Florida Hospital Receives Death Threats After COVID-19 Report Sees Approval

Sarasota Memorial Hospital is facing a series of backlash and even death threats against doctors and hospital staff members after a report was published applauding the healthcare facility for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The hospital recently voted 7-2 to accept a report that concluded its COVID-19 patients had better outcomes than most in other hospitals in Florida and the country. However, a group dissatisfied with the hospital’s pandemic treatments and policies said that they would try to strip the facility of both its “taxing authoring and sovereign immunity shield from large malpractice judgements,” The Herald-Tribune reports.  

According to The Herald-Tribune, hospital officials asked the police to investigate two death threats made against employees at Sarasota Memorial in a COVID-19 forum on the “Telegram” messaging service. Police could not locate the forum host online and documented the attempt in an incident report.  

The threats have escalated to the facility receiving several messages through electronic media and voicemail, The Herald Tribune reports. A voicemail was reportedly left for an unnamed patient advocate suggesting the hospital staff may be in a for a fat “similar to that subjects in the Nuremberg Trials after World War II” followed by a threat that some trials ended by hangings or other means. 

The Sarasota Police Department will continue to investigate the threats as far as it can and will be present for the hospital’s board meeting on March 20.