Sarasota Memorial COVID critics change location of March 20 rally

Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·3 min read
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The United for Transparency Press Conference, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., March 20, will be held at this former medical office at 959 E. Venice Ave. The site was changed in anticipation of crowd size. Vic Mellor recently purchased the building, which will eventually house both “We The People Wellness,” and “The Hollow 1A Media and Productions.” The media production facility is anticipated to open in April, while the clinic is anticipated to open later this summer.

VENICE – Groups that have been pressuring Sarasota Memorial Hospital because it followed federal treatment protocols during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the location of a rally planned for the morning of March 20, the day the public hospital board next meets.

The rally, dubbed the United for Transparency Press Conference, had been set for the SMH Sarasota campus parking lot but has been changed to 959 E. Venice Ave., the site of a planned wellness clinic designed to offer alternative therapies.

The rally in Venice is billed as featuring "medical freedom" doctors, who frequently promoted the reuse of existing drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine or vitamins and supplements to battle COVID-19 instead of newly developed vaccines and drugs recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Rally organizers also said the event will include "victims of Sarasota Memorial Hospital CDC Covid Protocols.”

Organizers are also pushing for a second – and this time fully independent from Sarasota Memorial – inquiry into how the hospital handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February the elected public hospital board that oversees Sarasota Memorial reviewed and approved an investigation that used data collected by Premier Inc., an independent quality control consultant. The study concluded that the hospital had a better than advanced survival rate for COVID-19 patients during the span of the study, which covered the period from the pandemic's onset through last fall.

Critics of that study – including members of the three groups sponsoring the March 20 rally – said they were displeased that an outside group did not analyze the data and that families of nine people whose cases were analyzed in a more micro-level assessment of the response were not contacted until the end of that analysis.

That frustration was amplified during the Feb. 22 hospital board meeting, when the hospital encouraged staff to appear to fill the 340-seat auditorium and provide pro-hospital input during the public comment period.

After that meeting, individuals, including people from outside of Sarasota County, have called or emailed medical personnel with death threats.

Another group, the Sarasota Memorial Hospital – Transparency Project has called for Gov. Ron DeSantis to open an investigation, and for the hospital to be sold to a private entity and lose its qualified immunity from high payouts in lawsuits.

Victor Mellor of The Hollow 2A is one of the three sponsors, along with the Osprey-based Zelenko Freedom Foundation, Sarasota County Moms for America.

Mellor recently bought the structure at 959 Venice Ave., which will be home for two new businesses, “We The People Wellness” and “The Hollow 1A Media and Productions." The Hollow is an event space Mellor – manager of American Precast LLC – owns on South Moon Drive east of Venice, while The Hollow 2A serves as a conservative political platform.

Related:COVID-19 response: Sarasota Memorial Hospital had better than anticipated survival rate

Family members dissatisfied with the hospital are expected to attend the 2 p.m. hospital board meeting in Sarasota, though no COVID-19 related discussion is on the hospital board agenda, other than approval of the Feb. 22 meeting minutes.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Rally calling for new SMH COVD response investigation moved to Venice