'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

[Jilly_in_VA]

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

“We were down to four Covid patients two months ago. In this surge, we’ve had 40 to 50 patients with Covid on four different ICU services, 97 percent of them unvaccinated,” said Wes Ely, an ICU doctor and professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “We were making headway, and now we’re just losing really, really badly. There’s something that’s happening on the internet, and it’s dramatically increasing steam.”

Those concerns echo various local reports about growing threats and violence directed toward medical professionals. In Branson, Missouri, a medical center recently introduced panic buttons on employee badges because of a spike in assaults. Violence and threats against medical professionals have recently been reported in Massachusetts, Texas, Georgia and Idaho.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/vigilante-treatments-anti-vaccine-groups-push-people-leave-icus-rcna2233

[East-A-Squared]

1. Please proceed.

[dewsgirl]

2. Facebook truly will be the downfall of us all, even those of us don't use it.

[Wingus Dingus]

3. Let's hope it works.

I love it when problems solve themselves.

[Hekate]

4. I have to review my Advance Directive to make sure certain relatives are NOWHERE NEAR ME...

… in a critical hospital setting.

Good God Almighty.

[Texaswitchy]

5. Fine by me.

Leave room for the rest of us.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. All I know is

In another forum (not DU at all) I was excoriated for even suggesting that we limit the hospital beds for unvaccinated Covid patients at 20%.


Guess we don't need anything like that - since they are solving the problem for us.

[msongs]

7. how to treat anti vaxxers - give em an aspirin or tylenol and send em home nt

[getagrip_already]

16. but aspirin and tylenol are both on the fetal tissue lists......

So they can't those either. Just betadyne, bleach, dewormers, and malaria drugs please.

[wellst0nev0ter]

8. Please don't free up ICU space

[Texaswitchy]

11. Totally agree

[wellst0nev0ter]

9. Actually, this part of the story is tragic

Ely said one particular patient who had been misinformed stuck with him. The woman who had Covid arrived in his ICU about five months pregnant. Ely said the woman was not vaccinated and refused any treatments that would help fight the virus.

“Why? Because, to her, it’s not real,” he said. “So now we’re dealing with a woman in the ICU, the baby too young to live. We’ve got to make it several more weeks for the baby to be viable.”

(snip)

“So, I kneel down. I look her in her eyes. I hold her hand. I tell her, ‘I’m hearing you. I’m not going to leave. I’m not going to abandon you.’ But there are some people that you can’t get on the other side of it,” he said. “When people get this sick, they are very likely going to die, and almost all pregnant moms in this situation lose their babies. So we have two people dying without treatment for Covid.”

Ely said this patient was not alone, and that some of those who refuse the vaccine “just keep denying until they’re dying.”

[intrepidity]

10. Finally, some sanity

Since the real only threat they pose is to our healthcare system, I say bravo, go for it.

[Texaswitchy]

12. Yeah

Horse paste away.

I am to old to suffer fools.

[Delphinus]

13. Please!

Yes, this sounds like a GREAT plan! Don't go to the doctors when you don't trust them on the vaccines. Let your Facebook group treat you.

[Texaswitchy]

14. Facebook Field Hospitals.

In every city and town.

Bring your own cot and horse paste.

[FakeNoose]

15. I'm sure they know what's best - for THEM ....

[Texaswitchy]

17. Yes

They know best.

[DFW]

18. Anyone who follows the recommendations of these whackos deserves their fate

And if anyone dies as a consequence, the vigilantes who convinced them to go to their deaths deserve a murder one indictment. They can’t very well claim anything BUT premeditation.

[eallen]

19. It turns out that not being able to breathe is quite a convincing argument

That's what takes many to the ER. And then to the ICU.

They might not believe in Covid. They sure believe in a modern hospital when they cannot breathe.

[rockfordfile]

20. Any surprise that these pos groups pop up on traitorbook

[central scrutinizer]

21. Finally, some good news

Open up some beds for heart attack, acute appendicitis, etc., patients

[Jilly_in_VA]

22. Instead of herd immunity

herd thinning!

[Scrivener7]

23. Something we can all agree on!

[sinkingfeeling]

24. Please do.

[NurseJackie]

25. Yes... that's wonderful news. Die at home! I think that we could erect a huge red/white circus tent...

Yes... that's wonderful news. Die at home! I think that we could erect a huge red/white circus tent in the parking lot of a dead mall, or on the county fairgrounds.

I don't want to be entirely heartless. They could be provided with clean linens, water, ac/fans (or heat as we get into the winter months) ... also plenty of morphine and anti-anxiety drugs to help them cross-over pain free.

I must remember to invest heavily in publicly owned funeral homes, embalming fluid chemical manufacturers, funeral-home make-up and hairdressing schools, casket makers, vault makers, bronze works, granite and marble works, etc. Boom times are coming!!