Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for coronavirus. My guess – and this is really just a guess – is that he contracted the virus while he was in and out of the hospital over the past month. Either that or he contracted the virus from someone else in prison, be it a guard or another inmate. Weinstein’s test came back positive on Saturday and it was announced on Sunday.
Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for the coronavirus in prison — and most likely contracted the disease at Rikers Island, an official briefed on the matter told The Post on Sunday.
Weinstein, 68, is being held in isolation at the Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo, where he tested positive on Saturday, the official said.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision wouldn’t confirm or deny Weinstein’s condition, citing federal health-care privacy law, but said that two inmates at Wende had the coronavirus.
Weinstein — who was sentenced earlier this month to 23 years in prison for sexually assaulting two women — is believed to have been infected at Rikers, where he was briefly locked up before being transferred to Wende on Wednesday, the official said. New York City has experienced the nation’s largest jailhouse outbreak of coronavirus, with at least 38 inmates — including at Rikers — testing positive, the Associated Press reported Sunday.
Weinstein granted permission for his lawyers and a prison consultant to obtain his medical information, but none of them have been told he has the coronavirus, spokesman Juda Engelmayer said.
Apparently, Weinstein developed a cough and a blood pressure spike and that’s when he was tested. I know this is a f–ked up question, but I’m asking it anyway… how is it that there was a coronavirus test available for a convicted rapist when there aren’t tests available for regular people with worse symptoms? I get that the coronavirus outbreak in New York prisons and jails is a huge issue and a huge public safety issue, for sure. But again, how did Weinstein *specifically* get a test?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
So a virus caught a virus.
I love the phrasing over at Dlisted: Corona virus caught itself a Weinstein.
Karma is a bitch…I am just sayin!
The whole testing situation is messed up. How did Rand Paul get tested when he had no symptoms? Also, why is the gym he uses still open? My first thought about Weinstein was that it’s another ploy to get out of a jail cell and into a hospital bed. At some point they need to stop reporting on him and start treating him like every other inmate. I do hope, however, that Covid 19 doesn’t run rampant in prisons because I doubt they are equipped to handle a prison pandemic.
I believe Rand Paul uses the gym for senators at the Capitol. It was probably still open because these guys think coronavirus is just for the Poors and wouldn’t dare come for their privileged selves.
Members of Congress and key officials have access to testing because we need to keep the government running. A massive prison outbreak would overwhelm the local healthcare system.
I agree that it’s messed up generally. I also waiver between thinking that these rich celebrities shouldn’t be the only ones with access to testing. On the other hand, since they have such massive platforms maybe it’s helpful for the public to see people they “know” get infected and be in quarantine, etc. in that it brings it home for people? When Tom Hanks said he had it my husband told me the news by saying “someone we know has it” – obviously we don’t actually know him but it helps to make it less abstract.
*waver
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Exactly, feel sorry for the virus though.
Exactly what I was about to type.
I have no sympathy at all for Weinstein. However, I have tremendous sympathy for the nurses, doctors, guards, etc. who are trying to control the virus from spreading in the prisons and also take care of those who are already sick. The spread of the pandemic must be a nightmare for the medical staff and for the prisoners themselves. With all that has been written about overcrowding in prisons, the idea of social distancing is ludicrous. But, still no sympathy for Weinstein the horrible.
Money talks? Pence and wife were tested with results within hours.
HW, looking for another way out?
Get well soon, Harvey! I want you to have a long and miserable life in prison.
Exactly! I was cursing when I read this news. I don’t want him to escape justice by dying like Epstein did. He needs to suffer for a long while.
doublepost.
I hope there’s an opportunity for someone to ask him
“Mr Weinstein, how did it feel to have something dangerous enter your body without consent?”
Well said!
LOL!! May he have many more opportunities to experience this metaphor.
Slow clap 👏🏻
Standing ovation.
Bless him!!!😊
I’m so glad that testing resources were available for this asshole. Meanwhile, doctors and medical care providers are living in their garages or in hotel rooms so that they don’t spread COVID 19 to their family members as they are already reusing PPE. I’m just a bit salty this morning as I haven’t seen my husband for a week now because the very large, prominent hospital that he works for is already down to less than a weeks worth of supplies and doctors are having to reuse masks. (He’s literally sleeping on an air mattress in a colleague’s pool house, so that he doesn’t spread the virus to us.) I hate to think of what they’re having to do in small, rural hospitals.
Flamingo, you are so right. A close friend is an ICU nurse at a large hospital in Boston assigned to COVID-19 patients and she said there aren’t enough supplies. She texted me after coming home at 10 pm to let me know she’s ok but the situation is BAD and that she had just a few hours to sleep before heading back to the hospital. She said the only thing we can do is ISOLATE.
