Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE
Journalist Glenn Greenwald has managed to touch upon the exact moment that public health officials, with the assistance of the leftist media and the government, destroyed all trust and faith in their expertise during the pandemic.
“This was a pivotal moment in the pandemic’s history: For 4 months, the message was clear and unrelenting: everyone must stay home. Those who leave – even to go to a deserted beach – are reckless sociopaths. It flipped overnight to endorse a mass protest movement liberals liked,” Greenwald tweeted, referring to an article titled “Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance” that Politico ran in June of 2020.
“That episode single-handedly destroyed trust in public health officials, proving they’d politicize their expertise when convenient. Corporate media celebrated a douchebag-lawyer shaming families at deserted beaches, then — overnight! — cheered densely packed street protests,” he asserted.
“In June, I was drafting an article on this flagrantly politicized reversal of COVID messaging. When @theintercept editors learned this, they commissioned an article — for the same day — to argue racism, not COVID, was the greatest health crisis, so everyone *should* go protest,” Greenwald recalled.
This was a pivotal moment in the pandemic's history:
For 4 months, the message was clear and unrelenting: everyone must stay home. Those who leave – even to go to a deserted beach – are reckless sociopaths.
It flipped overnight to endorse a mass protest movement liberals liked: https://t.co/SJUIz0dbOw
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 28, 2021
In June, I was drafting an article on this flagrantly politicized reversal of COVID messaging. When @theintercept editors learned this, they commissioned an article — for the same day — to argue racism, not COVID, was the greatest health crisis, so everyone *should* go protest. pic.twitter.com/22RjUrlVK2
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 28, 2021
“As usual, elite institutions — media, government, public health authorities — love to whine about the refusal of the public to trust their pronouncements, complaining people turn to other less credentialed and worthy sources. But they *never* ask what they did to cause this,” he continued.
As usual, elite institutions — media, government, public health authorities — love to whine about the refusal of the public to trust their pronouncements, complaining people turn to other less credentialed and worthy sources.
But they *never* ask what they did to cause this.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 28, 2021
Greenwald’s assertion is hard to argue with considering that the media and the left have previously argued that Black Lives Matter protests weren’t superspreader events, but the Capitol riot was. The Washington Post also proclaimed that Lollapalooza wasn’t a superspreader event, but the largely conservative Sturgis motorcycle rally was. It would seem that if it was a leftist protest for social issues, gatherings received a pass during the pandemic. But if it was a Trump rally or some other conservative get-together, the virus ran wild and it was all the Republicans’ fault.
COVID is not politically affiliated and it most assuredly doesn’t give a rip about racism or social justice. Just ask Taylor Swift who is a raging liberal and held an album party this month that became a so-called superspreader event where nearly 100 tested positive for COVID, according to NBC News.
The Politico piece was indeed a pivot point for health experts as Americans collectively tuned them out after their push for social justice over social distancing.
“For months, public health experts have urged Americans to take every precaution to stop the spread of Covid-19—stay at home, steer clear of friends and extended family, and absolutely avoid large gatherings,” the piece reported. “Now some of those experts are broadcasting a new message: It’s time to get out of the house and join the mass protests against racism.”
“We should always evaluate the risks and benefits of efforts to control the virus,” Jennifer Nuzzo, who is a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, tweeted. “In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.”
We should always evaluate the risks and benefits of efforts to control the virus. In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus. https://t.co/s9DagyjQ1J
— Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH (@JenniferNuzzo) June 2, 2020
“The injustice that’s evident to everyone right now needs to be addressed,” Abraar Karan, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital physician who urged coronavirus experts to amplify the protests’ anti-racist message stated.
“While I have voiced concerns that protests risk creating more outbreaks, the status quo wasn’t going to stop #covid19 either,” he wrote on Twitter.
3/ And while I have voiced concerns that protests risk creating more outbreaks, the status quo wasn’t going to stop #covid19 either
As much as this is a chapter in American racism, so too is it in the #covid19 response
It’s beyond time for us in public health to step up.
— Abraar Karan (@AbraarKaran) May 31, 2020
There probably isn’t a quicker way to tank your authority and lose all the respect you have built your career upon than to make it political and that is exactly what health experts did.
Many agree with Greenwald’s astute assessment:
So true. From that point on, we couldn’t trust anything we were being told
— Emm Gifts (@EmmGifts) December 28, 2021
Correct and this is where they lost me.
— TVandy (@TVandy7) December 28, 2021
This was the moment for me, the one that broke through the cognitive dissonance. It was like I finally acknowledged the persistent tapping in the back of my mind. Oh, none of this makes sense. We’re being lied to.
— Lola Wants (@LolaBun30282601) December 28, 2021
Loved ones were dying alone, no one could attend their funerals. Grandchildren couldn’t visit grandparents, couldn’t attend church services. When I protested business closures I was told I could be arrested but the final straw was seeing the sanctioned protests
— Theresa Maurer 🇺🇲 (@TheresaMaurer2) December 28, 2021
Yup, this is when I knew…
— Deborah Lurie (@deborahlurie) December 28, 2021
This was precisely when I moved on with my life.
— Ian Sparbeck (@isparbs78) December 28, 2021
It was THE pivotal moment. That’s when you knew it was about politics and control, and hadn’t been about the pandemic itself for well over a month
They lost me, and many, for good at that point
— Jeff Sparbeck (@JeffSparbeck) December 28, 2021
the exact moment my trust in our public heath experts began to erode was in June 2020 when they said “racism is a public health issue and therefore it’s okay to gather in public in the middle of a pandemic” https://t.co/hlg7pUfOz4
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) December 28, 2021
That was the moment when I stopped trusting the “experts.”
— Evan Summa (@wistfulrunner) December 28, 2021
This was the messaging that changed my worldview on everything.
— Mark (@MarkTopol) December 28, 2021
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
- Fox’s John Roberts issues apology for joking about Chris Christie guzzling milkshakes: ‘I deeply regret it’ - June 7, 2023
- FDNY denies getting memo ordering city firehouses to house migrants: ‘This is categorically false’ - June 7, 2023
- Military whistleblower makes shocking public claims about secret UFO retrieval program - June 6, 2023
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
