My mother, 94, was rushed to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing Michigan yesterday (yes same one in national news because they are in CRISIS MODE!!!) She was kept in the hallway all day until a bed opened in the ER. She cannot be admitted because there are NO BEDS and a severe STAFFING SHORTAGE!! She went through weeks of radiation for vaginal cancer AT 94!! These unvaccinated fkers are killing people!!! They will pay for this...I honor our hospital workers. RESIST folks. And when the time comes we will take to the streets. I promise you that. And MAHALO, Eric, for helping us fight this battle together. And FUK CNN. They are Faux 2.0. And they will pay dearly also. I promise.
You think the facts from this report by NPR which was updated just this past December would have gotten at least as much attention as the press gave CRT:
“People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.73 times the death rates of those that went for Biden”
Even more shocking:
“ In October, the reddest tenth of the country saw death rates that were six times higher than the bluest tenth,”
This analysis controlled for age and tracked with vaccination rates.
A six times higher death rate in areas that went strongly for Trump seems like a story worth a lot of headlines. Republicans aren’t a death cult, they’re a suicide cult but one that only the followers sacrifice themselves.
what’s frustrating is good reports abt unvaccinated are treated as a separate story, and not mentioned in the first, second paragraph of every covid report
The data is really shocking as is the fact that I have heard so little about it. For example last night Rachel Maddow reported on this WaPo article “ Unvaccinated seniors nearly 50 times more likely to be hospitalized than boosted peers” which puts the facts front and center.
I couldn’t believe I had not seen the article since I regularly read the Post. I had a really hard time finding it until I used the exact title and authors names to finally bring it up under their covid updates section. If the Post really cares about keeping people safe that article should have been the top story on the front page.
I think it is actually higher. I heard an interview on NPR and they were saying that there is an additional approx 250K excess deaths that are being attributed to Covid -- particularly d/t inaccurate counts -- some counties have elected or appointed coroners who have no medical expertise and just put whatever the family says on the death certificate. They don't test the corpse for Covid, don't even ask about it. Additionally, there are many people who "recovered" from Covid, made it home alive from the hospital only to relapse -- have a return of symptoms and die a few weeks later. Just because patients "recover" from Covid does not mean they are at their baseline --often there are months and months of decreased endurance, chest pain, fatigue, organ damage, cognitive and neural damage (loss of smell, taste, tinnitis, -some even have their vision affected) and still at risk for pulmonary embolus and their lungs still sound like a potato chip bag being crumpled. I wish we had stats on applications for disability/SSI that have been granted d/t Covid.
It would be interesting to see disability stats. I also hopes this epidemic results in more effective reporting of disease information from hospitals and doctors. From what I have read in the past we never had a good system for doing that.
Golly, Eric. Here is another MSM story you missed regarding Biden's many failures:
Biden polls plunge over impending heat death of the universe
President Joe Biden’s approvals have fallen to new lows as voter concerns grow over the administration’s failure to take steps to deal with the heat death of the universe expected to occur when protons decay in several trillion years. While Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted that the president is focused on the need to take decisive action during the time remaining, Republicans strongly criticized the administration’s apparent lack of urgency.
“The administration’s failure to address this growing threat mirrors their failure to anticipate the next 17 Covid variants,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “The American people deserve answers to this growing threat and will no doubt remember the president’s inaction in 2022 and 2024.”
In a focus group of 127 former Trump voters, 97 percent said that Biden is a actually multi-dimensional being working with Tom Hanks and JFK, Jr. to allow the universe to burn out so that real Americans can be replaced by immigrants. Three independents asked to participate in the focus group to add balance were unable to decide whether to get out of bed and did not attend.
The Washington Post also recently ran a very, very long column that excoriated Joe and read much like the Times' piece. Since the beginning, Covid coverage has been (I'll be charitable) questionable. In the beginning, reporting compared Covid to the flu (you'll feel bad for a few days then it's over). Move to the early months of 2021, when many elite journalists were among the privileged few to get fully vaxxed first—while the rest of us were waiting to become eligible—and they railed against still having to wear masks and pounded the CDC to change its recommendations. CDC caved, just in time for Delta to arrive. At first, journalists dismissed it, surmising it was no worse than the first strain—until reality intervened. On the heels of Delta came Omicron, which hit with the speed of lightning. Suddenly the storyline was why didn't the administration stop Omicron immediately and of course: WHERE ARE ALL THE HOME TESTS? Reporters proclaimed failure, failure , failure in story after story—when just weeks before few people—including them—had even thought about wanting a home test kit. Journalists also stuck with Omicron is "mild" and "kids don't get sick and even if they do they don't die." Which we know isn't true.
By the holidays, "tired" of two years of the pandemic, the line became, oh, everyone is going to get it so just get sick and then we'll all have immunity. (Not quite true). There have been recent stories cheering that the end may be near; because so many people have caught the virus, the pandemic will be over with Omicron. (To quote Laurie Garrett, "No.") Those stories are matched with the cynical take that okay, since we can't stop this disease big deal if people get sick and die or have long term health problems. They're old fat sick people anyway so who cares because I'm a healthy 35/40 year old and I want my kid in school. His teacher or other students get sick? So what.
Meanwhile, throughout 2021 as vaxxes became widely available, the press ran stories not about the 95-99 percent of employees, etc who complied with mandates or willingly got vaxxed on their own, but the tiny percentage who refused and got fired. Why?
