Savannah Guthrie appears to give Matt Lauer middle finger on air

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  Savannah Guthrie seemingly gave Matt Lauer the middle finger on "Today."TODAY/NBC and Retuers

Are things really that bad at the "Today" show?

Friday on the morning show’s broadcast, host Savannah Guthrie appeared to give her co-host Matt Lauer the middle finger during a segment about vacuum cleaners.

The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment happened after Guthrie struggled maneuver a vacuum during a demonstration, and Lauer quipped: “By the way this is the first time Savannah has ever vacuumed.”

“That is not true. That is not true,” she replied, then turning and scowling while holding a finger up at Lauer.

The question is, exactly which finger was it?

Viewers seemed to think Guthrie angrily gave her co-host the middle finger, assuming cameras weren’t on her.

But she denied flipping Lauer off, taking to Twitter to voice her side of the story.

“Folks!! That was my INDEX finger! Photo evidence proving my innocence coming! #fingergate #TGIF “

Guthrie posted a blurry photo later, calling the incident a “faux controversy.”

Lauer then tweeted a photo of himself leaving a room along with the message: “Me storming out of the office after after your middle finger salute.”

His message, though seemingly meant as a joke, fueled rumors that Guthrie was indeed firing the obscene gesture at Lauer.

“It may have been your #indexfinger but your face says #middlefinger,” one user tweeted.

Another added: “@SavannahGuthrie what message does the backwards index finger send?”

“@SavannahGuthrie, [Matt Lauer] glad something so immature is so flippant to you. Shows your real character. #offensive,” another user posted along with a close up photo of the moment.

Click here to see a video of the moment

A rep for the "Today" show did not return FOX 411's request for comment. 

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Is the Middle East brewing the perfect storm for a health epidemic?

The turmoil in the Middle East is not just creating human tragedy, where the indiscriminate use of force by terrorists and dictators is causing a huge displacement of families and destroying cities and neighborhoods.  

To me, the scariest aspect of this region is that it could be brewing a catastrophic event of global proportions.  I’m talking about infectious disease outbreaks, which can spread throughout the world.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned U.S. health officials Thursday of a deadly new virus originating in the Middle East.  This virus is in the coronavirus family, and it seems to be creating severe respiratory distress, similar to that of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus, which first emerged in Asia in 2003.  

RELATED: CDC warns health officials to be alert for deadly new virus

Symptoms of the infection include severe acute respiratory illness with fever, cough and shortness of breath.  Perhaps the most worrisome aspect of this virus is that of the 14 people so far infected, eight have died.  

We have been reporting over the last several years how even in developed nations, we’re losing the battle against viruses and bacteria.  Scientists have been warning us for years, and now we see that simple bacteria, which was easily treatable in the past are now almost impossible to treat.

More problematic, however, is the mutation of these viruses.  Over the last several years, we have seen multiple viruses that have mutated from animals to people and have created an international scare because of their potentially deadly effects.

Right now, the Middle East is the perfect storm for such an outbreak.  With crowded refugee camps, limited running water in many areas, the destruction of sanitary infrastructures, and limited access to physicians,  this region’s hospitals and governments presently don’t have the tools to monitor infectious outbreaks and alert the rest of the world.  

I recently spoke to Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, an international health consultant and director of the Center for Abnormal Placentation at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, about how this coronavirus may impact the country of Bahrain.

“In Baharain there (have) not been any documented cases, but I have heard that there has been over the last couple of weeks two mortalities from influenza-like illness,” Al-Khan said. “Whether that was the SARS (virus) or whether it was the corona variant virus of it, I'm not too sure. But I think this is why it is important for the country and the people to understand: Let's focus on important things. Let's focus on issues that are more important to the children of Baharain, to the region, as opposed to these political issues. Because ultimately politics and medicine, in a way we don't want it to mix, but it ultimately does, because it all has a domino effect.”

And the domino effect doesn’t stop overseas. The days where health outbreaks abroad were an anecdote in a scientific journal are long gone.  What could happen in one part of the world in the morning could be spreading to our shores in the evening.

View the original article here