It’s been less than 100 days since Biden became president and his policies are already imploding. Even the mainstream media admits the Biden-Harris Administration is becoming their own worst enemy and their attempt at a vaccine drive is a disaster.
If the goal is to get as many people vaccinated as possible the Biden team isn’t doing a great job. During a press briefing earlier this week, Press Secretary Psaki came right out and admitted things weren’t going as planned.
New York Magazine reporter, Olivia Nuzzi asked Psaki if the optics of White House Staff wearing masks and claiming things won’t be back to normal despite vaccination is having a negative effect on getting people vaccinated. Psaki relented that the White House has not had the best messaging to convince people to get the vaccine.
Great questions from @OliviaNuzzi to Jen Psaki about why are administration officials still wearing masks despite having long been vaccinated and discouraging people from doing things we used to do (like socializing). She made the point about it contributing to vaccine hesitancy. pic.twitter.com/dVYhU0nuxU
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 12, 2021
Tim Carney, from the Washington Examiner, made some very reasonable observations that others in the media are noticing. Like, school closures, limiting churches, and lockdowns the vaccine is a mitigation effort that has risks. If the White House is pausing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of a 1 in 7 million chance of a blood clot then other forms of mitigation (like lockdowns) should immediately be suspended as well because of their consequences.
Is the virus dangerous enough that we should vaccinate people with a vaccine that might possibly (but probably not) have a 1-in-7 million chance of a deadly blood clot?
If the virus is not that dangerous, how can we justify continued closures of schools, main streets, etc?
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) April 13, 2021
Do we have zero tolerance for risks of interventions against COVID? Is that the federal government's stance, as suggested by the J&J suspension?
If so, suspend all closures and distancing requirements.
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) April 13, 2021
I've seen talk about how the media tends to emphasize negative news about COVID, which I don't doubt is true, but which surely stems in part from the fact that certain public health experts tend to heavily emphasize negative news when talking to the press.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 12, 2021
There's also a tricky issue about how an expert frames a personal but out-of-consensus view when talking to the press. Osterholm's extremely pessimistic view is NOT the scientific consensus, by any means; the models are all over the place in terms of what to expect next. https://t.co/JVndwiOaW2 pic.twitter.com/s7IgKq7VuT
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 12, 2021
You can’t expect people to get vaccinated if they don’t expect things to get any better. Fauci telling people they can’t eat indoors and still must wear two masks even though they are vaccinated doesn’t exactly instill confidence.