They're right about the home tests. Europe had theirs a long time ago, before there was ever a US plan to distribute them. But as for omicron, yes, the press has been pushing the narrative that it's the end of the road and that covid will now mutate into a form no worse than the common cold when in fact, there's no reason to believe that. This virus has been unpredictable. And the press has also been claiming that omicron is less severe - yes, it is for the vaccinated, but it can hospitalize and even kill the unvaccinated, which the numbers have shown us, so why do they write about record high hospitalizations while claiming omicron is no biggie?
But all those tests in Europe didn't stop the Omicron surge there. Over the first two years of the pandemic, there was the occasional story about the dearth of home tests and the emphasis on vaccinations. But not that many, and they weren't consistent. What made me angry was the shocked, shocked self-righteous outrage: "how did this happen? They are failures!"
To answer your question, I think it's cognitive dissonance. They are determined that Covid is over because they are tired of it and they write the stories about hospitals as one offs, refusing to connect the dots. While reporters aren't blameless, I do think the editors are mostly responsible for the crap coverage, especially when it comes to those stories where clarifying graphs are buried deep within the body of the story.
I think about WWII—today's spoiled Americans wouldn't have endured four years like those. And imagine if the Marshall Plan was introduced today—"how dare they spend our hard earned money to rebuild Europe! They started this war and it's up to them to clean it up."
Tests are only effective if the people using them isolate (quarantine) themselves after a positive result. Given how hard it is to get so many people just to wear a mask, much less get vaccinated, readily available home tests likely wouldn't have helped all that much anyway.
I agree, the "covid fatigue" has given birth to a laziness in reporting that we definitely did not see in 2000 or 2001. To me, the early reports on Omicron seemed garbled and were hard to understand because every news article offered a different interpretation of the virus' behavior.
And yes, spoiled Americans are the ones stomping their little feet wanting daddy to fix he pandemic, fix the inflation, fix the price of gas, because the selfishness has taken over. What hurts my heart the most is that our compassion is gone, or what little we have left is bestowed only upon the "deserving."
I fullheartedly agree. To journalists' and scientists' credit, they are trying to understand and cover a disease that is unfolding day by day. That's really hard! Some step up to the challenge (like Ed Yong in The Atlantic, a brilliant science writer; you want a great book, read I Contain Multitudes, his first book. It will blow your mind and entertain you). But others like Leonhardt are just awful. Instead of looking at this as an opportunity for improving say remote learning for the future, it's "I want old normal right now."
It is absolutely shocking the callousness—as if nearly a million deaths do not matter. I'll admit I don't have a lot of sympathy for those who refused to get vaxxed and die, but they have people who love them and are suffering. It breaks my heart that we have come to this point in our country. So many lives wasted for lies perpetuated by people who know better just for greed and power. Not to mention writing off the risks of those who cannot get vaxxed for age or medical reasons as well as those "old people" as if their lives matter less.
That's the thing. Because these morons (and they are morons) refuse to get vaxxed, combined with the lack of supply in poorer countries (though we've bought and sent millions of doses around the world), Covid can keep mutating.
The world is like a giant Petri dish. What concerns me is that the vaccines may not be effective for the next variant—or the one after that. So far the scientists and the flexibility of using mRNA has worked well to protect us. But all it takes is one and we are back to January 2020.
I am not joking when I say this is the 'zombie apocalypse'. I recently skimmed an article in Business Insider with the headline Twitter users are comparing Elon Musk's Neuralink chip implants to a similar device featured in the hit dystopian series, 'Black Mirror'. And, did anyone see the Senate hearing for the Florida Surgeon General yesterday? This is unreal. Imagine if the media (including social media) across the board agreed to set aside entertainment and profit in order to get focus on the health of our Democracy by reporting facts and truth and prioritizing stories with the greatest risk and impact to us all. I know someone is writing a book in the field of 'alternative history' right now, for future generations. The media's complicity is dooming us.
Rachel did a whole segment yesterday about that arrogant ass. Add in DeSadist attacking Biden for refusing to supply Florida with monoclonal antibodies that are ineffective with Omicron! Yet DeSadist STILL wants those useless therapies!
DeSadist is hell bent on killing as many people as he can!
He's the most blatantly, most ruthlessly ambitious politician since Trump. And unlike Trump, he's smart. The antibodies don't work on omicron, but they do work on delta, but unfortunately for DeSadist, delta isn't the problem at the moment. Despite being smart, he has refused to take covid seriously and he thinks he can blame Biden for it. How do people like him become political leaders?
Please, will some sharp lawyers somewhere present the cause of action against fox entertainment in a way that will eliminate their entire funding, forever. They are using their platforms to the detriment of us all. They have to be forced to answer. Sue them out of existence.
I don't even know what to say about the people who refuse the vaccine out of some misguided loyalty to bizarre beliefs. I see them the way I see the person thinking he can jump from one rooftop to another and failing. I would tell them not to do it, but I can't stop anyone hellbent on destroying themselves. As for the Biden angle - once again the lazy press is fantasizing that Biden has powers he doesn't have. He's not a scientist nor a superhero nor a god. He has no control over the spread of a virus as tenacious as Covid. For all their education and reporting chops - which I would hope would include more than a healthy dose of skepticism - the press act like a child with a broken toy saying, "Daddy, fix."
I hate to sound supercilious, but there are lots of people out there with a shaky connection to reality, and a need for a daddy figure who takes care of all the scary things. In fact, this is why we have cults of personality. I think the idea that Biden hasn't been good in "handling the pandemic" (the media's term for magical thinking) because we have journalists who think Biden should "fix it."