Thank you to your spouse and family and to anyone else on the front line
I am so sorry Flamingo (and don’t get me started on how angry I am about the federal government’s pathetic leadership on getting supplies). Your husband is a hero. Many, many thanks to him and to you. Hugs
It’s bad at the hospital my husband works at as a rad tech. We are the main hospital for several rural regions in the area, on top of being the main hospital for my town and the one immediately next door.
They are almost out of n-95 masks, and have been using basic surgical masks instead. (Employees were caught on camera stealing n-95 masks, btw). They are having to disinfect and re-use face shields.
And… there are only 6 free ventilators left, as of this morning. The icu is almost full.
We’re screwed.
It’s not a good situation at rural hospitals. We need help.
My husband is an orthopod and shouldn’t be busy right now as all non emergency surgeries have been pushed back, but has been on call nearly non stop as people refuse to just stay at home. This week he has had a few injuries from people who have decided that this is the week that they should take up running/ roller blading/ other new activities and several car accidents. Stay at home, people! When you chose to put on 20 year old rollerblades and break something, you’re putting the following people at higher risk: EMS, ER nurses, ER doctors, CNAs, MAs, scrub nurses, x ray techs, orthopedic nurses, orthopedic surgeons, residents, PTs, OTs, and any other person you’d come in contact with in the hospital. I know it is both boring and stressful sitting at home all day, but please consider how your actions can result in you giving or getting COVID 19.
So… who else thinks this is a ploy to get out of conventional prison and be released (or such) on medical basis as it has happened for others?
Um yeah, he seems to be taking a lot of trips to the hospital…
I’m sorry, but your comment made me chuckle
I came here to say the same thing. I wouldn’t put it past his attorneys to show a false positive result!
I’m pissed at the prospect of harvey actually dying and getting out of his 20 years in the can. I want him to live.
Can’t think of a more deserving person to get it. Except maybe 45. He’s pretty deserving, too.
how the hell did that human scumbag get a test, when healthcare professionals cannot?
Stopping a potential outbreak in the prisons will probably do more to protect healthcare workers than testing them to be honest. If there is a massive outbreak in prison what are they going to do with all the sick inmates? Bring them to hospitals. And if the prison guards all get sick too… that would be a nightmare.
(But really, the US should have the testing capacity to test everyone who needs it. It is ridiculous that they don’t).
Karma is a bitch, but as a sister to someone who has been in and out of prison over the past 20 years, the prison system isn’t prepared to handle anywhere near a pandemic. They can barely handle a normal Monday. The idea of incarcerated community spread is terrifying.
Even ignoring the inhumanity of letting it spread wildly, it’s also utterly pragmatic not to allow it in terms of the over all cost. When outbreaks occur in prisons, the care is often delayed, which means by the time they make it to hospitals, they’re in critical status. Which means bed care WITH a guard on site, shackled, sucking up more time and resources than your average patient, nervous nurses, etc. It’s not at all ideal to let patients in prisons get to the point of major hospital care.
I worked for years in a hospital that partnered with a local jail to take care of these people. It was a nightmare every time it happened, and it was always in waves if it was something major.
How did this CRIMINAL get a test when health care and other essential workers cannot get tests?? Weinstein is not essential to anything!!! I have a family member who runs an essential company, and the state health department advises they merely send people home for two weeks who feel sick. No tests. No idea who has it and who doesn’t–until someone drops dead! This is beyond outrageous.
Jails are MASSIVE breeding grounds for disease, so they would have tests on hand because they’d need to quarantine immediately. The man is garbage, but I do think jails should be humane in terms of medical care. Besides, I’m looking forward to him living out his life behind bars rather than cut it short.
I hope it hurts, Harv.
I going to follow my parents teaching that if you have nothing good to say about someone…
How’d he get a test?
He’ll no doubt slither into the mist during the chaos that’s to come, never to be seen again…
Karma train rolling right through this guy, how nice!
Amen
It’s good he was tested, so prison staff, other prisoners and medical people can take precautions to protect themselves.
I continue to be disgusted by how this country is always valuing the lives of the rich and famous even while in jail. I’ve read numerous reports about the forced labor that inmates have to do, some reports even state that they are being forced to make hand sanitizer but cannot use it. Meanwhile this rapist not only gets a test, which as stated many people cannot get due to lack of access, but I doubt he will be forced to undergo the awful conditions that other inmates do. If there truly is a shortage out there, these tests need to be reserved for all essential workers out there that are risking their lives and do not have the luxury of working from home like some of us do, myself included.
AOC had a instagram live the other day and I loved what she stated which is that after all this is said and done we should never call folks unskilled labor ever again, they are essential workers and they are the ones getting communities through this. Also side note; if your economic situation has not been impacted during this time and you are able to, please consider supporting local businesses in your community. Governments and certain institutions are unfortunately going to continue supporting the rich so it is up to us to support each other. Stay safe everyone <3
I’m glad karma got him but my sister made me wonder if he deliberately got it to get a reduced sentence or something more sinister like what happened to Epstein🤔
Are those tennis balls on the tips of his walker?