Hola Pandemic Pals, Sorry we’re late today. My toddler has a stomach bug and we’re out of toilet paper. I had to print out a bunch of copies of Breitbart’s home page to handle the mess. Why the unsolicited jab at Steve Bannon’s propaganda outlet? Because it published a video last night spreading purposely harmful COVID-19 misinformation from a group of medical “experts” called America’s Frontline Doctors composed of several anti-vaxxers and at least one exorcist. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good exorcism as much as the next person. I think Linda Blair is an institution. But the general public’s willingness to accept anyone with an MD as an expert on COVID-19 is chilling. Take Doctor Stella Immanuel of America’s Frontline Doctors for example. She’s one of the “doctors” pushing hydroxychloroquine for Breitbart as part of the “coalition” in the video. Here’s a tweet from her in response to Facebook removing the viral video:
— Stella Immanuel MD (@stella_immanuel) July 28, 2020 Immanuel is a pediatrician and exorcist who received her medical degree in Nigeria and currently operates a medical practice out of a strip mall in the US. She believes that ovarian cysts, infertility and other reproductive-related medical conditions are caused by demons and witches raping people in their dreams and that the medical community uses alien DNA to treat patients. FFS y’all, she said the Magic 8-Ball was a psychic device that turned children into witches and, in 2015, claimed the people ruling the US were “half-human, half-ET” reptilian hybrids from another planet. These people are idiots who’ve chosen to disregard their Hippocratic Oath for political clout. Hydroxychloroquine is a malaria medication that has been proven dangerous for use as a treatment for COVID-19. The bottom line: This isn’t a “both sides” issue. Hydroxychloriquine is dangerous and ignoring legitimate PEER-REVIEWED science for religious mythology is lunacy. You’re either on the same side as the people who literally believe Joe Biden and Barack Obama are aliens from another planet and that demons rape women in their dreams to make them infertile, or you’re on the side of people who aren’t stark raving mad.
Tweet thread of the week
Credit: Twitter Or can I? Here’s the thing, I love Ubisoft games. I enjoy the Far Cry, Assasin’s Creed, and Ghost Recon franchises immensely and the company’s back catalog has a lot of hits in it. Unfortunately this means I’ve already played the majority of the games on offer for the subscription. However, I haven’t played the super deluxe, fully packed with DLC, extra goodies versions of most of the games. And even the ones I did (Far Cry 5 Deluxe was a must-have for me at launch), I played on consoles. But I just happen to have a badass Alienware tower with an RTX graphics card that chomps through modern AAA titles on Ultra settings with ease and a fancy new fiber-optic internet connection that can download a 70GB game in under an hour. I spent my weekend playing dozens of Ubisoft titles including AC: Odyssey, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Far Cry New Dawn, complete with all the DLCs and expansions. It was glorious! I’m not sure if I’ll be keeping the service because of the cost. Then again, it’s about the same as a premium channels add-on for a cable package and I still haven’t gotten around to playing a few titles I’m itching to dive into. And back in the day it was nothing to spend 15 bucks at Blockbuster to rent three games for a weekend. I can always cancel after the first month right? I’m just not sure what to do. This sounds like a job for the Coronavirus in Context readers and our weekly poll (you can participate by signing up for the newsletter here). We’ll be back next Tuesday. And every Tuesday after that until the pandemic ends. Because we’re all in this together. In the meantime, here’s a few links to help you manage the misinformation as the disease hits its peak: The Center for Disease Control’s myth-busting section on COVID-19 After Recovering from COVID-19, are you immune? John Hopkins Univeristy COVID-19 myth vs fact Tristan