People are weird. They believe rich people are a higher quality of human than the rest of us (the richer you are, the more intelligent and trustworthy you are), and coupled with being a TV star and a guy with 3 trophy wives and a trophy daughter, Trump the devious and incompetent was a shoo-in to become president. Hillary was never popular, and people resented her ever since she was first lady because from the first day she made it clear that she was a feminist. The goobers were intimidated by her, and she frightened a lot of men. A women's magazine nagged the WH into providing her recipe for chocolate chip cookies, to try to make her into a traditional first lady. According to a lot of people 30 years later, women still should be baking cookies instead of discussing foreign policy. Kamala has been slut-shamed mercilessly by misogynists claiming she's a "homewrecker" and that she "slept with" her boss (those euphemisms are still weirdly in use in 2022, as silly as they are). Political polls have shown her popularity in the basement - for absolutely no reason at all. As for Pete, he's probably the most intelligent man in Washington (and he is the only presidential candidate I ever donated to) and is one of the biggest assets to Joe Biden, but people screeched when he and his spouse took family leave when one of their babies was sick. The homophobic comments from the right were an embarrassment to the whole country.
Oh, and the global supply issues and inflation caused by the pandemic too! If he would only use his magic ring... The fact it is impossible for him to do so only "proves he is going senile"!
In this case it’s “Mommy fix” and the toy was broken by Daddy (or the Daddy Party).
In 2013 Greg Sargent called this the “Green Lantern Theory of Presidential Power.”
This theory ……..holds that presidents should be able to bend Congress to their will, and any failure to do so proves their weakness and perhaps even their irrelevance.”
The COVID story is the same as all of the other stories. Since it has been left to political "journalists" to cover the pandemic, they refuse to accurately report the story for fear of losing access to Republicans.
Goes directly to the fact that Trump and his toadies politicized the pandemic from the beginning. This made the story into a political story, and left the medical/public health reporting in the dust. I wonder how much better off we would be today had the editors at the major papers put their best science reporters on the case, rather than allowing it to become another "both sides do it" story for the elite stenographers of the Beltway press corps.
Trump used the Covid task force pressers as a substitute for the rallies he couldn't hold. That was his platform for political BS, and the press dutifully sent political reporters instead of science/health reporters whose questions would have quickly confused and bored Trump.
Outlets have stories about the science of the pandemic and stories about the politics of it. The latter is always front page and there is a disconnect between the two. That contributes to the "confusion" problem.
Clearly, the NYT will not change. They have consistently turned a blind eye to the rise of fascism from Stalin to Hitler to Trump. No amount of criticism fazes them, no amount of deaths and suffering impacts their intentional arrangement of facts to suit their preferred narrative. Just as clearly, the White House press Corp will not change its absurd pre-written narratives and insne questions. So, what is the solution? These journalists can't be shamed into unbiased reporting. They remain almost blissfully convinced they they will remain untouched under an authoritarian regime. There are excellent reporters at both the NYT and WaPo, but the Beltway reporters (who knew full well the danger posed by Trump, and his history of corruption, bankruptcies, extortion, and lies) stood by enraptured by his rise to power and busily closing book deals to exploit the ensuing chaos. The death of nearly a million people due to rampant propaganda is of little interest to those who exist in s bubble where headlines, clicks, and cable cameos are their north stars. So, what can be done?
“The president tiptoed around an organized Republican revolt over masks, mandates, vaccine passports and even the vaccine itself.” Had Joe Biden directly addressed that he would have immediately been assailed by the likes of Kristen Welker (NBC) for being divisive.
Stories —like these ones Eric mentions— are journalistic malpractice with life-and-death consequences.
Again, I wish that there was a journalism governing body like the American Bar Association is for lawyers. Our pundit class would be escorted by security out of the building in a New York Minute and given a cheese sandwich and a roadmap as parting gifts.
I'm guessing the American media mainstream like the GOP and so-called libertarians don't want to have a governing body that deals with questionable & dishonest journalistic practices because they believe it goes against freedom of the press.
In their small minds, the editors, journalists, and reporters probably believe they can manage this problem in house without any kind of interference.
However, the claim that newsrooms can manage their own internal journalistic issues has been proven wrong time and time again.
Seriously, are members of media afraid to admit that their work isn't as flawless and that there's always room for improvement no matter how many years they've been in the business?
I am an epidemiologist, and I study Covid. From the bottom of my scientific heart, thank you for this.
I'll give you another Covid topic that the press mangles: long Covid, or PASC. Reporters love to present stories of the triathlete who got Covid sniffles for two days, but then ends up bed-ridden for a year as the result of long Covid. These tales are becoming as common as the "Trump voter in the diner" malarkey. Several of my friends are now completely terrified of long Covid. Yes, occasionally folks who had only mild infections experience long Covid, and yes, it sucks! But unlike what the press coverage would have you believe, we're finding more and more that PASC is NOT random. In fact, you can probably cut your risk if you just GET A DAMN VACCINE ALREADY.
Yes, the vaccines help prevent serious illness but not for everyone though. The elderly in particular do have a waning protection from them (my friend's mother -84 died from Covid she got from someone in her care home--she was boosted even but had Parkinson's). I work at a hospital and so we probably see the worst and it seems like most of those ill enough to be hospitalized suffer from symptoms that just marginally get better over time. Of course my view is mostly the acute (kind of like it seemed like everyone had cancer when I worked in oncology). I also know a number of people who (mostly who I work with) that have gotten Covid multiple times and it isn't like each time it is an easier illness, some have worse bout's than previous, some lighter.. it varies.
