Media Talking Heads Clearly Didn’t Get The WH Memo To Dial Down The COVID Fear Porn

White House COVID-19 response team member Ben Wakana chastised both The New York Times and The Washington Post for stoking fear with misleading headlines.

Wakana criticized the NYT for a story citing an internal CDC memo as saying, “The Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and may be spread by vaccinated people as easily as the unvaccinated.”

VACCINATED PEOPLE DO NOT TRANSMIT THE VIRUS AT THE SAME RATE AS UNVACCINATED PEOPLE AND IF YOU FAIL TO INCLUDE THAT CONTEXT YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. https://t.co/gBkDbJ21xX

— Ben Wakana (@benwakana46) July 30, 2021

Wakana’s argument with WaPo was over a story about the outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where a large percentage of the people infected were vaccinated.

“Completely irresponsible,” he tweeted. “[Three] days ago the CDC made clear that vaccinated individuals represent a VERY SMALL amount of transmission occurring around the country. Virtually all hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among the unvaccinated. Unreal to not put that in context.”

Completely irresponsible.

3 days ago the CDC made clear that vaccinated individuals represent a VERY SMALL amount of transmission occurring around the country.

Virtually all hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among the unvaccinated.

Unreal to not put that in context. https://t.co/BbmSNvQlrb

— Ben Wakana (@benwakana46) July 30, 2021

CNN anchor Brian Stelter appeared to be one of the few to take Wakana’s message to heart, saying on Sunday’s broadcast of “Reliable Sources” that media should take responsibility for the “sensationalist” headlines — or even draw a line to show that the scary headlines were only accurate for those who remained unvaccinated.

Brian Stelter slams “sensationalist” media headlines about COVID-19 infections among vaccinated people. #ReliableSources https://t.co/HQ9XHOxEdE

— TheWrap (@TheWrap) August 1, 2021

But still, multiple outlets and pundits have continued to peddle sensational headlines that stoked fear and reminded people that there was still the potential for the delta variant to spread or new variants to develop. (RELATED: Fauci Stokes Pandemic Fears Despite Plummeting Cases And Deaths)

buried lede is that 125,682 cases out of 164.2 million fully vaccinated individuals means a rate of less than 0.08%.

at this juncture, this is pure COVID fear porn. https://t.co/2P2rUkKj2U pic.twitter.com/lH60wlFYJd

— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) July 30, 2021

As COVID-19 cases surged in the U.S. last weekend, Chicago’s downtown was a sea of hundreds of thousands crowding together, mostly unmasked, for the outdoor music festival Lollapalooza.

Many fear the fallout of the mass gathering. https://t.co/tdvbZkepEy

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) August 4, 2021

Don Lemon goes all-out on the Covid fear porn, mocking and trashing the American people for not properly understanding what the real definition of “freedom” means.

This is what CNN thinks of you. They think the American people are braindead, idiotic rubes. pic.twitter.com/yoD4WGGghk

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 30, 2021

Like the Delta variant, Lambda is highly infectious and thought to be more resistant to vaccines. https://t.co/Xt8E787AlI

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) August 4, 2021

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also been a popular target because despite the rise in novel coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, he has refused to implement mask mandates or allow cities or public schools to do so.

DeSantis will allow parents in Florida to defy school mask mandates, despite health officials saying younger people are COVID-19’s “new target” https://t.co/kSd4L7U5rH

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 31, 2021

Florida reported a record number of COVID cases & 30% of all cases nationally.

So DeSantis decided to pick today to overrule local school boards & outlaw mask mandates in schools.

— Andy Slavitt 🇺🇸💉 (@ASlavitt) August 1, 2021

The CDC has added 16 more countries to their highest level of COVID-19 risk for travelers as the delta variant continues to fuel cases around the world. https://t.co/5qsG0WGOyb

— FOX 13 Tampa Bay (@FOX13News) August 4, 2021

‘It’s not fair we force our children to be infected’ – calls for under 12s to be given choice on vaccination https://t.co/7obHU5WBje

— Independent.ie (@Independent_ie) August 4, 2021

And to say that the fear porn has been effective would be an understatement. Actress Jennifer Aniston said that she had gone so far as to cut people out of her life if they refused to get the vaccine or refused to disclose whether to not they had gotten it.

Jennifer Aniston says some people who refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccine are no longer in her “weekly routine,” adding that their reluctance to get the shot is based on “fear or propaganda.” https://t.co/VcHP42F8Fh

— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 4, 2021

But the biggest tell was a recent poll that presented people with just two choices: the worst of the pandemic is in the past, or the worst of the pandemic is yet to come.

Well, the media panic campaign is working. (It’s completely absurd to think the worst is ahead when 70 percent of adults are vaccinated.) pic.twitter.com/8TweXgX58N

— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) August 4, 2021

The Harris poll published by Axios showed that as of July, 54% of Americans believed the worst was yet to come and just 46% believed the worst was in the past — in spite of the fact that 70% of adults in the U.S. had received at least one dose of one of the coronavirus vaccine by the end of the month.

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