Rimrock Wellness Center, a chiropractic office at 12th and Patterson that also sells fat-loss treatments and supplements, has the same street address as “Stop the Mandate GJ,” the group agitating to stop hospitals, nursing homes and doctors’ offices from requiring health workers be vaccinated against Covid-19, the highly communicable, often deadly disease causing the pandemic. At the same time it is encouraging people to remain unvaccinated, Rimrock Wellness Center is also trying to profit off unvaccinated people’s fear of getting Covid-19, as well as their misperceptions of the relative safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines.
Category: Public health
Cindy Ficklin, Coronavirus pandemic, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Generic idiocy, Health, Mesa County Republican Party, Pandemic, politics, Public health, Republican incompetence, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
HD-55 candidate Cindy Ficklin (R) now blames taxpayers and a Daily Sentinel reporter for her getting Covid, and is taking unproven treatments for the disease
by 9 Comments
• •Republican House District 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin is using non-medically approved treatments for Covid-19, including the animal de-worming medication Ivermectin. She also says she is inhaling “silver and Glutathione” with a nebulizer to “prevent conjestion [sic] from hardening in my lungs.”
Cindy Ficklin, Coronavirus pandemic, Crazy Republicans, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Lies, Pandemic, politics, Public health, Republican lies
Anti-mask, anti-vax Republican candidate for HD55 Cindy Ficklin has Covid-19, blames it on government
by 7 Comments
• •Anti-mask, anti-vaccination candidate for HD-55 Cindy Ficklin (R-Mesa County) announced December 19 on Facebook that she has contracted Covid-19 and is blaming it squarely on the U.S. government.
Ficklin announced she had the disease after emerging from a 30 day ban from Facebook. Facebook has banned Ficklin numerous times for spreading lies and conspiracy theories on her page. Ficklin has repeatedly asserted without proof that the SARS CoV2 virus was created in a laboratory to target obese, elderly and unfit people; she has spread lies about vaccine deaths and about public health physician Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, profiting personally from the virus.
Good things about Mesa County, Health, Pandemic, Public health
Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra announces mandatory vaccine and masking policy for patrons 2021/2022 season
by 14 Comments
• •The Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra (GJSO) appears to be the first local organization to grasp the gravity of the coronavirus infection spike currently gripping Mesa County and act on it by adopting policies aimed at minimizing the danger of transmitting the virus at its events.
The GJSO emailed its supporters today to let them know that due to the high number of Covid-19 cases locally, the low vaccination rate here and the very heavy burden being placed on local hospitals, starting December 10 all patrons will be required to wear masks and provide proof they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 prior to attending all GJSO events at all indoor venues, including the Avalon Theater, Love Recital Hall at Colorado Mesa University and others.
Cindy Ficklin, Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Deplorables, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Health, Pandemic, Public health, Republican lies, Stupid Republicans
HD55 Candidate Cindy Ficklin repeatedly asserts Coronavirus was invented in a lab to target obese, elderly & unfit people
by 4 Comments
• •Extremist Republican House District 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin has repeatedly asserted, without providing any evidence, that the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus was manufactured in a laboratory and intentionally designed to target elderly, obese and less fit people, adding “Hitler would have loved it.”
She stated this the first time in an April 6, 2020 Facebook post:
Cindy Ficklin, Conservatives, Dangerous Republicans, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Health, Mesa County Republican Party, politics, Public health, Republican incompetence, Republican lies, Trump Insanity
HD 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin spreads false, dangerous misinformation about vaccines & Covid on her “Cindy Says” blog
by 18 Comments
• •After Republican House District 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin was banned from Facebook for 30 days on May 27, 2021 for spreading the lie that Covid-19 was man-made in a lab in China, she started a personal blog on the website of Coldwell Banker, the real estate office with which she is affiliated.
Ficklin has been banned from Facebook several times, including another 30 day stint in July of 2021. Facebook usually applies the 30 day ban — the longest ban they use before taking an account down completely — after a user willfully violates the platform’s “community standards” multiple times and after they give at least five prior warnings and multiple bans of increasing length before reaching the 30-day threshold.
Deprived of her main social media conduit, Ficklin was in need of an outlet where she could spread conspiracy theories and misinformation about Covid-19 and other topics without restriction.
Coronavirus pandemic, politics, Public health, Trump Insanity, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
A look at where Mesa County is now with Covid, and how other places are doing by comparison
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• •Arguably, Mesa County citizens’ denial of the science around Covid-19 transmission, and the overall lax attitude of our area’s elected officials toward reining in the pandemic are worsening and prolonging the pandemic in our area, making more people sick, putting more people in the hospital and giving Mesa County a good chance of staying a perpetual pandemic state into the foreseeable future.