Of all places, Politico did a piece that tore David Leonhardt several new bodily portals, and he deserved it. I've been promoting him as excellent, and apparently he now wants to be executive editor and so makes sure that he presents republican disinformation as the same as Democratic, just like Bothsides Baquet and the rest of those who (don't) cover politics for The Times.
There are stories and topics Leonhardt is good on. Covid absolutely is not one of them. I"ll have to look that Politico piece up! It's been a difficult week.
It broke my heart to read recently about a 31 year old man, a father of 2 little kids and another one one the way, in need of a heart transplant but the guy has refused to be vaccinated and hence, has been denied a transplant, I cannot imagine anyone wanting to literally die on that hill. He says he has "done his own research" (probably listening to Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers) and - amazingly - has determined that the vaccines aren't safe. But I guess taking a tiny risk and getting to see his kids grow up just doesn't stack up against protecting himself against a phantom vaccine menace. He has about 3 weeks to live unless he gets this surgery, and the hospital says he has to have the shot to prevent a significant risk of dying post-surgery from covid.
I wonder if anyone has been keeping stats on the number of deaths from covid caused by the misinformation that's been peddled to the gullible. Talk about getting covid stories wrong. Yesterday I wrote a comment mentioning that menace, Alex Berenson, who blogs his anti-vaccine rubbish here on Substack. It's just about the only platform he has left and I hope he loses it soon.
The report I saw reminded me of the way the media handled the anti-measles vax crowd back in the day. It interviewed the man’s wife who was saying the vaccines are known to cause myocarditis. The reporter acknowledged that was true but presented no information to explain why the man’s cardiologists still require him to get the vaccine. There should have been an interview with a cardiac transplant surgeon to explain the reason for that requirement — that the risk of getting myocarditis from the vaccine is minuscule compared to the risk of contracting covid and then getting serious heart complications. The risk of getting myocarditis is much higher for people who contract covid than people who get vaccinated. It would have been a perfect opportunity to explain the concept of making rational choices based on the relative risks of each choice.
What's been circulating is the AP article which is pretty terrible. I read something last night but can't remember where, it said it was not true that the patient was flat-out denied a transplant but that it bumped him way, way down on the list, but even so, they said it is very difficult to find healthy organs that match a donor, so they want to give every patient the best chance for a successful transplant, which requires a flu vaccination as well.
I had a close friend who got a flu shot and got such a severe case of myocarditis that he lost 75% of his heart function. He was only in his late 20's. He was on a list of transplant recipients and was given 5 years to live unless he got a new heart. After 8 years, and not having the life he wanted, he committed suicide in 2001. Because of that, I never got a flu shot until this year. I never considered flu a threat to my life until now. I'm 64.
Every vaccine or medication carries risks even if they are rare. An older cousin of mine died from the small pox vaccine but our parents still vaccinated the rest of us because they understood that the risk from small pox spreading was far greater. Riding in a car is still far more dangerous but we all do it without thinking about it.
Yesterday on Twitter, one of the Substack people defended him and his ilk (without naming anyone) and said that they refuse to censor, arguing that all viewpoints and content are relative.
Amazing how so many Americans, and to be fair, other humans around the world, fail to follow science. You know, science, that thing that brought you weather satellites, microwave ovens, more efficient automobiles not to mention the newer electric ones, coast to coast travel by plane in 5 hours, MRIs, Cat-scans, laptops, smart phones, on and on and on... yet refuse to believe the science of vaccines. We have had many vacancies shot into our arms since the first Smallpox one that came out in 1796. Vaccines protect us from disease and have extended the average life span dramatically. As I've said many times before to those who will listen, Darwinism isn't just about physical traits. It also has to do with the ability to make smart informed decisions. The squirrel who senses danger before crossing the road increases her risk of survival over the ones who only see the nut on the other side of the street. It's no different for humans as the statistic on unvaccinated Covid patients is showing. Sadly the media is stoking this ignorance. I don't want anyone to be sick or to die from this pandemic but if these anti-vaxxers are unwilling to take the small risk (we take risks everyday when we head out on to the road in our automobiles) then all I can say is "Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish Ladies..."
My mother, 94, was rushed to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing Michigan yesterday (yes same one in national news because they are in CRISIS MODE!!!) She was kept in the hallway all day until a bed opened in the ER. She cannot be admitted because there are NO BEDS and a severe STAFFING SHORTAGE!! She went through weeks of radiation for vaginal cancer AT 94!! These unvaccinated fkers are killing people!!! They will pay for this...I honor our hospital workers. RESIST folks. And when the time comes we will take to the streets. I promise you that. And MAHALO, Eric, for helping us fight this battle together. And FUK CNN. They are Faux 2.0. And they will pay dearly also. I promise.
so sorry to hear. and yea all bc of unvaccinated but the general news coverage is simply, ‘hospitals are full’
So sorry Kathe...I agree with you and feel your anger.
