Our Covid Response

The Rogue Wolf

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I have to double-check any article's source to make sure if it's the Onion, because it is no longer possible to tell on first sight.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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A match made in the putrid bowels of deceptive avarice.

THE ANTI-VACCINE propaganda group America’s Frontline Doctors has partnered with Project Veritas, the far-right group known for deceptively editing videos of its undercover operations, on a video series called “Doc Tracy: Physician Investigator.” The series appears to be aimed at harassing medical regulators and spreading Covid-19 pandemic disinformation.

The series stars Christopher Rake, a former anesthesiologist at UCLA Health. “I’m willing to lose everything — job, paycheck, freedom, even my life for this cause,” he said in a video he recorded of himself as UCLA staff escorted him out of the medical facility where he worked in October for refusing to take the Covid-19 vaccine. He’s the founder of the anti-vaccine group Citizens United for Freedom. In a crowdfunding campaign for his group, he wrote, “I’m a physician, a follower of Jesus, and a patriot who lost his job because I stood up for freedom.”

A trailer for the “Doc Tracy” video series — which the group released on January 29 to its more than 400,000 Twitter followers, its over 200,000 Telegram channel subscribers, and on its email newsletter — includes a few seconds of Kristina Lawson, president of California’s medical board, being accosted in a parking garage. On December 6, people who identified themselves as members of AFLDS followed and intimidated Lawson. In interviews and on a Twitter thread, Lawson said the group parked an SUV at the end of her driveway in Walnut Creek, California, flew a drone over her house, watched her children drive to school, and then followed her to work. When she left work, Lawson said, four men “ambushed” her in a dark parking garage with cameras, saying they wanted to interview her.

AFLDS’s founder, Dr. Simone Gold, who has reached a plea agreement for her role in the deadly January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, is a licensed medical doctor in the state of California. In September, The Intercept revealed that AFLDS works with a network of telehealth companies to rake in millions of dollars selling hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and online consultations to Covid-19 vaccine skeptics. Most doctors, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, American Medical Association, and World Health Organization, advise against prescribing these two medicines to treat or prevent Covid-19. Because of Gold’s work with AFLDS spreading disinformation about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy and selling unproven treatments for Covid-19, the state medical board has been under pressure by other medical doctors and pro-science activists to strip her of her license. The Intercept confirmed that the board is actively investigating Gold. AFLDS and Project Veritas did not respond to requests for comment.

The AFLDS website has a form to sign up for updates about the new “Doc Tracy” video series, which it says will be released this month. The form includes the question, “Are you a social media influencer (any size) and would you like to be involved (paid or unpaid) in promoting Doc Tracy?”

After signing up for updates, the website sends an automated email that says, “Thank you for joining me and my fellow fraud detectors on the Project Veritas Muckraker Tour. What an event!” The email says the video series will ask “tough questions from people who really don’t want to answer them” and that “They’re going to cry crocodile tears like Kristina Lawson did.”
doc-tracy-email


The trailer lists “Christian Hartsock, Project Veritas” as a consulting producer. Hartsock is a “senior investigative reporter” for Project Veritas. On February 1, just after promoting the trailer for the video series, Gold posted to Twitter and Telegram, “What a joy and an honor to join Project Veritas this week in the freedom state of Florida.”

The post includes a photo of Gold and her colleague John Strand — a professional model and actor who hosts short “fake news” segments for AFLDS and who has also been charged in the January 6 riot at the Capitol — standing with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. Gaetz is currently under federal investigation for allegedly sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl.

Gold and Gaetz were likely attending an event related to the launch of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe’s new book, “American Muckraker.” O’Keefe is calling his book tour the “Project Veritas Muckraker Tour.”

The trailer for the new AFLDS video series includes images of discredited scientist Dr. Robert Malone and his suspended Twitter account, while a voiceover says, “In a time where stating the facts is made illegal.”

On December 31, Malone was a guest on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” the $100 million Spotify podcast, where he used his credentials as an early researcher on mRNA gene transfer techniques to promote disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines. He also compared Covid-19 vaccination efforts in the U.S. to Germany when the Nazi Party rose to power.

