Delta variant: White House frustrated by “hyperbolic” and “irresponsible” coverage

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The White House is frustrated with what it sees as alarmist, and in some cases utterly misleading, the media coverage of the Delta variant. That’s according to two senior officials in the Biden administration I spoke with on Friday, both of whom requested anonymity to frankly give their opinion on the coverage of the CDC data released that suggests vaccinated Americans who are infected by the variant of the Delta coronavirus can infect others as easily as those who are not vaccinated.

At the heart of the problem is the media’s focus on breakthrough infections, which the CDC says are rare. In some cases, poorly-written headlines and cable news chyrons mistakenly suggest that vaccinated Americans are just as likely to spread the disease as unvaccinated Americans. But that’s not quite the case. Vaccinated Americans are still much less likely to be infected with the coronavirus and, therefore, they are responsible for much less spread of the disease.

“The media coverage is not right now,” one of Biden’s officials told me. “It has been hyperbolic and downright irresponsible in a way that hardens the hesitation about the vaccine. The biggest problem we have is unvaccinated people getting and spreading the virus.”

As Biden officials explained to me, the administration is concerned that the media focus on these cases of groundbreaking infections may make people more reluctant to get vaccinated. Think about it: if you are a youngster and already think you will be fine if you are infected, why would you want to get vaccinated now, given that the coverage suggests that you can still just as easily get infected and spread the virus after receiving. a blow?

Concern over this line of posts from major media sources worried officials so much, I was told, that they contacted several major news organizations with the aim of getting them back on the cover. …

“YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG”

Unfortunately, in some cases, these outreach efforts may have come too late. The New York Times, for example, tweeted early Friday morning, “The Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and can be spread by vaccinated people as easily as unvaccinated people, according to an internal CDC report.” Ben Wakana, a member of the White House Rapid Response Team, responded bluntly: “VACCINATED PEOPLE DO NOT TRANSMIT THE VIRUS AT THE SAME RATE AS UNVACCINATED PEOPLE AND IF YOU DON’T INCLUDE THIS CONTEXT, YOU DO IT. The Times finally added more context to its tweet in a trace.
But it wasn’t just the Times. The Washington Post ran a headline that read: “CDC Study Shows Three-quarters Of People Infected In Massachusetts Covid-19 Outbreak Got Infected.” As Matthieu Getz commented, “Please don’t do this. Provincetown has one of the highest immunization rates in the country. As immunization rates increase, the percentage of cases among those vaccinated NECESSARILY increases.” The Post’s headline was then updated to note that during the outbreak, “few hospitalizations were required.”
And NBC News also faced criticism when it ran a story with the headline: “Groundbreaking Covid Cases: At Least 125,000 Fully Vaccinated Americans Tested Positive.” This headline did not mention that, according to NBC’s own data, this figure represented “less than 0.08% of the 164.2 million people and more fully vaccinated since January”. NBC later updated its headline to read: “Revolutionary Covid Cases: Data Shows How Many Americans Vaccinated Tested Positive. “

Emphasis should be placed on the unvaccinated

I reached out to Dr. Jonathan Reiner, CNN medical analyst and professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine, for his opinion on Friday’s coverage. Reiner told me he thought the focus on infections among those vaccinated “was a bit hysterical.” He explained: “Vaccines always work remarkably well in terms of preventing serious illness and death. We find that the risk of death for a vaccinated person in this country is 25 times lower than for the unvaccinated. If you look at the P-Town outbreak, there were no deaths. So let’s all take a deep breath … “

News organizations aren’t the only ones to blame

I also called Dr. Leana Wen, CNN medical analyst and former Baltimore health commissioner, who agreed the media “was missing the big picture, but so was the CDC.” Wen explained that the CDC said it was changing its mask guidelines due to new data regarding the rare cases in which a vaccinated person is infected and can then spread the virus. “They were wrong,” she said. “The reason the guidelines are changing is because Covid-19 is spreading very quickly, Delta is a big deal, and the reason for the spread is because of the unvaccinated. Wen said the main reason the CDC needed to change its mask guidelines was because the honor system was not working. In other words, people who weren’t vaccinated acted as if they were and weren’t wearing masks or following other basic safety protocols …



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