Episode 161: Detective Herzog And The Millionaire Kitty Cartel

It was barely half past two when Trace stepped into my office, casefiles in hand. The first one gave me a good chuckle. Apparently Elon had removed “legacy verification” from Twitter — meaning the only way to get a blue check now was to give him eight smackeroos a month. Everyone from Jason Alexander to SCOTUS Blog was threatening to bounce, someone had impersonated the Big Apple itself, and Elon had footed the bill for LeBron James, Stephen King, and — her?! No way.I gazed at the smoke detector above me, two rectangular holes where its batteries should be, and flipped to File #2. A writer for The Atlantic named Ed Yong had crossed the line from “journalist” to “activist”, going after everyone questioning the narrative on “long COVID”. Something about the evidence he used smelled fishy as hell. I put it to the side — this was one for Jesse to handle.The last file was something else entirely. I took a drag of my cigarette, watching the smoke curl lazily towards the ceiling as I kept reading. An old grandma gets raided by the DEA for traffickin’ human growth hormone. No charges. Turns out what she was pushin’…wasn’t exactly intended for human consumption. Then the FDA busts a lady importing “beauty products” from Hong Kong. Confiscate her cars, her mansions. A spreadsheet she kept shows she moved a whopping $10 million worth of product.“You think they’re connected?”“A listener tipped us off. Said her cat needed meds, but they’re illegal. The dame says her vet pointed her towards a Facebook group that could hook her up under the table. I think they’re the missing link. Real secretive, though. Won’t talk to anyone who’s not a buyer, so I sent them an invite, pretending to be —"Suddenly, the phone rang. A booming voice on the other end spoke. “Your invitation to join FIP Warriors® 5.0 has been accepted.”I stood up and brushed the flakes of weed off my trenchcoat as Trace unholstered his trusty snubnose revolver and adjusted his fedora.“Start the car, Trace. Looks like we’re going undercover.”Blue ChecksThe results of the legacy checkmark removalhttps://twitter.com/goldengateblond/status/1649162600826167296https://twitter.com/thatfrood/status/1649179696226000897?s=20https://twitter.com/realrickpaulas/status/1649136628915380226?s=20Musk buys Twitter Blue for Stephen Kinghttps://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1649147510525423626Long COVIDEd Yong’s article on Long COVIDhttps://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/04/long-covid-symptoms-invisible-disability-chronic-illness/673773/The CDC on Long COVIDhttps://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.htmlEvidence is mixed as to whether vaccines reduce the chances or severity of long COVIDhttps://www.kff.org/policy-watch/long-covid-what-do-latest-data-show/Household Pulse survey on Long COVIDhttps://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/long-covid.htmFederal Reserve report on Long COVIDhttps://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/long-covid-cognitive-impairment-and-the-stalled-decline-in-disability-rates-20220805.htmlSurvey about discrimination against those with long COVIDhttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0277317Jesse’s response to the articleThe New Republic: We Might Have Long Covid All Wronghttps://newrepublic.com/article/168965/might-long-covid-wrongStuart Ritchie: Does Long Covid really exist?https://unherd.com/2021/06/does-long-covid-really-exist/Ed Yong’s first article on Long COVIDhttps://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/covid-19-coronavirus-longterm-symptoms-months/612679/The Kitty CartelThe Atlantic’s 2020 piece on black-market cat remdesivirhttps://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/remdesivir-cats/611341/Business Insider’s articlehttps://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-treatment-cats-fip-sold-10k-black-market-2020-6?r=US&IR=TRobin says she doesn’t get kickbackshttps://www.reddit.com/r/cureFIP/comments/11qv50c/proof_that_robin_has_previously_claimed_they_dont/OneZero: Inside a Facebook ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ for Cat Drugshttps://onezero.medium.com/desperate-cat-owners-are-buying-illegal-cat-drugs-on-facebooks-black-market-cd40bfe90997Cure FIP exposes FIP Warriorshttps://www.curefip.com/post/drama-fip-telenovelasFIP Warriorshttps://www.facebook.com/groups/804374446995270FIP Global Catshttps://www.facebook.com/groups/595916822107282Zen By Cathttps://www.zenbycat.org/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.blockedandreported.org/subscribe