You think the facts from this report by NPR which was updated just this past December would have gotten at least as much attention as the press gave CRT:
“People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.73 times the death rates of those that went for Biden”
Even more shocking:
“ In October, the reddest tenth of the country saw death rates that were six times higher than the bluest tenth,”
This analysis controlled for age and tracked with vaccination rates.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vaccine-misinformation-trump-counties-covid-death-rate
A six times higher death rate in areas that went strongly for Trump seems like a story worth a lot of headlines. Republicans aren’t a death cult, they’re a suicide cult but one that only the followers sacrifice themselves.
what’s frustrating is good reports abt unvaccinated are treated as a separate story, and not mentioned in the first, second paragraph of every covid report
The data is really shocking as is the fact that I have heard so little about it. For example last night Rachel Maddow reported on this WaPo article “ Unvaccinated seniors nearly 50 times more likely to be hospitalized than boosted peers” which puts the facts front and center.
I couldn’t believe I had not seen the article since I regularly read the Post. I had a really hard time finding it until I used the exact title and authors names to finally bring it up under their covid updates section. If the Post really cares about keeping people safe that article should have been the top story on the front page.
Nope. Not to the brain dead Press Corpse. Nothing will deter them from reciting the latest Republican Party Line.
I think it is actually higher. I heard an interview on NPR and they were saying that there is an additional approx 250K excess deaths that are being attributed to Covid -- particularly d/t inaccurate counts -- some counties have elected or appointed coroners who have no medical expertise and just put whatever the family says on the death certificate. They don't test the corpse for Covid, don't even ask about it. Additionally, there are many people who "recovered" from Covid, made it home alive from the hospital only to relapse -- have a return of symptoms and die a few weeks later. Just because patients "recover" from Covid does not mean they are at their baseline --often there are months and months of decreased endurance, chest pain, fatigue, organ damage, cognitive and neural damage (loss of smell, taste, tinnitis, -some even have their vision affected) and still at risk for pulmonary embolus and their lungs still sound like a potato chip bag being crumpled. I wish we had stats on applications for disability/SSI that have been granted d/t Covid.
It would be interesting to see disability stats. I also hopes this epidemic results in more effective reporting of disease information from hospitals and doctors. From what I have read in the past we never had a good system for doing that.
Golly, Eric. Here is another MSM story you missed regarding Biden's many failures:
Biden polls plunge over impending heat death of the universe
President Joe Biden’s approvals have fallen to new lows as voter concerns grow over the administration’s failure to take steps to deal with the heat death of the universe expected to occur when protons decay in several trillion years. While Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted that the president is focused on the need to take decisive action during the time remaining, Republicans strongly criticized the administration’s apparent lack of urgency.
“The administration’s failure to address this growing threat mirrors their failure to anticipate the next 17 Covid variants,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “The American people deserve answers to this growing threat and will no doubt remember the president’s inaction in 2022 and 2024.”
In a focus group of 127 former Trump voters, 97 percent said that Biden is a actually multi-dimensional being working with Tom Hanks and JFK, Jr. to allow the universe to burn out so that real Americans can be replaced by immigrants. Three independents asked to participate in the focus group to add balance were unable to decide whether to get out of bed and did not attend.
The Washington Post also recently ran a very, very long column that excoriated Joe and read much like the Times' piece. Since the beginning, Covid coverage has been (I'll be charitable) questionable. In the beginning, reporting compared Covid to the flu (you'll feel bad for a few days then it's over). Move to the early months of 2021, when many elite journalists were among the privileged few to get fully vaxxed first—while the rest of us were waiting to become eligible—and they railed against still having to wear masks and pounded the CDC to change its recommendations. CDC caved, just in time for Delta to arrive. At first, journalists dismissed it, surmising it was no worse than the first strain—until reality intervened. On the heels of Delta came Omicron, which hit with the speed of lightning. Suddenly the storyline was why didn't the administration stop Omicron immediately and of course: WHERE ARE ALL THE HOME TESTS? Reporters proclaimed failure, failure , failure in story after story—when just weeks before few people—including them—had even thought about wanting a home test kit. Journalists also stuck with Omicron is "mild" and "kids don't get sick and even if they do they don't die." Which we know isn't true.
By the holidays, "tired" of two years of the pandemic, the line became, oh, everyone is going to get it so just get sick and then we'll all have immunity. (Not quite true). There have been recent stories cheering that the end may be near; because so many people have caught the virus, the pandemic will be over with Omicron. (To quote Laurie Garrett, "No.") Those stories are matched with the cynical take that okay, since we can't stop this disease big deal if people get sick and die or have long term health problems. They're old fat sick people anyway so who cares because I'm a healthy 35/40 year old and I want my kid in school. His teacher or other students get sick? So what.
Meanwhile, throughout 2021 as vaxxes became widely available, the press ran stories not about the 95-99 percent of employees, etc who complied with mandates or willingly got vaxxed on their own, but the tiny percentage who refused and got fired. Why?
I despair.
They're right about the home tests. Europe had theirs a long time ago, before there was ever a US plan to distribute them. But as for omicron, yes, the press has been pushing the narrative that it's the end of the road and that covid will now mutate into a form no worse than the common cold when in fact, there's no reason to believe that. This virus has been unpredictable. And the press has also been claiming that omicron is less severe - yes, it is for the vaccinated, but it can hospitalize and even kill the unvaccinated, which the numbers have shown us, so why do they write about record high hospitalizations while claiming omicron is no biggie?
But all those tests in Europe didn't stop the Omicron surge there. Over the first two years of the pandemic, there was the occasional story about the dearth of home tests and the emphasis on vaccinations. But not that many, and they weren't consistent. What made me angry was the shocked, shocked self-righteous outrage: "how did this happen? They are failures!"
