Week One - Dec 14th - Dec 20th, 2020

TROME - The Rise of the Medical Emergency - Week One

Incoming! Tiffany Dover tries the covid shot. Photo credit: Unattributed/India Today

Week one. What happened? Did cars start flying off the roads?

No. Only about a half dozen people in the United States had gotten the shot by the end of this week. And one of them, it turns out, is our first blip, our first glitch in the matrix — our true entre into the world of TROME: the story of nurse Tiffany Dover. The rest of the week was the normal pre-TROME week: a fire captain died on duty, an inmate also, and a bus station shut down for some kind of medical emergency. There were three stories in total — not forty, which is probably about the average for a full 7-day week in TROME.

So three stories cropped up for this week, and I was all set to print the article, when I realized that I hadn’t heard anything about Tiffany Dover. Tiffany Dover was one of the first people to take the shot, and was one of the first warnings as well:

#1 Nurse faints while talking to press about getting COVID-19 vaccine
Source: nypost.com

One thing I like right off about this article in the NY Post is when you read it at the website right now it’s flanked by three stories about our friend Dr. Jay Varma, the covid, monkeypox, and social distancing expert of New York. Lightheartedness firmly in the driver’s seat, we continue:

‘This is the scary a moment a nurse who had just received the coronavirus vaccine at a Tennessee hospital told reporters she was feeling dizzy and then fainted.’ [sic]

‘“All of my staff, you know, we are excited to get the vaccine. We are in the COVID unit, so therefore, you know, my team will be getting first chances to get the vaccine,” Dover said.’

‘“And I know that it’s really … Sorry, I’m feeling really dizzy,” she continued.’

Then she dropped.

And that’s really the start of the movie. As flashy as you might want to get, and regardless of the endless smorgasbord of absurd and captivating, er — takeoffs and departures — we can choose from, here in TROME, to kick the movie off with, the start really does have to be the start, doesn’t it? The nurse takes the shot and then passes out on live TV while talking about it.

Great shot for the opening. And also a great way to start depicting the hallucinatory vibe the rest of the movie will take, as our movie’s protagonist, having just watched the opening scene, along with us, then proceeds to watch, just as we did — my readership — the blanket of silence descend.

If it were a Twilight Zone episode our protagonist might find themselves in a distraught state, running from person to person on the street, asking each of them about the nurse, only to be met with silence and a total lack of recognition as the passersby continue on, looking past him, unheeding.

Now, unlike the bafflement doctors were soon to face, in their hordes, as TROME advanced, the ones present for the informative aspect of this article were quite certain of one, or two things. Possibly three:

‘Doctors said the episode was not related to the ingredients in the vaccine.’

Done.

‘Dover told WTVC-9 she has a condition where she often faints when she feels pain.’

Dialed. And if that’s not enough:

‘The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said that fainting may occur after various types of vaccinations and medical procedures – usually due to pain or anxiety.’

Alright. There you go.

See?

Happens all the time.

An NBC podcaster named Brandy Zadrozny published a 5-part podcast called "Tiffany Dover is Dead*" after failing to find Tiffany. Not long after the podcasts aired Tiffany got ahold of Brandy and joined her on a podcast episode, during which Tiffany put forth a totally reasonable explanation as to why she hadn’t spoken about her experience, even in the midst of her global, years-long fame:

‘Dover said she initially wanted to be more forthcoming with people about her status but that her employer wouldn't let her. Dover said hospital administrators told her "under no circumstance" should she post to her social media accounts.’

‘"I think that I should've been able to speak immediately the next day, post regularly on social media. I feel like being silent is what flamed this," Dover said […]’

I think she’s right.

‘[…] adding she would have liked to use the moment to explain how and why people pass out from vaccines but that's not a reason to not get vaccinated.’

Sounds like a reason to me.

Also, wait a minute — does she “have a condition” that causes her to faint when she feels pain, reminiscent of the sheep that fall over when they hear a loud noise, or do “people pass out from vaccines?” Those two aren’t the same.

‘Dover had stopped working at CHI Memorial during production of the initial "Tiffany Dover is Dead*" series and said in the new episode that at the time she wasn't ready to talk publicly about her experience.’

She wasn’t ready to talk publicly about her experience. What experience? She fainted, right? And that’s the end of the story, as it’s being told. What experience? The experience of staying silent while the entire world was aflame with rumors of your death? Yeah, that sounds like a strange experience, alright. Very strange.

I have a feeling there’s more to the story than this. I’m trying to find what motive the hospital could have in preventing their employee from telling the world she was alive and healthy after taking the shot. It seems they would have had the motivation to do the precise opposite.

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So, our first story, Tiffany Dover, didn’t turn up using the normal search methodology, which brought us the standard pre-TROME week, with three stories in total.

#2 MacArthur BART Station Reopens To Train Service Following 'Major Medical Emergency'
Source: cbsnews.com

‘OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Officials with BART issued an update Wednesday evening that MacArthur Station in Oakland had reopened after being shut down due to a "major medical emergency."’

‘BART has not released any details regarding the medical emergency that shut down the station.’

#3 Carrollton Fire Captain Dies After Suffering Medical Emergency On Duty
Source: nbcdfw.com

‘A Carrollton Fire Rescue captain has died at the age of 57.’

‘Captain Lee Holbert died on Sunday while hospitalized for a medical emergency suffered while on duty at Fire Station 8 on Sept. 9.’

#4 34-year-old Tarrant County inmate dies from 'unknown medical emergency,' officials say
Source: wfaa.com

‘An inmate of the Tarrant County jail died Monday from what officials with the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office described as an "unknown medical emergency."’

‘The inmate, 34-year-old Andre Wilson, was taken to JPS Hospital, where he died around 5:30 p.m. after "life-saving measures were taken," officials said.’

‘The sheriff's office did not release any additional information about the inmate's death.’

‘He is the ninth Tarrant County jail detainee to die in custody this year, according to the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, and the second to die in September, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.’

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So we have week one, and TROME has begun.

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Adieu