For comparison, here are how some other areas around the country are doing in managing the pandemic compared to Mesa County:
Dangerous Republicans, Ethics, Pandemic, Public health, Republican incompetence
Mesa County fiddles while Covid-19 rages
by 21 Comments
• •Back on March 22, 2021, the Mesa County Commissioners, none of whom have a medical degree or any experience in epidemiology, immunology, virology or any other medical field, signed a “Free to Choose” resolution (pdf) that ended all Coronavirus protections in the county, including physical distancing, masking, capacity limits in businesses and hand washing. Their rationale was that hospital use in Mesa County was decreasing, everyone had access to vaccines, and people had spent plenty of time wearing masks already and enough was enough.
Well maybe things were looking up at the time, but the virus doesn’t go by how angry we are at it.
Activism, Conservatives, Diversity, Education, Health, LGBT issues, Public health, Sherronna Bishop
Election conspiracy theorist Sherronna Bishop compares G.J. blogger to a top U.S public health physician
by 10 Comments
• •In what was meant to be a slur aimed at transgender people, Garfield County election conspiracy theorist Sherronna Bishop, who bills herself as “Americas Mom,” today in an Instagram post compared AnneLandmanBlog author Anne Landman to Admiral Rachel Levine, M.D., the highly accomplished public health physician who was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the nation’s new Assistant Secretary of Health in the U.S. Department of Human Services.
Coronavirus pandemic, Crazy Republicans, Education, Extremism, Generic idiocy, Intolerance, Pandemic, politics, Public health, Safety, Stupid Republicans, Weird western slope stuff
My Pillow Guy appears with Sherronna Bishop at Garfield County School District RE-2 Board Meeting
by 2 Comments
• •In a bizarre scene, “My Pillow guy” Mike Lindell made a cameo appearance alongside Rifle election conspiracist and Tina Peters defender Sherronna Bishop at a Zoomed Garfield County School District RE-2 Board Meeting on October 13.
Bishop appears about three minutes into the meeting, speaking during the public comment period and accusing School Board members of abusing children by “forcing medical devices on them.” She condemns the Board for how her “kid had to wear a mask to his homecoming dance” and how the students were “interrupted” by an adult at the dance who reminded students how to correctly wear their masks. Bishop accused the school board of “assaulting and abusing” children by having them wear masks for protection at school amid the pandemic.
After a member of the school board warns Bishop she has 30 seconds left to speak, a man wearing a shirt and tie moves into the frame with Bishop. He then bends down to where viewers can see his face, and it was the clear the man is Mike Lindell. One of the school board members can be heard in the background saying “Jesse, turn it off!”
As Bishop ends her comments, Lindell starts weighing in with the District RE-2 School Board, saying “There’s more science than you guys even know of” about masking, and “[inaudible] suicide and addiction…”
The school board then cuts the couple off, and lets a student present know that it is her turn to speak.
Video of the meeting is below:
Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Domestic terrorism, Education, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Health care, Intolerance, Lies, politics, Public health, Racism, Trump Insanity
Far right wing slate of school board candidates gin up anger and spread misunderstanding to raise funds
by 7 Comments
• •The three far-right wing candidates for District 51 School Board backed by the extremist group “Stand for the Constitution” — Angela Lema, Willie Jones and Andrea Haitz — together sent out a fundraising email today, titled “It’s Time to Get Politics Out of the Classroom,” aimed at generating anger towards the U.S. Department of Justice to raise money to help get them onto the school board.
The email’s subject line screams:
“The DOJ is coming after parents!”
Education, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, Grand Junction Chamber, Pandemic, politics, Public health, Republican lies, Safety, Tina Peters, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
D-51 School Board candidate Voter Guide for the 11/2/2021 election
by 72 Comments
• •
NOTE: This article is longer than usual owing to the number of people running, the amount of information available on them and the need to put the practical meaning of Chamber endorsements in context so people can accurately grasp their significance. One photo in this article may be unsuitable for kids. Below is a brief summary of my vote recommendations for school board, if you don’t have time to read the whole article immediately:
Recommended Votes:
District C – Trish Mahre
District D – Nick Allan
District E – David Combs
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Following are summaries of the candidates running for District 51 School Board in the upcoming November 2 election. Sources of information included the candidates’ publicly available campaign and work websites, their campaign and personal social media, and other primary and authoritative online resources, including minutes of District 51 Board meetings and the website of Mesa County Libraries.
