponies to be vaccinated against Equine Herpes Virus and Equine Influenza. Florida law prevents vaccine mandates for two-legged participants.
“Florida Summit on Covid” participants listened to the 9 panel “experts” and lunched together, and $250 VIP admission tickets included a private reception and photo opportunity, a likely virus incubator.
More:
“Seven doctors contract Covid after attending Florida anti-vaccine summit,” Maya Yang, The Guardian
North Dakota Republican State Representative Jeff Hoverson organized an anti-vaccine mandate rally in Bismarck, but couldn’t attend it. He’s got COVID. He’s treating it with horse de-wormer. Of course.
Ten Republican state attorneys general are suing to overturn Biden administration COVID vaccine mandates for federal contractors. GOP AGs from Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Utah have also sued to prevent the administration’s OSHA-enforced vaccine-or-test mandate for large companies. They claim that getting a deadly infection on the job isn’t a work-related injury. A 5th Circut federal court has issued a stay in the last matter.
More Republican AGs are suing to block the OSHA madate in the 11th Circuit and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saying it’s a states’ rights issue, and GOP governors are jumping on board. Claiming “states’ rights” in order to deprive citizens of human rights — or in this case, human life — is cruel, cynical, and politically-motivated.
Florida’s pro-virus governor Ron DeSantis has invited vaccination-resisting cops fleeing vaccine mandates in other states to come and infect his state’s surviving citizens. He’s offered to pay unvacinated officers a $5,000 signing bonus. 58,933 Floridians have died of COVID while Ron DeSantis has been in office. So far.
This year, the number one cause of police deaths is COVID-19, not firearms.
“As some police fight vaccine rules, DeSantis says Florida will pay them $5,000 to relocate: ‘We’ll treat you better,’” Andrea Salcedo, Washington Post
“Ron DeSantis Goes All In on Vaccine Skepticism,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
“Covid has killed more active-duty police officers than 9/11 did,” Phillip Bump, Washington Post
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