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.
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
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
Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s pro-life beliefs don’t extend to his constiuients. He’s killed off 50,000 of them so far, forbidding the vaccine mandates and mask requirements that would keep them from dying of COVID-19.
Hospitals in the state are overwhelmed and 300+ people are dying each day, but the governor’s declaring victory, since even greater numbers were sick and dying a few weeks ago. 44% of Floridians still surviving are not fully vaccinated, so any lull in cases will be brief.
Dr. Ladapo, who has no public health administrative experience, will also lead the Florida Department of Health. He’s being paid $250,000 a year, 72 percent more than his predecessor.
More:
“Florida’s new surgeon general skeptical of vaccines, opposes masks,” Ruth mole, Ars Technica
“DeSantis places a ‘COVID crank’ in charge of its response,” Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
“Florida’s new surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, has ties to fringe group pushing bogus COVID cures,” Brett Bachman and Trish Rooney, Salon
“How a doctor who questioned vaccine safety became DeSantis’ surgeon general pick,” Arek Sarkissian, Politico
Kate Birch, a homeopath based in Minnesota, is a leading quack in the lunatic anti-vaxxer campaign behind the raging measles epidemic plaguing America’s children. Homeopathic products are essentially small vials of very expensive water or alcohol masquerading as preventatives and cures for diseases and ailments. Substances they contain are so diluted that the products are essentially placebos.
Why, you may ask, doesn’t the FDA regulate this kind of bunkum? An original Senate sponsor of the 1938 “Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act” was a dean at a Homeopathic Medical College, and made sure the act identified all homeopathic swill as drugs. Existing FDA regs are, appropriately, watered-down. Since umpteen-hundred scientific studies show that homeopathic medicine doesn’t work, even the woo-woo department of NIH, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, points out that homeopathy is bunk.
More:
“US homeopaths claim ‘therapies’ prevent measles and ‘cure’ autism,” Ed Pilkington, The Guardian
Why, you may ask, doesn’t the FDA regulate this kind of bunkum? An original Senate sponsor of the “Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act” was a dean at a Homeopathic Medical College, and made sure the act identified all homeopathic swill as drugs. Existing FDA regs are, appropriately, watered-down. Since umpteen-hundred scientific studies show that homeopathic medicine doesn’t work, even the woo-woo department of NIH, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, points out that homeopathy is bunk.
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