A doctor was forced to explain why a man wearing only a vest and underwear turned up behind him whilst he was on an official Zoom call featuring prominent lawmakers. Here's the moment that the embarrassing mishap happened.
Dr Matt Heinz, who is a doctor but also a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, was the only person joining into the meeting remotely as he was on holiday in the Caribbean.
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However, the 45-year-old – who worked under Barack Obama’s presidential administration – was left slightly red-faced after a man much younger than him turned up in the background wearing a black vest and black trunks or briefs.
The man wandered into the background of the shot, before lifting up his shirt.
That’s when he seemed to notice that the camera was on, before Heinz then clocked on to what was happening and turned it off.
Heinz, who is gay, later referred to the man as a ‘travel companion’.
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No-one else on the meeting made mention of it, but someone did manage to acquire a video of the whole thing.
Heinz said that the man is not his boyfriend or a sex worker, comparing the incident to other similar Zoom mishaps involving children or pets.
He said that he’s currently on a 10-day-long Ritz-Carlton cruise around the Caribbean with ‘a travel companion, a friend’.
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In a tweet, he later explained: “Throughout the pandemic, I have balanced my work as a hospital physician, my public service on the Board of Supervisors and caring for my aging father in Michigan.
“That has required me to participate in a number of Board meetings remotely.
“And even now that I am on a vacation, after working the night shift at my hospital over the holidays, I continue to take my commitment to constituents seriously.
“The friend who joined me on my holiday accidentally walked on camera.
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“We’ve all had family, pets, friends and other aspects of life collide with an online meeting. This deserves a good laugh, nothing more.”
In a further statement, he said: “He's 24. He's clearly an adult, and we're good friends who travel well together.
“We are not dating. We are not boyfriends. We’re not engaged. We’re not married.'
Then, he later added: “Leave my friend alone.
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“He was in a swimsuit. He accidentally walked into the frame for like not even three seconds, was not naked, is clearly an adult, and is not a sex worker — not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
Heinz has worked as an attending physician at the Tucson Medical Center since 2003, but became the first openly gay member of Arizona’s House of Representatives back in 2008, serving two terms.
He also worked under President Obama between 2013 and 2015, before becoming the Pima County Supervisor in 2021.
Featured Image Credit: @protucsonsafety/TwitterTopics: US News, Politics, Weird, Technology