Odd News: Man Wielded 6-inch Game Weapon Replica In Public, Got Arrested

According to report in Kotaku, a gentleman in England was observed by CCTV to be holding what appears to be a bladed weapon and walking down the street, leading to his arrest by the local constabulary. The man was surprised, claiming the "weapon" was sheathed, and was a miniature replica of a fictional sword, specifically, the Master Sword from Legend of Zelda. And he bought it as a fidget toy. 

Cosplayer dressed as Link wielding Master Sword and Hylian Shield
NY Comic Con 2013 by Richie S, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia

Unfortunately, the item does have a measurable blade length of 6 inches, and the allowable blade size in public as per UK law is 3 inches. For this offense, he was sentenced to 4 months in prison. 

Hmmm... Apparently, he made a couple mistakes. One can get a toy with 3 inch or smaller "blade", and one can keep such item in his pocket while fidgeting with it. He did neither. 

Takeaway: Big Brother is Watching in UK

Sad COVIDiocy: Unvaxxed British Young Pregnant Woman Killed by COVID-induced Stroke

Sadie, 24, was 29 weeks pregnant when she caught COVID. She was not vaxxed. She was pronounced brain dead on December 3rd, 2021 due to a brain hemorrhage caused by COVID blood clot. Her baby was saved via emergency C-section. 

Sadie's father, David, said his daughter had a "hunky dory" pregnancy until she started developing migraines and chest pain. She was diagnosed with a blood clot in her lung in October. Doctors sent her home with blood-thinning medication. 

Sadie caught COVID in November, but was mostly asymptomatic. 

On the morning of December 2nd, Sadie found herself paralyzed on one side. A blood clot had traveled to her brain, causing a full-on stroke. She was transported by ambulance to the hospital. 

Sadie died the next day. She is survived by the newborn, Eliot, and two-year-old daughter Harper. 

It is very likely that had she been vaxxed, she may still be with us today. That was the opinion of the folks in the hospital. 

Sad COVIDiocy: The story of John Eyers, Triathlete, Fitness Fanatic, COVID casualty

John Eyers was the epitome of fitness. He ran triathlons. He is a bodybuilder and a mountain climber. He's got a six-pack and much more. But not even his family can change his mind about "no COVID vaccine for me". And he died of COVID in July 2021. 

In June 2021 he met with his family to celebrate his nephew's 10th birthday (son of his twin sister Jenny McCann) and he started spouting some nonsense about "people are getting COVID jab to get free McDonald's" or "it's got formaldehyde". Naturally, his family fact-checked him, but he won't change his mind. He kept saying "I won't be a guinea pig."  The subject was eventually dropped. Later they went to a health club, and John refused to put his mask on, but eventually did. And the weekend ended with no other incident. 

It was to be the last time they ever see each other. 

John tested positive for COVID on June 29th. By July 3rd he's so sick his girlfriend had to force him to call for paramedics to transport him to the hospital. Next day, he was vomiting blood. A week later he's on a ventilator, unable to breath himself. COVID first attacked his lungs, causing blood clots, as his body's immune system started attacking the lung tissues AND COVID. Doctors tried to put him on ventilator and use steroids to control the immune response, but that caused other illnesses to take hold, such as a lung infection, which cascaded to other organs. Doctors helped with dialysis, but lungs are not recovering. His body used all its reserves, fighting the virus and the complications. It was not enough. 

On July 27th, he lost the battle with COVID before his family can don PPE to spend the final moments with him. He was 42, in prime physical condition before COVID got him. 

John told the doctors before he was put on the ventilator, that he regretted not getting the vaccine. 

John's funeral was August 16, 2021. His family chose to share his story... John was a COVIDiot, and they don't want anyone else to share John's fate... or their fate of losing one of their own to something that could have been easily prevented. 

Don't be a COVIDiot like John, or one of the dozens all over the world like John. COVID can come for you no matter how healthy you are. And if you are not doing everything to prevent it, such as masks and vaccines, you are a part of the problem.  

Crazy COVIDiocy: Antivaxxers Lie About Death to Discredit Vaccine, Enraging Surviving Family

 A 17-year old beautician died in her sleep due to unknown causes on September 14th, in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. The grieving family is horrified that many antivaxxers, desperate to discredit the vaccine any way they can, started to claim that the death was due to the COVID vaccine. 

Maddy Campbel is a beautician with a promising future, but her life was cut short, and a postmortem was unable to establish a definite cause of death. Yet after the limited release of news on Instagram, antivaxxer trolls started to inundate the announcement and the inbox with claims that "COVID vaccine killed her", probably accompanied by "it's a government cover-up". 

What the trolls don't know is that Maddy had NOT received any COVID vaccine. Not even a single dose. So her death has NOTHING to do with the COVID vaccine. 

Her father called out the antivaxxer trolls, "Anybody spreading such rumours should hang their heads in shame." 

Her place of employment also issued a statement: "We are horrified to hear that people are trying to sue Maddy's death as an 'anti vaccine' news story. Maddy would not wish to have her name used to dissuade people against having the vaccine. I would like to confirm that Maddy had neither doses of the COVID vaccine, her unexpected death was in no way linked."

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Unfortunately, this sort of vaccine-blaming happens QUITE OFTEN online. Any time there's a death, antivaxxers assess the death, and see if it can be blamed on vaccines somehow. Baby deaths are most often blamed, because a lot of children receive vaccines when they are young. Some grieving families are harassed into quitting social media, then the antivaxxers claim "cover-up". 

For example, Ashley Spivey, one-time contestant on The Bachelor back in about 2010 or so, suffered a stillbirth, at 30 weeks. It appears that the cord has twisted around the fetus's neck. Such things happen. What Ashley did NOT expect, however, are the antivaxxers who insisted that the flu shot she got a week earlier was what killed her fetus. And given that Ashley had announced that she's getting her flu shot to protect the herself and the baby, the antivaxxers claimed they "tried to warn you [Ashley]". 

It's a bit perverse when a mom's story about the death of a child/fetus, or even the struggles of her child with a medical condition was targeted by the antivaxxers for harassment. And Ashley is hardly alone in that. 

Don't be a COVIDiot or antivaxxers. Don't join a group so eager to prove a falsehood they are willing to harass grieving mothers and families.