To answer your question, I think it's cognitive dissonance. They are determined that Covid is over because they are tired of it and they write the stories about hospitals as one offs, refusing to connect the dots. While reporters aren't blameless, I do think the editors are mostly responsible for the crap coverage, especially when it comes to those stories where clarifying graphs are buried deep within the body of the story.
I think about WWII—today's spoiled Americans wouldn't have endured four years like those. And imagine if the Marshall Plan was introduced today—"how dare they spend our hard earned money to rebuild Europe! They started this war and it's up to them to clean it up."
Tests are only effective if the people using them isolate (quarantine) themselves after a positive result. Given how hard it is to get so many people just to wear a mask, much less get vaccinated, readily available home tests likely wouldn't have helped all that much anyway.
I agree, the "covid fatigue" has given birth to a laziness in reporting that we definitely did not see in 2000 or 2001. To me, the early reports on Omicron seemed garbled and were hard to understand because every news article offered a different interpretation of the virus' behavior.
And yes, spoiled Americans are the ones stomping their little feet wanting daddy to fix he pandemic, fix the inflation, fix the price of gas, because the selfishness has taken over. What hurts my heart the most is that our compassion is gone, or what little we have left is bestowed only upon the "deserving."
I fullheartedly agree. To journalists' and scientists' credit, they are trying to understand and cover a disease that is unfolding day by day. That's really hard! Some step up to the challenge (like Ed Yong in The Atlantic, a brilliant science writer; you want a great book, read I Contain Multitudes, his first book. It will blow your mind and entertain you). But others like Leonhardt are just awful. Instead of looking at this as an opportunity for improving say remote learning for the future, it's "I want old normal right now."
It is absolutely shocking the callousness—as if nearly a million deaths do not matter. I'll admit I don't have a lot of sympathy for those who refused to get vaxxed and die, but they have people who love them and are suffering. It breaks my heart that we have come to this point in our country. So many lives wasted for lies perpetuated by people who know better just for greed and power. Not to mention writing off the risks of those who cannot get vaxxed for age or medical reasons as well as those "old people" as if their lives matter less.
We are living in an emotional dystopia.
The proliferation of guns + mass shootings has also cheapened our lives :/
Nope it's just those "awful democrats who are soft on crime."
Some days I just want to scream and never stop.
Our compassion left the building with kindness = weakness... :/
And, creeping into the headlines is a scary new variant....
That's the thing. Because these morons (and they are morons) refuse to get vaxxed, combined with the lack of supply in poorer countries (though we've bought and sent millions of doses around the world), Covid can keep mutating.
The world is like a giant Petri dish. What concerns me is that the vaccines may not be effective for the next variant—or the one after that. So far the scientists and the flexibility of using mRNA has worked well to protect us. But all it takes is one and we are back to January 2020.
I am not joking when I say this is the 'zombie apocalypse'. I recently skimmed an article in Business Insider with the headline Twitter users are comparing Elon Musk's Neuralink chip implants to a similar device featured in the hit dystopian series, 'Black Mirror'. And, did anyone see the Senate hearing for the Florida Surgeon General yesterday? This is unreal. Imagine if the media (including social media) across the board agreed to set aside entertainment and profit in order to get focus on the health of our Democracy by reporting facts and truth and prioritizing stories with the greatest risk and impact to us all. I know someone is writing a book in the field of 'alternative history' right now, for future generations. The media's complicity is dooming us.
Some days it def feels that way re: Zombie
Used to feel like we were trapped in the movie ‘The Third Man’ - now it’s more like ‘Sean of the Dead’…
I can't even watch that stuff.
It was funny 15 years ago…🤔
Here are Maddow and clips of the Florida alternate universe that DeSantis has created to glom onto the Trump base like a pilot fish. The "doctor" in a starring role must be a Ridley Scott android badly in need of a software update: https://link.theplatform.com/s/rksNhC/KW4DUyMKrdzj?mbr=true&format=redirect&manifest=m3u&format=redirect&Tracking=true&Embedded=true&formats=MPEG4
Indeed! I watched the Rachel Maddow episode and everyone before that...phew!
Rachel did a whole segment yesterday about that arrogant ass. Add in DeSadist attacking Biden for refusing to supply Florida with monoclonal antibodies that are ineffective with Omicron! Yet DeSadist STILL wants those useless therapies!
DeSadist is hell bent on killing as many people as he can!
That jackass can pay for them.
He's the most blatantly, most ruthlessly ambitious politician since Trump. And unlike Trump, he's smart. The antibodies don't work on omicron, but they do work on delta, but unfortunately for DeSadist, delta isn't the problem at the moment. Despite being smart, he has refused to take covid seriously and he thinks he can blame Biden for it. How do people like him become political leaders?
Definitely. His wife has cancer yet he exposed her to covid many times. He's appalling.
Please, will some sharp lawyers somewhere present the cause of action against fox entertainment in a way that will eliminate their entire funding, forever. They are using their platforms to the detriment of us all. They have to be forced to answer. Sue them out of existence.
I hope!!
Probably because another monster will rise up to take its place.
