A Canadian man has found himself the subject of some serious scorn (and a few criminal charges) after his poorly thought out prank ends up turning around an entire plane.
28 year-old James Potock—who calls himself an artist—freely admitted his intention when he pulled the stunt was to gain attention and hopefully find himself as a viral video.
Like most cautionary tales about wishes, this one didn’t get granted in exactly the way he was hoping. Instead of applause or deep introspection or whatever the self-styled artist was hoping for, he is going viral because everyone is really really mad at him.
So what did he do to earn so much ire? Let’s start from the top.
He boarded a WestJet flight from Toronto to Jamaica along with about 250 other passengers and the flight crew. At some point during the flight, James (wearing a bright pink hoodie and a face mask so he was extra noticeable) stood up and announced that he had just come back from China and he wasn’t feeling well.
But sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. For that, let’s fast-forward to an interview James did after everything went down. A reporter asked him to explain what he did.
And explain he did.
“I stood up, I said ‘I just returned from a flight from Hunan province.’ Umm, I might have said ‘This is the capital for coronavirus.’ and then I said ‘I don’t feel too well.’ ”
With coronavirus being high on everyone’s list of worries, his announcement obviously caused some concern. James claims he intended for it to be a joke and he was only trying to create a viral video.
Nobody on board the flight found it funny, but James got his viral video wish.
The flight had no choice but to turn around. They couldn’t risk spreading the virus in Jamaica, where they were heading, on the off chance that James was truly sick.
When the flight landed back in Canada, James was removed while the other passengers jeered at him in collective annoyance. He had just changed the travel plans of well over 200 people, delaying their vacations, wasting their money, messing up reservations, etc.
His deplaning, and the jeering of the other passengers, was caught on video. It’s that video that went viral and now James is being hailed as pretty much the absolute worst.
See, not only did he cause his flight to have to turn around and land in Toronto, forcing everyone aboard to lose time in Jamaica, but the return flight on that same airplane also had to be canceled. Essentially, James also stranded 200+ people on the small island.
Those people may not have had hotels, or any money left to get one, book new flights, etc.
James did issue an apology during his interview, telling the reporter that he felt remorse as soon as he was told the plane was turning around.
Let’s just say he is incredibly unpopular online right now.
WestJet declined to comment except to say that it is a matter for the courts now. Since this is not his first time disrupting a flight, it’s possible he will see himself on no-fly lists soon.
We have a feeling the hundreds of passengers he inconvenienced and caused damages to with his “jokes” would probably be OK with that.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
