Dr. Duane Mitchell and Mark Hall.
Two strangers sat down next to each other at Spurrier's Gridiron Grille in Gainesville, Florida, and had a great conversation that should have been filmed for all of America to see. It all started when Mark Hall of Ocala, Florida, commented on Dr. Duane Mitchell's choice of appetizer: Brussels sprouts.
"That sounds awful. No, thank you," Hall joked.
Dr. Mitchell told Hall he was a researcher at the University of Florida studying human diseases, which kicked off a contentious but friendly conversation about the coronavirus vaccines. Dr. Mitchell had got the vaccine, but Hall had been firmly against it for a year and a half.
"I've been against the shot since the shot was even born," the Ocala resident said in a University of Florida video. "Timelines weren't adding up for me. It seemed like the perfect storm." However, that didn't stop him from wanting to learn more and it made all of the difference.
"I literally just started bombarding him with questions," Hall said. "It was a back and forth," Mitchell, 50, told The Washington Post. "It was clear that he was skeptical, but he kept asking questions."
Hall says his extensive personal research led him to be a vaccine skeptic. "It seemed like the information was forever changing. … I've stayed up dark, dark nights looking into information," he said.
"Being that there's so much political bias … I'm honestly not [a Republican conspiracy theorist or a liberal]," he said. "I try to think for myself and make rational decisions based upon facts."
But there's a big difference between doing your research online versus in a laboratory.
A Conversation Between a Vaccine-Hesitant Man and a Doctorwww.youtube.com
Dr. Mitchell enjoyed talking to Hall because "he was inquisitive instead of just opinionated," and he enjoyed hearing his "preconceived notions" and "some of the information he had already heard."
Dr. Mitchell never thought that he would change Hall's mind but when both finished their dinner and drinks he made his final ask.
"He's like, 'So, have I convinced you to maybe get your vaccine?'" Hall recounted in a video posted by the University of Florida. "I made a joke. I said, 'If you give it to me, I'll take it.' "
"Done. We'll figure out a way," he remembered Mitchell saying.
The two men exchanged numbers, although Dr. Mitchell doubted that anything would come of it. But soon after, Hall sent him a text and they set up an appointment for him to get his shot at the university's clinic.
"I couldn't believe it," Mitchell told The Post.
Hall gave a simple answer when his friends asked why he changed his mind after a year and a half. "Because I shook a man's hand," he said. "I could look him in the eye and I knew with sincere conviction that he meant everything that he said."
The encounter between the doctor and former anti-vaxxer shows what can happen when people listen to one another. Hall deserves a lot of credit for actually being someone who tries to make "rational decisions based upon facts," instead of cherry-picking information that suited his preconceived notions. He's also a wonderful example of someone being able to publicly admit they changed their mind, which is tough for anyone.
Hall gets his shot with Dr. Mitchell.via The University of Florida / YouTube
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.