I don't even know what to say about the people who refuse the vaccine out of some misguided loyalty to bizarre beliefs. I see them the way I see the person thinking he can jump from one rooftop to another and failing. I would tell them not to do it, but I can't stop anyone hellbent on destroying themselves. As for the Biden angle - once again the lazy press is fantasizing that Biden has powers he doesn't have. He's not a scientist nor a superhero nor a god. He has no control over the spread of a virus as tenacious as Covid. For all their education and reporting chops - which I would hope would include more than a healthy dose of skepticism - the press act like a child with a broken toy saying, "Daddy, fix."
re: Biden it’s the Green Lantern theory of journalism—he has super powers, all he has to do is use them to fix pandemic
And the same people who oppose mask and vaccine mandates still want him to "fix it"
I hate to sound supercilious, but there are lots of people out there with a shaky connection to reality, and a need for a daddy figure who takes care of all the scary things. In fact, this is why we have cults of personality. I think the idea that Biden hasn't been good in "handling the pandemic" (the media's term for magical thinking) because we have journalists who think Biden should "fix it."
People are weird. They believe rich people are a higher quality of human than the rest of us (the richer you are, the more intelligent and trustworthy you are), and coupled with being a TV star and a guy with 3 trophy wives and a trophy daughter, Trump the devious and incompetent was a shoo-in to become president. Hillary was never popular, and people resented her ever since she was first lady because from the first day she made it clear that she was a feminist. The goobers were intimidated by her, and she frightened a lot of men. A women's magazine nagged the WH into providing her recipe for chocolate chip cookies, to try to make her into a traditional first lady. According to a lot of people 30 years later, women still should be baking cookies instead of discussing foreign policy. Kamala has been slut-shamed mercilessly by misogynists claiming she's a "homewrecker" and that she "slept with" her boss (those euphemisms are still weirdly in use in 2022, as silly as they are). Political polls have shown her popularity in the basement - for absolutely no reason at all. As for Pete, he's probably the most intelligent man in Washington (and he is the only presidential candidate I ever donated to) and is one of the biggest assets to Joe Biden, but people screeched when he and his spouse took family leave when one of their babies was sick. The homophobic comments from the right were an embarrassment to the whole country.
Oh, and the global supply issues and inflation caused by the pandemic too! If he would only use his magic ring... The fact it is impossible for him to do so only "proves he is going senile"!
In this case it’s “Mommy fix” and the toy was broken by Daddy (or the Daddy Party).
In 2013 Greg Sargent called this the “Green Lantern Theory of Presidential Power.”
This theory ……..holds that presidents should be able to bend Congress to their will, and any failure to do so proves their weakness and perhaps even their irrelevance.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/04/30/why-the-green-lantern-theory-of-presidential-power-persists/
That expectation is the kind of magical thinking most kids outgrow in early grade school.
ha yep!
+total control over gas prices…!?😒
The COVID story is the same as all of the other stories. Since it has been left to political "journalists" to cover the pandemic, they refuse to accurately report the story for fear of losing access to Republicans.
really good pt re: DC press covering a medical story
Goes directly to the fact that Trump and his toadies politicized the pandemic from the beginning. This made the story into a political story, and left the medical/public health reporting in the dust. I wonder how much better off we would be today had the editors at the major papers put their best science reporters on the case, rather than allowing it to become another "both sides do it" story for the elite stenographers of the Beltway press corps.
Trump used the Covid task force pressers as a substitute for the rallies he couldn't hold. That was his platform for political BS, and the press dutifully sent political reporters instead of science/health reporters whose questions would have quickly confused and bored Trump.
Outlets have stories about the science of the pandemic and stories about the politics of it. The latter is always front page and there is a disconnect between the two. That contributes to the "confusion" problem.
Clearly, the NYT will not change. They have consistently turned a blind eye to the rise of fascism from Stalin to Hitler to Trump. No amount of criticism fazes them, no amount of deaths and suffering impacts their intentional arrangement of facts to suit their preferred narrative. Just as clearly, the White House press Corp will not change its absurd pre-written narratives and insne questions. So, what is the solution? These journalists can't be shamed into unbiased reporting. They remain almost blissfully convinced they they will remain untouched under an authoritarian regime. There are excellent reporters at both the NYT and WaPo, but the Beltway reporters (who knew full well the danger posed by Trump, and his history of corruption, bankruptcies, extortion, and lies) stood by enraptured by his rise to power and busily closing book deals to exploit the ensuing chaos. The death of nearly a million people due to rampant propaganda is of little interest to those who exist in s bubble where headlines, clicks, and cable cameos are their north stars. So, what can be done?
“The president tiptoed around an organized Republican revolt over masks, mandates, vaccine passports and even the vaccine itself.” Had Joe Biden directly addressed that he would have immediately been assailed by the likes of Kristen Welker (NBC) for being divisive.
They decried his calling out the unvaccinated. How DARE he?! I truly despise so many reporters and she is on the list.
Stories —like these ones Eric mentions— are journalistic malpractice with life-and-death consequences.
Again, I wish that there was a journalism governing body like the American Bar Association is for lawyers. Our pundit class would be escorted by security out of the building in a New York Minute and given a cheese sandwich and a roadmap as parting gifts.
I'm guessing the American media mainstream like the GOP and so-called libertarians don't want to have a governing body that deals with questionable & dishonest journalistic practices because they believe it goes against freedom of the press.
In their small minds, the editors, journalists, and reporters probably believe they can manage this problem in house without any kind of interference.
However, the claim that newsrooms can manage their own internal journalistic issues has been proven wrong time and time again.
Seriously, are members of media afraid to admit that their work isn't as flawless and that there's always room for improvement no matter how many years they've been in the business?
I am an epidemiologist, and I study Covid. From the bottom of my scientific heart, thank you for this.
