As I’ve noted before, many of us have talked until we’re blue in the face about the inconsistent “trust the science” coronavirus messaging that has come out of Biden White House, which actually started well before President Biden was inaugurated.
There was the despicable undermining of the public’s confidence in the vaccine from both Biden, his then-vice presidential running mate Kamala Harris, and many in the media last year in what was a clear attempt at hurting Trump’s chances for reelection. That all changed after Election Day, of course.
There has also been confusion as to what constitutes “getting back to normal,” confusion that was enabled by this White House’s myriad conflicting messages as to what “normal” meant and when exactly it would start happening.
But, where the incoherence has been most prominent, in my opinion, is when it comes to mask-wearing once you’ve been fully vaccinated. Just this week the CDC revised its guidelines on outdoor mask-wearing, and yet Biden continues to wear his mask outdoors — oftentimes double-masked. He also insists on wearing it indoors when he’s around other people who have also, like him, been fully vaccinated. That, too, goes against CDC guidelines, as plainly stated here.
His insistence on wearing a mask contra to CDC guidelines has only led to more confusion and vaccine hesitancy, something that even some of his apologists at CNN are now acknowledging. Here’s what CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond reported earlier today, on questions he asked the White House about this very issue:
I asked WH covid coordinator Jeff Zients whether the President is considering a travel ban on India & why the President isn’t doing more to show people what you can do once you are vaccinated.
He dodged the first (pointing to existing protocols) & did not answer the 2nd question.— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) April 30, 2021
Biden told @craigmelvin that he would wear a mask if he was sitting close to him, even if they are both vaccinated.
That goes against the latest CDC guidance, which says “you can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart.”— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) April 30, 2021
Diamond is not the only CNNer to have finally taken notice of the trouble with the signals Biden continues to send by wearing his mask, when the CDC says you don’t have to. The network’s “Prime Time” host Chris Cuomo interviewed Biden senior coronavirus response advisor Dr. Andy Slavitt earlier this week on vaccinations and mask-wearing, asking him four different times why can’t the CDC’s/White House’s consistent messaging simply be that fully vaccinated people can get back to normal, no masks, no social distancing indoors or outdoors? It could, Cuomo argued, be a great way to discourage vaccine hesitancy and hasten the country’s return back to business as usual.
Slavitt never directly answered his question.
As I said at the time, that segment, in a nutshell, revealed the entire problem with the public health messaging on coronavirus guidelines and vaccinations. Here we had a doctor and former Obama Medicare official, who ran with the “trust the science, trust the CDC!” arguments all of last year, not being able to explain the science behind the CDC’s guidelines and the White House’s messaging on mask-wearing for fully vaccinated people. This guy is supposed to be a trusted “medical expert.” So, where was the expertise?
And if we’re supposed to “trust the science!”, why can’t Biden and his team do a better job of demonstrating that they trust it themselves?
Never thought I’d see the day when I’d say this, but it would appear that Biden is now even losing segments of his usual CNN cheerleaders at this point, with his mixed messages on masks and vaccinations. When you’re a Democrat and you’ve lost CNN, you know the time has come for you to consider reevaluating your message.
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