A HIPAA violation waiting to happen, brought to you by CNN
Pandemic porn.
Related highlights:
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CNN has moved on from promoting a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist from Florida to elevating a gossipy nurse from South Dakota.
Hey, you got to do something to keep the material fresh — people may tune out otherwise.
Nurse Jodi Doering appeared on CNN Monday morning to recount the alleged actions and words of people in her care, including the infectious coronavirus patients who refuse to believe that COVID-19 is real — even in their final moments.
Imagine the indignity of having your last moments on earth repurposed as fodder for cable news chatter.
Host Alisyn Camerota began the segment by explaining that CNN had originally invited South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to discuss the state’s infections and fatality rates but settled on Doering after the governor’s office declined the offer.
“I think the hardest thing to watch is that people are still looking for something else, and they want a magic answer. And they don't want to believe that COVID is real,” said Doering. “It [isn’t] one particular patient. It's just a culmination of so many people.”
The nurse added, “And their last dying words are, ‘This can't be happening. It's not real.’ And when they should be spending time Facetiming their families, they're filled with anger and hatred, and it just made me really sad the other night. And I just can't believe those are going to be their last thoughts and words.”
Speaking of disbelief, how is it appropriate for a nurse to appear on national television to recount her patients’ alleged dying words?
“Anger and hatred toward you?” asked Camerota, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.
Said Doering, “I think it's just a belief that it's not real, and nursing happens to be on the receiving end of that. And that's okay. We can take that. That's where you're there for. It's just, in the bigger picture, when you try to reason with people — can I call your family, your kids, your wife, your friend, your brother? And they say, ‘No, because I'm going to be fine.’”
The nurse’s appearance on CNN is because of her viral Nov. 14 Twitter thread in which she said she “can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is going to ruin the USA.”
It adds, "All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that 'stuff' because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens ... It’s like a f---ing horror movie that never ends. There’s no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again."
So, to be clear, CNN asked Noem to appear on the show. When the governor declined, the cable network turned to the next best thing: A nurse who had gone viral on Twitter.
On Monday, Doering continued, telling Camerota, “people want it to be influenza, they want it to be pneumonia, they want it to be — I mean, we've even had people say, ‘Well, I think it might be lung cancer.’ I mean, something so far-fetched.”
Her testimony is not technically a HIPAA violation, but damn if it does not feel like a violation of privacy.