Harvey Weinstein Has Fever in Prison, Covid Not Ruled Out

(Bloomberg) -- Harvey Weinstein has a fever and is being monitored by the medical staff of the upstate New York prison where he’s serving a 23-year sentence for sexual assault, according to representatives of the once-powerful Hollywood producer.

“We can neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Weinstein has tested positive for COVID-19,” Weinstein’s spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, and Craig Rothfeld, a prison consultant, said in a statement. Weinstein is an inmate at the Wende Correctional Facility located east of Buffalo, New York.

Weinstein, 68, became an emblem of the #MeToo movement after several women accused him of harassing or sexually assaulting them. He was convicted in February of a first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape and sentenced to a near-maximum prison term despite his lawyers’ arguments that it would constitute “a de facto life sentence” due to his age and poor health.

“It should come as no surprise that Mr. Weinstein has numerous maladies and conditions including a heart condition, high blood pressure and spinal stenosis,” Engelmayer and Rothfeld said in the statement. They said they were working the state corrections department and the Wende staff “to ensure Mr. Weinstein receives the proper medical attention he needs.”

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