Unvaxed Trump supporter who spread coronavirus conspiracy theories dies of COVID-19

 

Unvaxed Trump supporter who spread coronavirus conspiracy theories dies of COVID-19

DannyB

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 20, 2021

 Linda /Zuern (Facebook) 

We’re going see many more and more MAGAts willingly die of COVID.

The recorded cause of death should include “Stupidity” in addition to COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the Cape Cod Times reported that Linda Zuern, a former member of the Bourne, Massachusetts Board of Selectmen and a Trump-supporting figure in the local Republican Party, had died of COVID-19.

Zuern died at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston of severe complications caused by COVID-19, according to the report. She was 70 years old and had not been vaccinated.

For months, Zuern, a member of the pro-Trump group the United Cape Patriots, had promoted conspiracy theories about the pandemic on Facebook. She has shared articles accusing the World Health Organization of a coverup of the "Wuhan Virus" and claiming COVID-19 is cover for "globalists" to usher in "U.N. Agenda 2030" — a sustainable development initiative right-wing conspiracy theorists assert is a plot to create a one world government.

IMO, at some point insurers should refuse health insurance coverage for COVID to anyone who willingly foregoes COVID-19 vaccination without a sound medical reason.

BTW, I knew this guy (below) and his wife for 25 years.  When the pandemic began, he was on FB every day saying how it was “a hoax to bring down Trump” and “I’m not wearing a g-damned mask!”

He died of COVID after 5 weeks on a ventilator at Vanderbilt Hospital here in Nashville.

Ex-Nashville council member, a coronavirus skeptic, dies from Covid-19

Tony Tenpenny had been in the hospital for more than a month before succumbing to the deadly virus he questioned.

www.nbcnews.com/...

I’m reminded of a line from Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” when two men seek donations from Scrooge to feed the poor during Christmas …

“Are there no vaccines?  Are there no masks?,” he might have asked today.

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

Courtesy of ProgressivePenguin

The GQP Death Cult:

How did lifesaving vaccines become politicized? As Bloomberg’s Jonathan Bernstein suggests, today’s Republicans are always looking for ways to show that they’re more committed to the cause than their colleagues are — and given how far down the rabbit hole the party has already gone, the only way to do that is “nonsense and nihilism,” advocating crazy and destructive policies, like opposing vaccines.

That is, hostility to vaccines has become a form of loyalty signaling.

If Americans had refused Polio vaccines in droves rather than the ‘we’re all in this together’ mass vaccinations Americans eagerly received in the 50’s, leg brace and iron lung manufacturers would be Fortune 500 companies today.

Colbert cold open (thanks to Observerinvancouver):

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HOW CREDIBLE IS MEDICAL MISINFORMATION FROM A MORBIDLY OBESE WHITE MAN? 

PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO WEAR FACE MASKS & ARE UNVACCINATED PUT ALL OF US AT RISK. 

MUST READ

Group of United Cape Patriots protest 'VaxBus' in Provincetown over COVID vaccine

Michaela Chesin  Wicked Local 

Published Jul 15, 2021 

PROVINCETOWN – After an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases in town, the state’s VaxBus rolled to a stop near MacMillan Pier Thursday morning.  

When it arrived, the mobile vaccination clinic covered with the slogan “trust the facts, get the vax,” was met with red and white signs emblazoned with anti-vaccination slogans posted outside the nearby public restroom.

Four members of the United Cape Patriots, a conservative grass-roots group, were also handing out flyers to people walking by the bus stop.  

“Wouldn’t you want to know the facts before you vaxx?” the flyer read.  

People should be made aware of all facts, said Adam Lange, of Brewster and founder of United Cape Patriots.

“We defend freedoms across Cape Cod. That includes medical freedoms. We’re out here informing people of the downside of the experimental vax,” Lange said.  

Reuters Fact Check determined that vaccines are not “experimental,” as they all have been put through standard safety testing before being rolled out to the public.  

The vaccine death numbers posted on the anti-vaccination sign should be accompanied with the 600,000-plus deaths from the virus itself, said Orleans resident Steven Allard, who was walking around the pier with his wife, Mary Ann, Thursday afternoon. 

“If I go out into the world unvaccinated, there’s a much bigger chance of me getting COVID, and not only me dying, but the people around me [dying],” Allard said. “If you’re a responsible citizen, you do this not just for yourself but for other people.” 

Allard said those who want to use their freedom to not get vaccinated have that right. But if they get sick from COVID, he said they also have the freedom to take care of themselves, instead of getting first-responders sick.  

The anti-vaccine activists' facts and figures printed on their flyers come from a federal database known as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. The database includes hundreds of thousands of reports of health events that occurred minutes, hours or days after vaccination. 

But according to a National Public Radio report, many of the reported events are coincidental and not caused by the COVID vaccination. 

The CDC reported that while the agency is aware of the misuse of the VAERS data, there are no immediate plans to change the system in part because VAERS is one of the agency's best sources for early warnings about real vaccine side effects, according to the NPR report. 

COVID-19:Uptick of cases in Provincetown prompts request for pop-up testing units

The ‘VaxBus,’ a partnership between the state, Yankee Line Inc. and Purple Shield Medical traveled from Pittsfield to Provincetown, administering either J&J or Pfizer doses of the COVID vaccine, Michael Peterson, VaxBus administrator, said. Clients who choose the Pfizer shot will be able to get their second dose when the bus comes back to Provincetown on Aug. 5, he said. By end of day, six people received shots through the VaxBus.

Peterson said VaxBus staff has encountered several groups of anti-vaccine protesters as the bus has made its way across the state.

“As long as they’re expressing themselves peacefully and they don’t deter people from making their own decisions or get in way of the people trying to get a vaccine, then that’s their prerogative,” Peterson said.  

“It seems like a lot of the protestors are coming out after the fact," he said. "To my knowledge, when the big centers were giving out vaccines at Gillette Stadium and the Hynes Auditorium, I don’t know where the protestors were then, but they seem to be targeting our mobile vaccine buses for whatever reason." 

Peterson said being able to bring vaccines to people in their own communities has been a positive experience overall. 

While some protestors seem to think they are forcing the vaccines on people, VaxBus EMT Shaun Alger said that's not the case.

“We’re here to fill the need,” Alger said.