Is the seal disease from “Doctor Odyssey” real?

Photo: Tina Thorpe/Disney

A broken penis, a waterslide injury, someone falling off a boat because he was too horny – these were just a few of the crazy injuries from ABC's first episode Doctor Odyssey. The only logical explanation for how all of this and more could happen in a 60 Minutes episode of network television is that Ryan Murphy is involved. Doctor Odyssey follows hunky Doctor Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson) aboard a luxury cruise ship, who appears to be the first diagnosed COVID-19 patient in Connecticut. His first patient is Burt (played by Tom McGowan), who ate so much shrimp that he got iodine poisoning. What is this, a Three 6 Mafia song?

Three ounces of cooked shrimp contains about 13 mcg of iodine, according to the USDA, meaning an average person would have to consume over 1,100 mcg to potentially get iodine poisoning. In other words, you would have to eat more than 15 pounds of shrimp to even come close to being poisoned. Therefore, a very forgiving cruise guest with a history of thyroid problems could be at risk. Dr. Todd McNiff, a New York-based internist, also came up with the idea of ​​shrimp-related poisoning, but said it was probably a “TV thing” and not based in reality. “There is no amount of shrimp that a person could eat to cause acute iodine poisoning that would kill them,” he explained, acknowledging that someone would have to eat an inhumane amount of shrimp for that to happen. But is iodine poisoning from shrimp actually called “seal disease”? Is seal disease even real? Dr. McNiff has “never heard of it,” not even in connection with iodine poisoning. It seems like something that is just made up, as most research into “seal diseases” shows that illnesses affect actual seals or people bitten by them, but not seafood lovers. While the disease may only occur in the Doctor Odyssey In the cinematic universe, there are many other illnesses in the show that plague the guests on board; This was just the first of the season.