Drew Holden Profile picture
Jul 28, 2021 18 tweets 10 min read Read on X
🧵THREAD🧵

We’ve all seen the various flip-flops of the CDC and Dr. Anthony Fauci over the last 18 months.

To help keep track, I present “Fauci vs. Fauci,” chronicling the twists, turns, contradictions and backtracks from the man and his agency.⤵️
To start, we need to focus on Dr. Fauci’s perspective on the virus itself and it’s risk to the United States.

In late January 2020, Fauci said that COVID was a “very, very low risk to the United States.”

I think it goes without saying that his perspective has evolved since. ImageImage
One big, obvious area of flipping is around the benefits of wearing a mask. Dr. Fauci originally said that masks weren’t effective & publicly encouraged Americans not to buy them (guidance he doesn’t regret).

Now even vaccinated people need to wear masks. ImageImageImage
And it wasn’t just the efficacy of masks in general. Less than a month ago , Dr. Fauci declared confidently that the CDC wasn’t going to change its recommendation about masking given the Delta variant.

We’ve already seen changes, and more are under consideration. ImageImageImage
And how many masks were we all supposed to wear, anyway?

Was it one mask? Two masks? No mask? A face shield? Goggles? Depending on when you asked Dr. Fauci, it could’ve been anything. ImageImageImageImage
Dr. Fauci was a leading voice suggesting for months that the pandemic couldn’t possibly have leaked from a lab in Wuhan (one that received US tax dollars, by the way).

That was until the consensus changed. And then, suddenly, the theory couldn’t be dismissed.

Complete 180 ImageImage
These reversals cut in both directions. Back in September, the CDC changed its rules - reportedly under political pressure - to reduce the people it advised getting tested, before quickly reversing course after pressure. ImageImage
And you may have forgotten, but the CDC had a brouhaha also in September when new guidance about airborne transmission - including beyond 6 feet - went live on the agency’s website.

It was quickly scrubbed after a brief medical & news firestorm.

Not exactly confidence-inspiring ImageImage
Schools have seen lots of reversals. In February, the CDC Director said schools could reopen safely w/o teachers vaccinated.

Well, a few calls from the teachers union later, the CDC reversed course. Weeks later, new guidance (sensing a theme?) was released focusing on teachers. ImageImageImage
And we had plenty of flips when it came to teachers wearing masks.

First, the CDC said that they had to, back in May 2020.

Then earlier this month, the CDC said vaccinated teachers and students don’t need one.

But now? Back to where we started - masks for the vaccinated. ImageImage
And who could forget the approval, then pause, then unpause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a move that diminished American confidence in vaccines in the midst of a vaccine rollout during a global pandemic? ImageImageImage
The coronavirus pandemic is unlike anything any of us have seen before. There should be some charity and humility about bad predictions.

But the idea that Dr. Fauci and the CDC haven’t flip-flopped? That’s just preposterous. Image
Is it any wonder Americans don’t trust public health experts after this? Does it surprise anyone that Dr. Fauci and the CDC aren’t seen as reputable now?

These failures have consequences, and you can measure them in lives.
I don’t have anything to sell or subscribe to, but if you’re able, this is still an incredibly difficult time for local food banks. Here in DC, Capital Area Food Bank is well worth your charity. capitalareafoodbank.org
Important 🧵 addition. You may remember that, back in April, Dr. Fauci said new case levels meant we were primed for a surge.

As you can see by the case count, that didn’t happen (1/2) ImageImage
But now, as blue states who have supposedly done everything right see their counts increase, Dr. Fauci has realized (too late, IMO) that case counts actually aren’t worth worrying about.

Interesting how that happens. (2/2) ImageImage
This news comes on the heels of CDC Director Walensky giving the game away on isolation periods, admitting that their guidance changed not with any science but because they didn’t think folks could “tolerate” longer periods (again, now that it’s the Good Guys getting sick) Image
That led to a backlash from the media and powerful unions which - somehow - has caused “the science” to quickly shift once again, requiring “further clarification” imminently ImageImageImage

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More from @DrewHolden360

Apr 24
🧵THREAD🧵

Do you remember how bad the media’s “Covid lab leak” - the hypothesis that the virus came from a lab - coverage was?

