And whose fault is that? If anti-vaxxers and conservatives want to educate themselves about the world, nothing is stopping them. Everyone seems to just accept that they will argue in bad faith. Don’t fall for it. The right’s ignorance is not the the left’s burden.
Let’s just acknowledge what we all know to be the real issue here. If not for the pandemic, all the right would have to complain to the cops about is that a black guy threw a large loud party in a white neighborhood.
I’m a scientist who cares about reality, not “optics”. I only care about facts. The fact is that if everyone over 12 were vaccinated, you would not be seeing the surge in hospitalizations and deaths you see now regardless of the degree of mild/asymptomatic breakthrough infections occur. Vaccination is the ONLY way we’re going to be able to successfully deal with this in the US.
I don’t know what audience you talking about. If it’s the rightwing audience, they’re already misinformed and got into a snit about Obama’s tan suit and saluting with a coffee cup. These people live in constant rage about bullshit and people should not have to live their lives based on whatever the next conspiracy theory or manufactured outrage the right dreams up.
If your audience is people who still have reservations about what to do besides live in a bubble for the next two years, you tell them exactly what many of us “sad”, “biased” people have already said in our posts. If people do what the Obamas did, they have much less to worry about. So, I’ll repeat what I’ve already said twice for anyone who is reading. Listing in order of importance:
- vaccination - even though there are breakthrough infections, this needs to be a central requirement.
- outside venues - infections due to 100% outside venues are much more rare even surprising scientists. Mask if you need to go inside to go to the bathroom. Indoor parties should be verboten.
- mask when indoors - If you have to do something indoors, find out how to make your masks approach N95 levels.
- testing - not necessary for regular circumstances but if you’re planning to have a party, it’s not a bad idea. Still, the other three are much more important.
And these risk mitigations are at least additive, but they may even be synergistic.
So, this picture bothers me a lot less (if everyone were vaccinated),
than this (indoor rally before vaccinations)
Even this bothers me less than an indoor rally
How long do you let the ignorance of one group of people determine the actions of another group? I didn’t see any coverage of the party. That said, I feel safe in assuming the Fox did not point out the bits about tests, vaccinations etc. and am guessing most of the MSM did. Am I wrong?
I also agree the best way to answer people who are bitching about the party and the alleged hypocrisy is point out that the attendees followed all the guidelines and ask them if they are doing the same.
This is just the break that the McCain campaign was looking for!
Right, same thing I was trying to express.
It’s easy to forget that there were plenty of parties held in the last administration, when no vaccines were available (and testing and masking were politicized) that resulted in a big outbreak in the government that included Trump getting infected and Herman Cain dying.
That was never a problem on FOX, but finally they found a Democrat activity that they can mischaracterize – even though the details are not analogous at all – and now it’s suddenly a problem.
For all the good that the OP is doing, it is sad that they bought into this.
Even if Obama’s party can be 100% safe, it’s only that way because he’s rich enough to take the appropriate precautions. It’s a bad look to most people who are struggling to get by and have had to postpone/cancel things like weddings and family reunions. Most people can’t take the same precautions as he did. And this was for a birthday party, which really isn’t that important. It’s something that is really important for little kids, but adults are mostly indifferent. Sure it was a significant milestone, but most people’s 60th birthday party is not an extravagant party at that scale. So regardless of whether the party was COVID safe or not, it was very tone deaf towards the situation of the general public. And since Obama has been in a leadership role of trying to get people to take the virus seriously, a party like this comes off as hypocritical. If he had to have a 60th party, make it a relatively small affair where people wear masks. Demonstrate exemplary behavior even if it’s inconvenient.
Outdoors, tested, and vaccinated? Sure they can. At minimal cost.
The size was cut way back. It was all moved outdoors.
No masks are mandated or needed for outdoors.
Events have been canceled or cut back due to virus restrictions. I haven’t heard of any canceled due to cost.
Most people aren’t going to look at the specific details to understand what aspects made Obama’s party safe. They’re going to see a 200 person party and think that they can have one as well. And even if they scaled back, 200 people is a lot of people. In addition, he likely had medical experts advising him on how to make the party safe and he had a COVID coordinator to ensure the status of the guests. The average person having a wedding won’t have that kind of resource to make their party safe. Just a few posts ago people were discussing what did and didn’t make a tent COVID safe. The average person isn’t going to be looking at the situation with that kind of nuance. The average person is going to put up an enclosed tent that can hold 200 people and think it’s okay because it’s outside.
I think you’re ascribing a level of complexity that just isn’t there.
- Vaccinated
- Tested
- Outdoors
- If tented, sides open.
Easy peasy. I’ve been to several events like these already. No one was exceptionally brilliant or at all well-off.
That’s not true. I mean, poor people don’t generally hold parties for 200 people at all. But all the outdoor weddings I’ve attended were held by people who didn’t want to pay for an indoors venue. Well, all but one. Moving your party outdoors is a way to make the event cheaper. The vaccine is funded by the US govt, so the out-of-pocket cost is zero. And testing… I’m told you can get tested for free, now. I’m actually about to attend an outdoor even among vaccinated people, and the host is providing on-site testing for those of us who can’t go to the usual places. (I have weird conflicts.) I haven’t asked the cost. But they added that on when Delta kicked up, and they are way more concerned about whether they will spread covid than they are about the cost of the testing.
That being said, yeah, the optics are bad. I am really happy that I don’t live in the limelight, and I don’t have to worry about every little thing I do being dissected for “optics”.
That’s not true and this is the whole point of my three previous posts. Everyone has access to vaccines, masks, and outside. It’s not perfect, but doable and depends on your acceptance of risk. I wouldn’t have that party but I have been to small gatherings outside with fellow vaccinated people.
So, what you are saying is that Obama is doing a public service. He held a party about the size of a typical largish wedding, hired experts to see how to do it safely, and now the news can report those safety measures to the rest of us, so we don’t need to hire experts.
That’s how this would have played out if we didn’t have such toxic politics and partisan news outlets.
I have to wonder if some of the outrage over this is that that he’s a Black man who acts as if he’s a wealthy white man. Remember how many people lost their shit when Obama played golf?
Of course, we do have toxic partisan news, and this is something that can be weaponized, and it WON’T be presented as an object lesson in how to mitigate the dangers of throwing a wedding. Instead it will be used as a reason to say, “why should I follow any guidelines?” But the blame for that is more on our right wing media than on Obama.
You can get rapid at-home covid tests now from Amazon at about 10 bucks each. I imagine you can get them much cheaper from somewhere in bulk.
Yep. Nobody should bother trying to placate the FOX crowd. Remember when they made fun of Biden “hiding in his basement” even though he wasn’t? So they can’t win. Democrats are either scared, effeminate babies or they’re hypocrites. Fuck them.
Oh, yes, they do.* Come to where I live.
* Not a put-down. Great parties.
And are they indoors, or outdoors?
The optics here being that vaccinated people can start going to parties? I’m on board.
I’ve been to both. Not in COVID times.
Sorry, it was just a facetious comment in response to your comment, not important.
As I said above, I’m not completely comfortable with Obama’s party. And I’m not 100% sure that being in the middle of a tent that big, with that many people, is the same as being outdoors. Even if the side flaps are up. I wouldn’t have gone. Not that Barack and Michelle were planning on inviting me anyway.
That said, if everyone was vaccinated, at the very least it won’t be a super-spreader event, and with a little luck, maybe nobody passed Covid on to anyone else.