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Missi Wimberly was so shocked that her pedicurist wore PPE during her 'essential' pedicure that she flew into a rage and started a Twitter campaign to end social distancing. Apparently, the suggestion that anyone could catch something like the Covid-19 virus from her, or that she could catch it from a pedicurist was an unacceptable afront to her dignity.
One could almost accept this behaviour from an ignorant, spoilt little princess daughter of a Bible belt Redneck who had never read a book in her life, but Missi Wimberly is no ordinary Alabama Redneck. She proclaims herself on her LinkedIn page to be "a health, wellness and fitness professional". She is also the wife of a doctor who should understand the rudiments of epidemiology and the danger to people that the Covid-19 virus presents.
Her husband is Lee Thomas Wimberly, MD, an Internist with several Alabama hospitals and CEO of several retirement homes in the state. Together they have five children. One can only hope that, despite Missi's cavalier approach to infection control, their children remain safe during the pandemic.
However, Lee Thomas Wimberly is no ordinary MD. He is a prominent Christian fundamentalist and Bible-literalist apologist for 'intelligent [sic] design' creationism who has, at least in his private life, forsworn scientific evidence in favour of a literal interpretation of the Bible. In his bio he proudly boasts about how he inflicts his religious views on his (captive) patients, seemingly concerned as much to impress them with his piety as to cure them.
In Missi's words:
My husband is a doctor and owns a large, very successful practice. He is also the medical director of lots of large nursing homes here in the area. He has taken care of ZERO Covid patients. Hear me: ZERO. If any of you are worried about this virus, stay home. Don’t shame the rest of us who aren’t scared and who live like we have a working immune system. Wash your hands. Be thoughtful. But- my goodness – LIVE. I will never cower to fear pandering. It’s sad so many do.
I’m so sorry you had to look at a face shield while getting your nails done today. I only hope the families of the 100,000 Americans who have already died from this virus can show you adequate sympathy for your terrible frustrations.https://t.co/YkQwPoYDPY
— Misha Collins (@mishacollins)May 26, 2020
On May 26, Missi posted another series of tweets in which she attempted to justify her earlier ones with:
I hope you all know that I would never shame any salon worker or mask-wearer. The only point I was trying to make was that it was depressing to me how now our lives are all about avoiding others. It genuinely makes me sad. I am a big hugger and love people and I hate that I can’t do that anymore. I know some people are really worried about getting sick and I sympathize with them. Some are only pretending to be worried. We all have opinions on social distancing-I sometimes share mine on Twitter like lots of others do.
Oh but Misha, don’t you know Miss Alabama’s husband is a doctor, and he hasn’t treated one COVID patient. So obviously the 100,000 people who’ve died already are just fictional characters being made up so that the evil Democrats could prevent a servant from touching her feet. 🙄
— JoAnne “If you insist” (@JoAnneHnyc)May 26, 2020
One wonders whether he will now find the time to write his promised 'line by line rebuttal' of my book, The Unintelligent Designer: Refuting the Intelligent Design Hoax, which he promised he would place on his blog last summer where I could respond to it, but which never materialised. Instead, a 'review' appeared on the Amazon page for my book, which ignored the contents of the book entirely and simply reproduced the standard copy and paste apologia for ID and advertisements for a list of creationist disinformation and conspiracy theory books.
I assume this was by Lee Thomas Wimberly, although the 'reviewer' chose to remain anonymous as 'The Professor'. If not, then his promised 'line by line rebuttal' is still eagerly awaited.
One wonders what Lee's employers in Birmingham, Alabama's hospitals thought of his conspicuous failure to correct his wife's dangerously misleading campaign against social distancing and how the relatives of the residents of his many care homes view his wife's cavalier attitude to infection control with a virus to which the elderly are especially vulnerable, despite their immune systems.
Deaths from Covid-19 in the USA have now topped the 100,000 mark, making America the worst-hit country in the world by far. Christian churches have contributed to this number by encouraging their followers to ignore the lockdown and gather together in church where spreading the virus is especially easy.
What Makes You So Special? From The Big Bang To You
Ten Reasons To Lose Faith: And Why You Are Better Off Without It
Why she felt she had to emphasise Lee's lack of experience with Covid-19 patients is unclear
ReplyDeleteProbably a clumsy way of saying "he hasn't seen any covid-19 patients" = "there aren't any, or very few" = "the pandemic is fake news or hugely exaggerated". I have seen people literally say that they think the whole thing is a hoax because they don't personally know anyone who has caught covid-19.
Quite probably. Her husband hasn't had any patients with it so there aren't any. However, a 'good Christian' doctor should have been volunteering to work in hospitals where there are too many patients with Covid-19 and too few doctors. Maybe his qualifications and experience aren't up to it.
DeleteIt SEEMS that this woman believes she is more important than others because she married a successful doctor. And yes, that's my opinion. I thought those kinds of beliefs went out in the 1950s or earlier, but apparently are still alive and well. It is sad that anyone would attempt to shame a low-paid salon worker who is only trying to protect herself against contagious disease.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure people like her feel their piety makes them better than others. Probably too posh to wash too - an old problem in hospitals where some self-important doctors don't wash their hands. I hope for his patients' sake that Lee isn't like his wife in that respect.
DeleteWhy would a fundamentalist person even become a doctor since they believe god has it all figured out, planned and set, as in when and how you will die. No wonder they feel so arrogant, since god has designed and created the world just for them and their beliefs
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