I thought I did. But it was a more dramatic example of uniform media malpractice than even I remembered.

So I revisited it. Buckle in, it’s long. ⤵️
It started in Feb 2020 when @SenTomCotton suggested looking into the CCP lab studying bats near the initial cases in Wuhan.

The media were outraged. In a since-updated piece, @washingtonpost said the idea was a “conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked by experts.”
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It wasn’t just WaPo. Shortly thereafter, @nytimes trotted out a similar allegation, calling the lab leak hypothesis a “fringe theory” and a “tale” designed to inflame social media.

@CNN’s @ChrisCillizza said Cotton was “playing a dangerous game” with his suggestions.

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Read 28 tweets
Apr 22
It's always interesting to me, the tweets outlets never bother to delete.
The reason I take screenshots is that I'm always paranoid that an outlet or journalist will scrap the evidence of a bad take. Maybe I should be giving folks more credit for standing by their inaccuracies.
Every so often I check back in on this, perhaps my all-time favorite headline from @NPR, only to see that it still exists in its original form, from April 2020. Image
Read 10 tweets
Apr 17
🧵Thread🧵

I launched a newsletter, called Holden Court, about the media, what they get wrong & why it matters. The goal is to reach beyond what my 🧵s have on Twitter & to build a better recent history of media & media criticism.

You can sign up at the link in my bio. More ⤵️
At that link you can read my launch piece and get a better idea of what it is that I’m trying to do.

The piece also walks through a recent example of bad media coverage that I worry we’re already forgetting about: the start of Covid. Image
My general premise for the newsletter is that media criticism could be a lot better; more driven by what the media actually does and says and more set in recent context, rather than an impressionistic sense that the media is hopelessly off-track.
Read 8 tweets
Apr 16
I’m launching something new, so naturally I figured the best explainer was a 🧵thread🧵.

Introducing Holden Court, my Substack about the media, what it gets wrong, and why it matters.

You probably know the drill, but more details & links to sign up in the tweets below. ⤵️ Image
Holden Court aims to unpack media failures, particularly when the media misses in unison on important political topics. But I’ll also have one-off content, Q&A opportunities, a mailbag and maybe virtual (or even in person) happy hours, too.

Sign up here: open.substack.com/pub/drewholden…
That doesn’t mean the threads are going away. But the amount of context and nuance I can capture in a thread is limited. So the Substack will (hopefully) provide that more robust analysis, aiming ultimately at *why* the media misses the way that it does.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 19
🧵THREAD🧵

“15 days to slow the spread” kicked off four years ago Saturday, sending the media into perhaps its most deranged cycle of my lifetime.

I dove back into some of the worst lockdown media coverage from those early days.

Buckle in, this one’s long. ⤵️
The real worst of the coverage was when states started reopening. The media outrage was palpable. Republicans wanted people to die, we were told.

Remember @TheAtlantic’s “Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice”? You may’ve forgotten how wild the text of it was. I did.
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But that wasn’t a one off sentiment. The belief four years ago among the media was that allowing people to leave their homes was tantamount to killing people.

@washingtonpost called it a “deadly error” — not in an opinion piece, mind you, but in a “health” news headline. Image
Read 23 tweets
Mar 12
🧵THREAD🧵

Another media conspiracy, this time that Trump attacked a Secret Service agent on Jan 6, imploded yesterday.

Remember when the media—in unison—reported the “bombshell” allegations as fact?

I do. And I’ve got screenshots.⤵️
You’re familiar with the story I suspect but just in case: when former aid Cassidy Hutchinson testified Trump had “lunged” for a secret service steering wheel on Jan. 6, the media rushed to print the salacious (& false) claims as true.

Here’s @NBCNews @CNN @ABC @washingtonpost


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Trump was allegedly going to drive himself to the Capitol to take part in the riot.

That’s what @CBSNews @Independent @NPR @NewsHour said.


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Read 18 tweets

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