Thread by @Tvbona

This is the most ridiculous "both sides" story ever.

It traffics in cherrypicked anecdotes, oversimplified versions of public health guidance and mischaracterized concerns.

Oh, and the picture is from last August. Were you gonna mention that?

https://twitter.com/emmaogreen/status/1389566672789557255

Here's when your key picture is from, @emmaogreen @TheAtlantic.

Please find a more recent one or at least update the caption accordingly.

wbur.org/edify/2020/08/…

OK, I'm In A Mood. A thread:

1/?????

OK I just wasted 20 minutes trying to find @HetheringtonUNC @unc's cited survey and nothing. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but @emmaogreen a little help showing your work? Is there a trend line vs. his previous surveys?

2/?

Moreover, why is it a gotcha that more liberal people believed in March it would be "very bad” if they got COVID-19?

@emmaogreen casually notes vaccines were being rolled out, but depending on when the survey was, only 15-30% had one dose and 8-18% fully vaccinated.

3/?

I just got my first dose near the end of March, and until then I WAS "very concerned" about getting sick and yes it would have been "very bad."

It took me a bit to feel safer, as data started coming in that one shot was surprisingly effective. But I'm more engaged than most! 4/?

Can every concern troll reporter stop quoting Dr. Monica Gandhi as the ONE public health expert willing to "own the libs"?

She obviously knows her stuff, but she also keeps talking about anecdotal experiences in San Francisco and at some point find someone else. 5/?

"Hetherington found that the very liberal participants in his survey tended to be the most neurotic."

Is that @HetheringtonUNC @UNC's word and is he a clinician able to make that diagnosis?

Or is armchair expert @emmaogreen using stigmatizing language incorrectly? 6/?

"Some progressives have continued to embrace policies and behaviors that aren’t supported by evidence, such as banning access to playgrounds, closing beaches, and refusing to reopen schools for in-person learning," @emmaogreen reports, linking examples all from 2020. 7/?

"Fauci recently said he wouldn’t travel or eat at restaurants even though he’s fully vaccinated, despite CDC guidance that these activities can be safe for vaccinated people who take precautions."

You'll be shocked to know Fauci and the CDC both were more nuanced... (8/?)

Fauci: "I don't think I would — even if I'm vaccinated — go into an indoor, crowded place where people are not wearing masks."

and

"I don't really see myself going on any fun trips for a while."

Source: businessinsider.com/fauci-how-beha…

(BI felt Fauci was in line w/ CDC.) 9/?

Fauci said "CROWDED."

CDC: "transmission risk in these settings is higher and likely increases with the number of unvaccinated people present. Thus, fully vaccinated people engaging in indoor social activities in public settings should continue to wear a well-fitted mask."

10/?

So CAN you go into a crowded restaurant and be relatively safe with a mask. Yes. Relatively.

But why is it unreasonable to not want the risk while having to wear a mask the whole time?

Why is this unreasonable? What does @emmaogreen MPH know that Fauci doesn't?

11/?

Same with travel. Just because we CAN travel for fun (wearing a mask on the plane and in public places) doesn't mean we WANT to.

12/?

OK let's talk California and Gov. Newsom. @emmaogreen you outdid yourself here. I almost passed over this because who doesn't like mocking Newsom?

But turns out you, shockingly, mischaracterized him to fit your narrative that he was another lib resisting reopening...

13/?

Turns out, Newsom simply said he didn't want to force schools to reopen if they didn't want to, and said more negotiation and maybe aid was on the table.

edsource.org/2021/californi… 14/?

CA "has more than 1,000 school districts, and reopening conditions must be negotiated with labor groups representing teachers and classified employees. Some districts have struggled to find common ground with their employees."

How DARE they bargain! 15/?

sacbee.com/news/politics-…

(Sorry for the delays between tweets. It takes work being @TheAtlantic's sole fact checker.)

16/?

The Brookline, Mass., example? Fine, they're being extra cautious. Wonder why...

"According to the latest state data, Brookline has a 14-day average daily incidence rate of 5.8%, while Boston, a significantly more populated city, has a rate of 18.4%."

Oh.

17/?

Also, note the CDC specifically says FULLY VACCINATED people can hang out in groups outside unmasked.

Brookline doesn't have an, er, unquestionably legal method to apply its law only to unvaccinated people, so cut them some slack.

18/?

There's Dr. Monica Gandhi quoted again about how people in San Francisco are mean.

DRINK

19/?

Oh no, someone online was mean to that lady who wrote in March that parents should go travel with their kids. Heavens!

20/?

Somehow, @alexjgoldstein is an example of too much COVID-19 caution for not going to the barber or wanting to, um, get into rugby scrums in a pandemic.

21/?

"My fear is that we will not learn the lessons of the pandemic, because we will try to blow through the finish line as fast as we can and leave it in the rearview mirror." - @alexjgoldstein.

THE HORRORS OF SUCH A STANCE

22/?

Hoo boy, the Somerville story. Somerville, painted as this far left paradise (the insinuation being it's white progressives ignoring science.)

Somerville schools are plurality Hispanic (40.8%) vs. 39.7% white.

And the debate is ... complicated.

wickedlocal.com/story/somervil…

23/?

“'The survey is telling us that a lot of immigrant families and minority families are choosing to stay remote,' said Mazza. 'Some families might have elderly family members or grandparents home; some may just want to keep kids home for COVID safety.'"

wickedlocal.com/story/somervil…

Why are those far-left immigrants so paranoid???

"In Somerville, 37% of white residents are fully vaccinated, while 28% of Black residents, 23% of Asian residents and 16% of Hispanic residents have been completely immunized as of April 29."

Oh.

tuftsdaily.com/news/2021/05/0…

25/?

See, @emmaogreen does the old quasi-journalism trick of stringing together unrelated anecdotes with just enough detail to show a pattern she was convinced of when starting the story.

She was not gonna Google more than one article per anecdote. That might complicate things.

26/?

(I'm chiding the reporter because I still have hope for her. But I'm officially out on @TheAtlantic, which ... maybe I was mistaken ... was it EVER good?)

27/28 (seriously!)

I leave you with this, um, gem:

"And so as the rest of vaccinated America begins its summer of bacchanalia, rescheduling long-awaited dinner parties and medium-size weddings, the most hard-core pandemic progressives are left, Cassandra-like, to preach their peers’ folly."

END

I showed a friend from the Somerville, MA, area the Atlantic article and my tweetstorm, and she suggested @dre4theville shoulda been contacted for the story.