A Beloved Bar Owner Was Skeptical About the Virus. Then He Took a Cruise. NYT

[mzmolly]

?]

Joe Joyce, left, the owner of JJ Bubbles, a popular neighborhood bar in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with his family in the 1980s.

Decades before he would embark on a cruise to the Mediterranean, confident that the coronavirus would have little to do with him, Joe Joyce was known to the world as a social creature, the kind who would do well on a boat full of strangers.

...

On March 1, Joe Joyce and his wife, Jane, set sail for Spain on a cruise, flying first to Florida. His adult children — Kevin, Eddie and Kristen Mider — suggested that the impending doom of the coronavirus made this a bad idea. Joe Joyce was 74, a nonsmoker, healthy; four years after he opened his bar he stopped drinking completely. He didn’t see the problem.

“He watched Fox, and believed it was under control,’’ Kristen told me.

Early in March Sean Hannity went on air proclaiming that he didn’t like the way that the American people were getting scared “unnecessarily.’’ He saw it all, he said, “as like, let’s bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.”

...

He and his wife then headed to their house in New Hampshire. Their children were checking in from New York and New Jersey, and on March 27, when Kristen got off the phone with her father, she called an ambulance. He was wheezing. His oxygen level turned out to be a dangerously low 70 percent. On April 9, he died of Covid-19. The following day, Artie Nelson, one of his longtime bartenders at JJ Bubbles, and also in his 70s, died of the virus as well.

* More at the NYT

[dhol82]

1. That was a good article. And really sad.

[mzmolly]

3. Very.

Trump has blood on his hands, as do the cultists who anchor the 'news' at Fox.

[dhol82]

6. Yup.

[Cha]

10. Oh yeah.. that is so plain.. that sean hannity et al on

fox, who promoted that the CV was a "hoax", to make trump look bad, are FUBAR Stupid and have people's Blood on their slimy hands.

Thank you for this cautionary tale, mzmolly.

StaySafe!

[mzmolly]

24. You stay safe as well

my friend.

[Hortensis]

30. Yes. Sums it up as well as anything. nt

[iemitsu]

2. Won't be the last story like this that we hear.

Sad but predictable.

[mzmolly]

4. Agree.

Sigh.

[dalton99a]

5. He believed Dear Leader.

[dhol82]

7. Too many out there like him.

[sheshe2]

9. Just look at the demonstations.

He wants his followers to die for him.

[dhol82]

12. Sucks. Bigly.

[Newest Reality]

8. Sad!

Maybe this tragedy will at least serve to get those in denial out of their clouds and more serious about the measure to prevent exposure and infection. It is time to get real about this if we want to recover.

More, human interest stories like this would be helpful and there are plenty of them to be told.

[Harker]

11. Yes. Putting names and faces

and stories to the death toll makes the numbers more real. And larger.

I once asked a holocaust denier if "only" 500,000 were murdered, would that be okay?

[dhol82]

13. What he say?

[Harker]

23. Nothing intelligible, as I recall it 35 years on.

He stammered and blustered a little, and quickly left me alone, which was what I wanted most at the time.

I hope he later considered the proposition.

[mzmolly]

32. Good

question.

[Harker]

48. Some people can't seem to understand huge numbers...

or that a coldly efficient, murderous regime did that quite recently.

[niyad]

15. Sorry, but no. The damned sheeples will say that the stories are fake, written to smear

Ole donnie bodybags.

[dawg day]

17. Do you think it would move Hannity at all to read this?

Probably not. He and Limbaugh and the rest are mini-sociopaths in the wake of the maxi-sociopath Trump.

[dhol82]

36. Not so much sociopaths as looking out for their paycheck.

[donkeypoofed]

21. I'm sorta hoping people stop watching Fox "News"

[onecaliberal]

14. Trump knows he losing his own voters, right?

Or is it more that he thinks it’s okay because black and brown people get it and die from the virus at much more elevated rate. I hope people sue faux spews and their hosts personally. The shit they spew daily is deadly.

[lindysalsagal]

18. I think he's more worried about losing his "business" right now.

And what he perceives as his "good name."

[renate]

16. I wonder whether it would be more effective to blame Fox than Trump

After all, they’re the real problem. And Trump’s worshipers will never blame him.

But if (as is true) a fair share of blame is laid at Hannity’s door, it wouldn’t be a bad thing—for democracy and to slow the spread of the virus—if he and the other people yelling and whining on Fox became the faces of failure.

[cayugafalls]

19. For a dump supporter he sounded like a decent guy. So sad.

To bad his buddy in the WH doesn't care about people...at all.

[Mr. Ected]

20. I wonder how many innocents he took out and no one even knows it

These protesting assholes are like drunk drivers. Get drunk enough and get on the road, honestly, I don't care if you wrap yourself around a tree. But it ain't just you on the road, and you're likely to take out someone else, and that's why you are a MURDERER if you flaunt the rules and hurt innocent people.

You don't have the right to make that decision for me!

[Iggo]

27. At least one, looks like.

[Celerity]

22. wow

“He said, ‘Don’t you think this is fishy? Do you know anyone who has it? Do you know anyone who has died from it?’ And I said, ‘Dad, I don’t know anyone now, but give me a week and I bet I will.’”

[samnsara]

25. dont mess with viruses...hubby and i canceled our one and only trip..

..to Jamaica because of the Zika virus...

[Initech]

58. I canceled a trip to Vancouver and a trip to Maui.

Both this year. Cost about $5,000 total in plane fares and hotels. Thankfully the plane fares are on hold for now and the hotels I was able to cancel and get everything back but about $50. It sucks but it will be allowed to resume at some point.

[gibraltar72]

26. Get your news from a source who filed court papers that say false statements

are protected as free speech. Could be dangerous to your health.