CMU, Coronavirus pandemic, Cronyism, Education, Ethics, Health, Pandemic, politics, Public health, Safety
Daily Sentinel & Mesa County Public Health Department appear to take steps to shield CMU from criticism
by 2 Comments
• •The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and Mesa County Public Health Department appear to be shielding Colorado Mesa University from public criticism over its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic by minimizing and obscuring information about Covid outbreaks and how the school is handling cases.
Buried towards the end of an article in today’s Sentinel about Covid cases in area schools was a reference to a situation in which a CMU student who was sick with Covid-19 and quarantined in Piñon Hall failed to get any food delivered for two days. The paper referred to the situation as “one minor communications issue” and made it sound like the student was to blame, along with a single poster in the dorm.
Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Inept Republicans, Intolerance, Lauren Boebert, Lies, politics, Propaganda, Public health, Religious hypocrisy, Republican incompetence, Republican lies, Separation of Church and State, Stupid Republicans, Weird western slope stuff
Rep. Lauren Boebert wants government to take orders from the church
by 7 Comments
• •U.S. House Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, speaking at a conference held September 13 by the Truth and Liberty Coalition, cast Democrats as the enemy and called on God to remove ungodly leaders in Washington, D.C. and instead “install righteous men and women of God” who understand that government should be taking orders from the church, and not the other way around.
“It’s time the church speaks up. The church has relinquished too much authority to government. We should not be taking orders from the government; the government needs to be looking at the church and saying, ‘How do we do this effectively?”
CMU, Education, Ethics, Health care, John Marshall, Pandemic, Public health, Safety
Quarantined CMU student reports not getting food, help or medical attention
by 6 Comments
• •Colorado Mesa University (CMU) students currently being quarantined in Piñon Hall after being exposed to Covid-19, or who are currently sick with Covid, are telling their parents there is no one stationed in the dorm to help them, and that the school is not providing them with medical attention or even food.
Colorado Public Radio (CPR) published an article September 9 titled, “To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate. At Colorado Mesa University, that was the conversation,” about CMU President John Marshall’s hands-off approach to controlling the Coronavirus pandemic. Currently CMU does not require students to be vaccinated against Covid-19, or to use face coverings, and does not allow instructors to enforce mask-wearing in classrooms — a recipe to spread the Coronavirus, especially with the more communicable Delta variant widespread in Mesa County, and where, according to the Mesa County Public Health Department, only 25-29% of people between the ages of 19 and 29 are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Dangerous Republicans, Education, Ethics, Health, John Marshall, Public health, Safety
CMU President John Marshall cites unreliable preprint as a basis for the school’s weak Covid-19 response
by 6 Comments
• •New Colorado Mesa University (CMU) President John Marshall on August 30 cited a non-peer-reviewed study that bears a boldfaced warning label saying it might contain errors and be incorrect, as a basis for the school’s disturbingly weak mitigation plan against Covid-19 that is terrorizing staff.
Activism, CMU, Dangerous Republicans, Ethics, Health, Health care, Pandemic, politics, Public health, Safety
The Agency of the Irresponsible
by 8 Comments
• •The following commentary on how Colorado Mesa University (CMU) is handling the coronavirus pandemic was written by CMU History Professor Sarah Swedberg, who is now experiencing CMU’s policies in person. This article was originally published on Nursing Clio, an open-access, peer-reviewed, collaborative blog that ties historical scholarship to present-day issues related to gender and medicine. The article is reprinted here with full permission from Dr. Swedberg.
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Like many faculty at state universities, the beginning of this school year brings me more terror than excitement. Colorado Mesa University (CMU), the institution at which I have taught since 1999, will require neither masks nor vaccines for students, and faculty cannot enforce mask mandates in the classrooms. This flies in the face of best practices for public health. When I asked the reason for this policy, I was told that there were strong feelings on both sides.
“Strong feelings” is clearly code for the fact that CMU is in a politically conservative region where there is strong resistance to both vaccination and masks. These words remind us that public health measures have always been politicized. Because I teach about HIV and AIDS and because I was a young adult in the 1980s, it is that pandemic that is foremost in my mind as I try to negotiate my own and my students’ safety.
CMU, Coronavirus pandemic, Ethics, Generic idiocy, Health, Health care, John Marshall, Public health
CMU to host another superspreader event on 8/27
by 0 Comments
• •As if holding one massive superspreader event to kick off Colorado Mesa University’s fall ’21 semester wasn’t enough of a public health threat to students and the community, in today’s Daily Sentinel, CMU is advertising another big event on August 27th to be held inside the Meyer Ballroom in the University Center that involves eating, dancing and drinking alcohol.
The ad does not mention any coronavirus precautions being used at the event, like proof of a negative Covid-19 test, proof of being fully vaccinated against Covid-19, or masks or physical distancing.