Journalists are neurotic COVID-19 fearmongers

OPINION:

The New York Times must be staffed with neurotic, introverted, socially awkward, fearful journalists.

How else could one explain the following headlines published by the paper: “The pandemic shrank our social circles. Let’s keep it that way,” “How to deal with quarantine-induced social anxiety,” “Need to dust off your social skills? After a year of virtual gathering, getting back to real-life relationships can be intimidating,” and “Don’t worry, you can learn to talk to people again.”

Really? Millions of Americans were forced to work outside of their homes during the pandemic didn’t have the luxury of working from their living rooms and taking Zoom calls. Many were on the front lines in hospitals, others were stocking shelves of the local grocery stores so that the rich, entitled elites could have food delivered to their front doors. Most are excited not to have to wear a mask outdoors and want their children to return to in-school learning. It seems journalists, however, just can’t relate.

MSNBC’s Joy Reid said Wednesday she still wears two masks while jogging outside, despite being vaccinated and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s newly issued guidance that people no longer need to wear masks outdoors. 

Talk about spreading misinformation and coronavirus fear-porn.

Jennifer Yang, a Twitter-verified Toronto Star reporter covering the coronavirus beat, had a viral meltdown when one of her children caught the virus.

“The thing that really makes me feel sick is knowing our family is now part of a chain of infections that could kill or hospitalize another person,” she tweeted. “When I heard there was a 2nd confirmed case at our daycare, I cried almost as much as I did when our daughter tested positive.”

She then went on to express her worries for the day care workers, despair for the parents, and how her daughter “cried to be held,” giving the impression she didn’t comfort her child during her sickness.

Her tweets went viral and she has since blocked her feed. How grown-up.

Our media landscape — and coverage of the coronavirus pandemic — is being dictated by a small group of reporters who are scared to death of the virus. They report from their homes, too afraid to go outside, and gather their information from online sources, not the real world. 

Their hysteria is fueling coronavirus misinformation, encouraging lockdowns, and escalating social anxieties and division. 

They warned us that reopening Florida’s beaches and Texas lifting its mask mandate would lead to mass infection rates and hospitalizations. They were wrong. They doubted the U.S. could provide the American public with vaccinations by this month. They were wrong. They were paranoid that filling sports stadiums would lead to superspreader events. They, again, were wrong.

It’s no wonder why those who identify as liberal have such a hard time grasping the facts (heck, the science!) behind the coronavirus. 

The vast majority of liberals overestimate the probability of being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19, compared to other ideologies, a Gallup survey found. There’s only a 1% to 5% chance of somebody with COVID-19 having to be hospitalized, yet 41% of liberals believe there’s a greater than 50% chance. Only 10% of liberal respondents in the survey knew the correct answer.

Perhaps if there were more journalists spreading facts, not fear, this number would be different. Sadly, for America, this is simply not the case.