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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31649 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022

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A prominent American Soccer journalist, Grant Wahl, passed away during this afternoon's World Cup game.

He's been critical of the Qatari government, for their treatment of the migrant workers who helped build the stadiums on his website, and for

protesting with a rainbow shirt.

Grant commented he had been dealing with symptoms diagnosed as Bronchitis and a translated report from the game suggests he collapsed while at the stadium and hit his head. I will step in here without sources and state third hand I've heard a pretty nasty flu/bronchitis illness has passed around the WC area in Qatar, which is being hosted in a much smaller, more connected base than is typical for this type of event. You can probably find news reports of a few teams dealing with the flu.

His brother has already suggested foul play, and if that isn't enough conspiracy for you, his wife is on the COVID Task Force for Joe Biden. This is likely to cross Biden's desk and receive attention quickly. Could develop into a major international incident.

It might, but there's no reason for it, unless someone wants to criticise high-pressure work expectations. Reading a news report on this, he himself said:

On Monday, Mr Wahl wrote on his website: "My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you. What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.

I didn't have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I'm already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.''

So he was under a lot of stress from work, got sick, and collapsed. Until we get a cause of death, there's no reason to see anything more sinister in this.

Sounds like a Pulmonary Embolism to me. Not a doctor

I was thinking the same thing, some kind of clot that got loose and caused a fatal stroke. We'll have to wait for the autopsy, though.

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