Steve Krakauer is a former CNN producer and media executive. His recent Fourth Watch newsletter touched upon what we’re all talking about: the COVID vaccine. Specifically, the pause over the Johnson and Johnson vaccine after six women aged 18-48 suffered blood clots six-to-thirteen days after receiving the shot. Nearly seven million doses have already been administered. The risk is still IMMENSELY LOW—but the message is clear and vaccine hesitancy, which was already an issue, has now become another area where the panic peddlers can latch onto though it makes no sense. The experts want us to get vaccinated but then think we’ll just be nonreactive to news that’s packaged to scare us half to death. Is it good that Dr. Anthony Fauci said there’s no cause of alarm or anxiety for those who have received the J&J shot? Yes, but his credibility balance is negative. The experts have said that impending doom was upon us. Nothing happened. And now, on top of the expert class indirectly peddling vaccine hesitancy with their advice to get the shot but remain in the bunker and in abject terror, the media has also played a part in the hysteria.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid said she’s going to remain hiding even after getting vaccinated. CNN’s Brian Stelter is mad more people, journalists especially, aren’t sharing their vaccine selfies. CNN also published why that could be a security risk. Krakauer noted that whether intentional or not, the media establishment is only fanning the flames of vaccine hesitancy (via Fourth Watch):
Consciously or subconsciously, the media is continuing to drive fear around COVID that undoubtably will lead to vaccine hesitancy. Take MSNBC's Joy Reid on Sunday. The 7pm host tweeted to her two million followers that, when she's fully vaccinated, she will be too "scurred" to get on an airplane or do "indoor activities" and that she plans to continue "double masking...for the foreseeable future"…
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We're seeing this everywhere. The Washington Post published a column over the weekend headlined "I'm vaccinated, but I'm really not ready to leave my pandemic cocoon." CNN published an article about flying post-vaccine that included some of the most egregiously wrong scientific reporting I've ever seen. "Real world studies of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines show they are only 90% protective against the coronavirus, not 95% as reported in clinical trials. Translated into reality, that means for every million fully vaccinated people who fly, some 100,000 could still become infected," the article, which was updated, said.
"NO NO NO. That’s not what that number means. Also, this didn’t even happen when millions flew unvaccinated. So how could it make sense now?" tweeted Zeynep Tufeksi. How many people read this fear-mongering and decided against getting vaccinated before it could get fixed?
The problem is also the politicians and health experts who the media hold up as the models of scientific truth. Dr. Fauci said Sunday night that "it’s still not ok" for vaccinated Americans to eat and drink indoors. Olivia Nuzzi pressed Jen Psaki today on whether fully vaccinated President Biden and VP Harris should still be wearing masks - doesn't that lead to vaccine hesitancy too? (The press secretary didn't seem to understand the question.) Trust the experts they say! These experts, who are still jumping on our media outlets with their doom and gloom predictions and getting them wrong, over and over again?
Krakauer noted that the scare tactics need to end. The coverage should be that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. That is a fact. Over 180 million doses have been administered. Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins has been combing the numbers, noting that two-thirds of the country probably already had the infection. Natural immunity is also something absent from a lot of the talking points with the COVID czars. Tens of millions of kids overall don’t get it or spread COVID. We’re near herd immunity. We have three vaccines that are safe, albeit one is taking a pause. It doesn’t negate the fact that smoking or birth control pills give someone, especially women, a higher chance of forming blood clots than this vaccine.
Is Fauci, along with members of the media saying they’re too “scurred” to travel or eat indoors even after vaccination, no different than the shoddy and fake hit piece 60 Minutes launched against Ron DeSantis? They’re both based on lies.