I'll give you another Covid topic that the press mangles: long Covid, or PASC. Reporters love to present stories of the triathlete who got Covid sniffles for two days, but then ends up bed-ridden for a year as the result of long Covid. These tales are becoming as common as the "Trump voter in the diner" malarkey. Several of my friends are now completely terrified of long Covid. Yes, occasionally folks who had only mild infections experience long Covid, and yes, it sucks! But unlike what the press coverage would have you believe, we're finding more and more that PASC is NOT random. In fact, you can probably cut your risk if you just GET A DAMN VACCINE ALREADY.
Yes, the vaccines help prevent serious illness but not for everyone though. The elderly in particular do have a waning protection from them (my friend's mother -84 died from Covid she got from someone in her care home--she was boosted even but had Parkinson's). I work at a hospital and so we probably see the worst and it seems like most of those ill enough to be hospitalized suffer from symptoms that just marginally get better over time. Of course my view is mostly the acute (kind of like it seemed like everyone had cancer when I worked in oncology). I also know a number of people who (mostly who I work with) that have gotten Covid multiple times and it isn't like each time it is an easier illness, some have worse bout's than previous, some lighter.. it varies.
Of all places, Politico did a piece that tore David Leonhardt several new bodily portals, and he deserved it. I've been promoting him as excellent, and apparently he now wants to be executive editor and so makes sure that he presents republican disinformation as the same as Democratic, just like Bothsides Baquet and the rest of those who (don't) cover politics for The Times.
There are stories and topics Leonhardt is good on. Covid absolutely is not one of them. I"ll have to look that Politico piece up! It's been a difficult week.
I agree-- I experienced a WTF moment reading one of his recent pieces. Normally I like his articles.
It broke my heart to read recently about a 31 year old man, a father of 2 little kids and another one one the way, in need of a heart transplant but the guy has refused to be vaccinated and hence, has been denied a transplant, I cannot imagine anyone wanting to literally die on that hill. He says he has "done his own research" (probably listening to Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers) and - amazingly - has determined that the vaccines aren't safe. But I guess taking a tiny risk and getting to see his kids grow up just doesn't stack up against protecting himself against a phantom vaccine menace. He has about 3 weeks to live unless he gets this surgery, and the hospital says he has to have the shot to prevent a significant risk of dying post-surgery from covid.
I wonder if anyone has been keeping stats on the number of deaths from covid caused by the misinformation that's been peddled to the gullible. Talk about getting covid stories wrong. Yesterday I wrote a comment mentioning that menace, Alex Berenson, who blogs his anti-vaccine rubbish here on Substack. It's just about the only platform he has left and I hope he loses it soon.
The report I saw reminded me of the way the media handled the anti-measles vax crowd back in the day. It interviewed the man’s wife who was saying the vaccines are known to cause myocarditis. The reporter acknowledged that was true but presented no information to explain why the man’s cardiologists still require him to get the vaccine. There should have been an interview with a cardiac transplant surgeon to explain the reason for that requirement — that the risk of getting myocarditis from the vaccine is minuscule compared to the risk of contracting covid and then getting serious heart complications. The risk of getting myocarditis is much higher for people who contract covid than people who get vaccinated. It would have been a perfect opportunity to explain the concept of making rational choices based on the relative risks of each choice.
What's been circulating is the AP article which is pretty terrible. I read something last night but can't remember where, it said it was not true that the patient was flat-out denied a transplant but that it bumped him way, way down on the list, but even so, they said it is very difficult to find healthy organs that match a donor, so they want to give every patient the best chance for a successful transplant, which requires a flu vaccination as well.
I had a close friend who got a flu shot and got such a severe case of myocarditis that he lost 75% of his heart function. He was only in his late 20's. He was on a list of transplant recipients and was given 5 years to live unless he got a new heart. After 8 years, and not having the life he wanted, he committed suicide in 2001. Because of that, I never got a flu shot until this year. I never considered flu a threat to my life until now. I'm 64.
Every vaccine or medication carries risks even if they are rare. An older cousin of mine died from the small pox vaccine but our parents still vaccinated the rest of us because they understood that the risk from small pox spreading was far greater. Riding in a car is still far more dangerous but we all do it without thinking about it.
Yesterday on Twitter, one of the Substack people defended him and his ilk (without naming anyone) and said that they refuse to censor, arguing that all viewpoints and content are relative.
Free speech and the open "exchange" of ideas. We are "free speeching" ourselves into fascism and death.
How cynical, too, to try to spin capitalism into idealism. This is where free speech gets mauled to death.
I loved your chosen quote from the Atlantic piece by Kate Cray.
oh good; really interesting piece
Amazing how so many Americans, and to be fair, other humans around the world, fail to follow science. You know, science, that thing that brought you weather satellites, microwave ovens, more efficient automobiles not to mention the newer electric ones, coast to coast travel by plane in 5 hours, MRIs, Cat-scans, laptops, smart phones, on and on and on... yet refuse to believe the science of vaccines. We have had many vacancies shot into our arms since the first Smallpox one that came out in 1796. Vaccines protect us from disease and have extended the average life span dramatically. As I've said many times before to those who will listen, Darwinism isn't just about physical traits. It also has to do with the ability to make smart informed decisions. The squirrel who senses danger before crossing the road increases her risk of survival over the ones who only see the nut on the other side of the street. It's no different for humans as the statistic on unvaccinated Covid patients is showing. Sadly the media is stoking this ignorance. I don't want anyone to be sick or to die from this pandemic but if these anti-vaxxers are unwilling to take the small risk (we take risks everyday when we head out on to the road in our automobiles) then all I can say is "Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish Ladies..."