[lindysalsagal]

28. It's only a matter of time before every frumper loses a loved one to this democratic "hoax."

If they really believed we could fabricate such lies, why would we be making up crap about a virus? We'd make up crap about republicans!

THAT's how stupid they are.

[mzmolly]

31. Agree. My sisters is a nurse

who is a Fox News fan. She suggested that the virus may have been around much longer and is less deadly than some indicate. She stated that deaths from COVID19 should be calculated only as a result of COVID19, if there are no underlying health conditions that contribute. I said we better change how we view influenza related deaths, in that case.

[lindysalsagal]

34. The brainwashing is that total. Terrifying.

[mzmolly]

39. Indeed

it is. I expect she'll come to her senses as she has more exposure to reality.

[lindysalsagal]

41. My aunt is a retired icu nurse who thinks the shitbag is a good president.

But she was also blind-drunk and unintelligible by the end of that phone call....and I'm not making a joke. It was sad.

[mzmolly]

43. Oh

no. That is very sad.

[UCmeNdc]

29. Live by FOX News, Die by FOX News.......

[Hestia]

62. My DH & I say, Live by Fox, Die for the Dow

[bucolic_frolic]

33. True Believers are never deterred by facts

though they are interred by undertakers.

[lindysalsagal]

42. Shakespeare, pure Shakespeare.

We. Are. Not. Worthy.

[bucolic_frolic]

46. LOL, a compliment indeed

Thank you very much, I am laughing out loud

[UpInArms]

35. The last 'graph is a weeper

Seven days before he was admitted to the hospital, Joe and Kristen had an argument about the emerging public health crisis, which Kristen described as the only dispute she ever had with her father that she wished she hadn’t won. “He said, ‘Don’t you think this is fishy? Do you know anyone who has it? Do you know anyone who has died from it?’ And I said, ‘Dad, I don’t know anyone now, but give me a week and I bet I will.’”

[mzmolly]

40. That

is terribly sad. : (

[IronLionZion]

37. Watching Fox is dangerous for one's health

and unfortunately everyone around them too.

[Initech]

57. Also dangerous for one's mental health.

As it turns the most hardcore viewers into stark raving lunatics who deny reality.

[Midnight Writer]

38. I feel sorry for the poor bartender. A bystander dead from someone else's ignorance.

[lindysalsagal]

44. Who could have imagined republicanism is literally bad for your health?

Oh, yeah. Maybe people without health insurance. My bad.

[subana]

45. that was a fatal mistake!

& it's one many republican voters seem to keep making! Since the beginning of the spread of this disease, I've seen many articles about some republican (who believed donnie that the virus was some kind of hoax) & who had just died from the virus! If republicans refuse to believe something is true, that it's all the fault of democrats, yada, yada, yada But when those conspiracy theories impact their real lives, it becomes something more than just one more republican lie!

I just heard that the republicans who are fans of donnie, only about half of them now believe what he says about the virus!! That's really bad when even the people you are counting on to support you, don't believe that you're telling them the truth!

[SouthernCal_Dem]

47. Trump/Fox lies are deadly.

I feel especially bad for his daughter who knows Trump and Fox played a part in her dad's death by playing down the seriousness of the virus.

Damn.

[Evolve Dammit]

49. "He watched Fox, and believed it was under control,'' Kristen told me. There you go. Tokyo Rose 2020

[JI7]

50. Why would he believe Fox News ? Think about the things they have said about others

So they must believe all the bigoted and other fucked up crap spewed by Fox News also .

I feel bad for any innocent person he may have infected .

[RedSpartan]

51. The end of the article says it all.

When her father began to feel sick, he resisted getting tested. “He didn’t think that he could have it,” Kristen said, “because he wasn’t 100 percent confident that it was a thing.”

Seven days before he was admitted to the hospital, Joe and Kristen had an argument about the emerging public health crisis, which Kristen described as the only dispute she ever had with her father that she wished she hadn’t won. “He said, ‘Don’t you think this is fishy? Do you know anyone who has it? Do you know anyone who has died from it?’ And I said, ‘Dad, I don’t know anyone now, but give me a week and I bet I will.’”

[catbyte]

52. Hannity, Ingraham, et al & the Murdochs all have blood on their hands, too.

[warmfeet]

53. Deny it and it will all go away.

Never worked before, won't work now.

[Initech]

54. Just think where we would be if Fox News didn't exist.

[mzmolly]

55. It's a lovely

thought.

I wish Bloomberg would buy the channel.

[Initech]

56. Well Fox News is going to be facing some ridiculous lawsuits when the dust settles from all this.

So maybe they will be in a position where they are hurting so much that could be a real possibility. If only.

[Tarheel_Dem]

59. Fox Kills! n/t

[Kaleva]

60. A DUer went on a cruise last month saying he'll be safe. Hope he's ok.

"I'm 71 and I'm currently on a cruise ship. We dock in Kona, Hawaii tomorrow. I am completely unconcerned."

"Given that most passengers here are older than I am, none of us seem remotely worried. Several shipmates have reported friends who cancelled this trip out of concerns for the corona virus, and the consensus among the rest of us is that they are nuts."

[Dorian Gray]

61. In Spite

of his support for Trump, this man sounds like a good person. Bay Ridge is an interesting neighborhood. It's got a LOT of immigrants. And a lot of working class white people. And a section that is ritzy. It's right over the Verrazano bridge from Staten Island, and it's almost an extension of that bro.

It's one of the few Brooklyn neighborhoods that skews right wing in elections, but the people in the neighborhood all coexist well. Blue collar workers: Firefighters, cops, plumbers, construction workers, etc.....

There are a lot of bars like JJ Bubbles that are friendly open places.