Covidiots

Vice News reports: Anti-vaxxers are trying to create a new global infrastructure for the supply of unvaccinated blood, driven by conspiracy theories and pseudoscientific beliefs about the dangers of mRNA COVID vaccines. SafeBlood Donation was founded by a Swiss naturopath, George Della Pietra. He and his supporters believe, wrongly, that mRNA coronavirus vaccines “contaminate” the blood and destroy the immune …

Los Angeles’s ABC affiliate reports: Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Tuesday afternoon conceded to former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna in Luna’s bid to succeed him as head of one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the U.S. “I want to wish the incoming sheriff well,” Villanueva said at a press conference. During news conference, Villanueva …

The New York Post reports: A group of anti-vax protesters chanted “F–k Joe Biden” as they marched through the streets of Manhattan Monday night in the city’s annual Halloween parade. The brash language aimed at the president was repeated by a reveler dressed as a priest who was holding a sign that read “COVID 19 is a tool of control.” …

Agence France-Presse reports: Italian doctors and nurses suspended over their refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19 can now return to work, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Monday. Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, and has since registered nearly 180,000 deaths. Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy railed against many …

The Minnesota Reformer reports: Scott Jensen has downplayed the virus’ severity and decried measures to contain it, like universal mask wearing. Jensen likened public health measures to Nazism and last year signed onto a lawsuit to block vaccines for children. Jensen defended his past remarks and mentioned a new culprit: ventilators. “The ventilator was a deadly problem,” Jensen said. “We …

ABC News reports: A March 2021 report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate identified Sherri Tenpenny as one of the 12 most prominent purveyors of vaccine misinformation on social media. A report later that year from the De Beaumont Foundation cited Tenpenny while demanding that state medical boards crack down on the “small but vocal minority of physicians” who …

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: A Cleveland area physician who told an Ohio House committee in the summer of 2021 that coronavirus vaccines could “interface” with cell towers and magnetize recipients now is in danger of losing her license to practice medicine in Ohio. A state board that licenses doctors notified Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a Cleveland area osteopathic physician, that …

Fox News reports: The premier of Alberta, Canada, said she is working on a plan to pardon residents who were fined or arrested over breaking coronavirus protocols, and apologized to unvaccinated Canadians who faced “discrimination.” “It was a political decision to throw out the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to put those fines in place in the first place, and …

Bloomberg News reports: Anti-vaxxers, whose activity is limited on many platforms, have started using elaborate quotes and phrases to spread cloaked misinformation about the drugs that help fight Covid-19. In Facebook groups with names like “Died Suddenly,” users claim to be mourning friends and family members who have “eaten the cake,” which is code for taking vaccines. Sometimes, users claim …

The Daily Beast reports: An attempt to make a right-wing superhero movie has ended in disaster, with $1 million missing in China and a participant facing a federal indictment. “I wouldn’t count on us getting the money back,” Theodore Beale, a far-right blogger known as “Vox Day,” admitted to his fans and investors in a video last week. This isn’t …

From the Miami Herald editorial board: Armed only with a skimpy “analysis” done by the state Department of Health — an analysis that is not peer-reviewed, has no named authors and has been blasted by the medical community — he warned last week that men ages 18-39 shouldn’t get the Moderna or Pfizer COVID shots, citing a higher risk of …

Florida Politics reports: Twitter temporarily took down a post by Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on guidance against COVID-19 vaccines for those under 40. The move comes as medical experts and scientists criticize the Florida Department of Health recommendations for being based on weak data that never saw peer review. Ladapo on Friday issued new guidance recommending against mRNA vaccinations for …

Vox reports: As the weather starts to turn cold and as officials push for more people to get their new booster shot before an expected winter coronavirus surge, public health leaders are battling skepticism and apathy toward the vaccines. Worse, experts fear the politicized backlash to the Covid-19 vaccines is already fostering skepticism about routine vaccinations generally, from childhood immunizations …

The Arizona Mirror reports: It’s already known that hundreds of thousands of Americans would still be alive if every eligible person had gotten vaccinated against COVID-19. Now new research strongly suggests that many more of those “excess deaths” in Ohio and Florida were among people with Republican voter registrations. It’s perhaps unsurprising that Republicans were more reluctant to get vaccinated …

Law & Crime reports: In another high-profile denial of certiorari on Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected without comment Candace Owens‘ petition over fact-checks that labeled her COVID-19 posts on Facebook a “hoax” and “false.” The conservative commentator had claimed that fact-checkers Lead Stories and USA Today’s determinations about her posts amounted to tortious interference, as Facebook …

Reuters reports: A Florida doctor known for spreading false claims about vaccines has sued Google LLC and its parent company Alphabet Inc for removing all of his content from their YouTube video-sharing platform with no advance notice, saying the move breached its terms of service. In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, Joseph Mercola asked the …

Florida Politics reports: Congressional candidate Scotty Moore filed a complaint with the state against a news station that turned him away from a debate. Moore filed the complaint against WESH 2 Orlando with the Attorney General’s Office, asserting the news station violated a law forbidding vaccine passports when it said Moore could not participate in a debate hosted by the …

“So, of course, the whole point of the vax mandate was not to protect anyone, it was to get rid of people like that. People who think for themselves, who with honor and dignity, who have high testosterone levels. They’re all gone now — not just from the FDNY, but NYPD, from the paramedic core, from the Navy SEALS. They’re …

The Insider reports: Dr. Mehmet Oz owns shares of two companies that supply hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that he urged the White House to push as a treatment for COVID-19 despite a lack of evidence showing its efficacy. CNBC first reported he owned stock in the companies on Wednesday, citing a financial disclosure. The document showed Oz and his wife …

Florida Politics reports: A new positive ad from the Ron DeSantis re-election campaign finds a lot of ways to say thank you … to the Governor. “When they attacked you, you didn’t cave,” the script contends. “You stood strong for the people of Florida.” A female bartender with a Midwestern accent declared in agreement, “he saved our jobs.” A short …