In response to the episode, over 1,300 doctors, nurses, scientists, and professors signed an open letter to Spotify demanding that the company “immediately establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform.” This letter sparked a backlash against Spotify, with major artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell boycotting the platform and users canceling their accounts en masse.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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A match made in the putrid bowels of deceptive avarice.
To expand upon that-
 
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tippy2k2

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FYI to my fellow Americanos in the forum that may be interested

 

Trunkage

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So currently where I live there is a huge teacher shortage there are that many teachers getting covid. It's sort of okay because classes are only half full because most kids are sick with covid

Also, I'm still so tired from Covid two months later
 

Cheetodust

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So currently where I live there is a huge teacher shortage there are that many teachers getting covid. It's sort of okay because classes are only half full because most kids are sick with covid

Also, I'm still so tired from Covid two months later
Where I live hospitals are overwhelmed and there are staffing shortages because it turns out "living with covid" is a stupid fucking idea when you have an incredibly infectious disease that you have to isolate if you catch it. But fuck it, 4 day Paddy's day weekend. Let's "thank" our front line workers by making them work harder than ever.
 

Agema

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The aim of "living with covid" is that we are not supposed to take tests. It's a bit like any illness: the sniffles or a mild headache, we go to work. If we're too ill to work, we take sick leave. If in the former case we are insufficiently ill to miss work from a wildly infectious disease that can incapacitate or kill our co-workers if we pass it to them, that's just their problem.
 

Phoenixmgs

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Where I live hospitals are overwhelmed and there are staffing shortages because it turns out "living with covid" is a stupid fucking idea when you have an incredibly infectious disease that you have to isolate if you catch it. But fuck it, 4 day Paddy's day weekend. Let's "thank" our front line workers by making them work harder than ever.
You do realize hospitals are run for-profit and are designed to run at near full capacity and so any slight bump in patients, they aren't really prepared for and have to hire traveling nurses? This all before covid mind you. And the more rural the hospital the closer they run near full capacity; that's why basically every story about a hospital being full and having to redirect patients was in a rural area. And firing nurses and doctors that have natural immunity, meaning more staffing issues, and having vaccinated and covid positive nurses and doctors work instead is good?

When are people "allowed" to go out and enjoy themselves and live life? Even CNN's go-to doctor that was just the worst about covid restrictions and safetyism is done with it.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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You do realize hospitals are run for-profit and are designed to run at near full capacity and so any slight bump in patients, they aren't really prepared for and have to hire traveling nurses? This all before covid mind you. And the more rural the hospital the closer they run near full capacity; that's why basically every story about a hospital being full and having to redirect patients was in a rural area. And firing nurses and doctors that have natural immunity, meaning more staffing issues, and having vaccinated and covid positive nurses and doctors work instead is good?
We don't normally have to staff our rural hospitals with the National Guard. Like, do you live in a rural area?

Bold of you to assume that everybody refusing a vaccination has had covid

I swear to god, they way you folks use Endemic, you'd think places where malaria was endemic took zero precautions
 

Cheetodust

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You do realize hospitals are run for-profit
I'm gonna stop you there. No they're not. Second, my issue isn't being "allowed". It's that the government, explicitly as a thank you to frontline healthcare workers said they would create an extra bank holiday. A decision which was criticised because those people work bank Holidays. They decided to put that bank holoday at paddy's weekend ensuring that it would be a completely overwhelming 4 day weekend of drunken bullshit leaving the stretched hospital staff further stretched.
 

davidmc1158

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I'm gonna stop you there. No they're not. Second, my issue isn't being "allowed". It's that the government, explicitly as a thank you to frontline healthcare workers said they would create an extra bank holiday. A decision which was criticised because those people work bank Holidays. They decided to put that bank holoday at paddy's weekend ensuring that it would be a completely overwhelming 4 day weekend of drunken bullshit leaving the stretched hospital staff further stretched.
Small point: In most of the civilized world they are not for-profit entities. Unfortunately, in the U.S., at least 24% are for profit entities, 57% are non-profit, and the remaining 19% were city/county/state controlled directly (as of 2019, at least)
Source:
 

Phoenixmgs

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We don't normally have to staff our rural hospitals with the National Guard. Like, do you live in a rural area?

Bold of you to assume that everybody refusing a vaccination has had covid

I swear to god, they way you folks use Endemic, you'd think places where malaria was endemic took zero precautions
I've been to hospitals that are in a rural area for work. I didn't assume anything. I said those with natural immunity shouldn't have been fired because that is what the science says. Where did I say everyone fired shouldn't have been? If you had the option to choose your nurse, I bet you'd choose the vaccinated covid positive nurse with covid symptoms last when the other options are an unvaccinated nurse with natural immunity covid negative and symptom free or an unvaccinated nurse with no natural immunity covid negative and symptom free. And by firing nurses that shouldn't have been fired, the current nurses are more overworked and providing worse care. Isn't better care better than worse care?


I'm gonna stop you there. No they're not.
What @davidmc1158 said. Also, a lot of non-profits aren't really what you'd think they are. I work at a "non-profit" hospital system.

It actually isn’t much of a surprise that nonprofit hospitals are often more profitable than for-profit hospitals.
 

Phoenixmgs

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Someone finally put together a fairly comprehensive study on using ivermectin against COVID. Spoiler, doesn't do anything.

What do you mean, the ivermectin group did 1.6% better, it works!!! Just kidding.

At least they did a placebo arm unlike the remdesivir study.
 

Cheetodust

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Yes. But I specifically said where I live and discussed the staffing issues here. I was specifically not talking about the US. Our hospitals (mostly) are not privately owned. So you're point about the staffing shortages here being because hospitals are privately owned is wrong.
 

Trunkage

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So, I've been thinking a lot about the claim of 'lockdowns hurting students'

We opened up late last year. Since then my classroom has been half full. 12 weeks. And its been super common for classrooms to be shut down and combined due to that many people being sick

That's twice the number of weeks we were lockdown for during Covid. I dont think there is much quality teaching going on as you cant tell whose going to be there.

I'm pretty sure we are getting another 12 week stint with the same problems as there is another surge

I cannot fathom how people thought this is better for the students
 

Buyetyen

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I cannot fathom how people thought this is better for the students
That's the thing, they didn't. People who want everything to immediately go back to the pre-covid status quo are thinking only of themselves. Especially the rich and political class. They have a profit motive to get things back to "normal" and paper over all the cracks in the system that the pandemic exposed.
 

Phoenixmgs

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Yes. But I specifically said where I live and discussed the staffing issues here. I was specifically not talking about the US. Our hospitals (mostly) are not privately owned. So you're point about the staffing shortages here being because hospitals are privately owned is wrong.
I assumed the US obviously, which does mainly staff for profitability. I don't know how your nurses are treated there but I know here, they aren't treated very well and get burnt out both physically and mentally. I know 3 nurses and only 1 of them is still a nurse and she complains a lot about the job and her facility is really profit driven to the point where they are probably less profitable as many nurses there have quit and joined as back as traveling/temp nurses as they get paid like double than actually working there. Both of the other nurses I know got out of nursing because of the physical strain on their bodies.


So, I've been thinking a lot about the claim of 'lockdowns hurting students'

We opened up late last year. Since then my classroom has been half full. 12 weeks. And its been super common for classrooms to be shut down and combined due to that many people being sick

That's twice the number of weeks we were lockdown for during Covid. I dont think there is much quality teaching going on as you cant tell whose going to be there.

I'm pretty sure we are getting another 12 week stint with the same problems as there is another surge

I cannot fathom how people thought this is better for the students
I cannot fathom how people think closing schools is good for the students. Kids out of school is one of the biggest harms of the pandemic. I don't think any other country except maybe Australia and China (just assuming from their hardcore zero-covid strat) kept schools closed for as long as the US. You always are talking about how bad such and such thing (that usually has rather minor to nonexistent effects) is for marginalized groups yet you're for policies that greatly disadvantage marginalized groups even more.


Look at all the missing kids California has...
 
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Phoenixmgs

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