On Tuesday's edition of Hallie Jackson Reports on MSNBC, Jackson and correspondent Erin McLaughlin melted down over sellout crowds at college football games over the weekend. Additionally, McLaughlin promoted a doctor who refuses to see unvaccinated patients and gave incomplete information while fearmongering about a new variant. The correspondent condemned people who "went out at the weekend filling up stadiums, theaters, and beaches."
Jackson began by gloomfully reporting that there are "New concerns this morning about the potential for a post-Labor Day surge given all the travel, all the activities over the holiday weekend. After hitting 40 million COVID cases in the U.S, this past weekend since the start of the pandemic, the country is now averaging more than 1,500 deaths each day for the first time since March."
She then introduced McLaughlin who shamed people who:
went out at the weekend filling up stadiums, theaters, and beaches. Meanwhile, the Delta variant continuing to fill up hospital beds, look at the numbers, truly staggering. There are four times the number of COVID cases right now compared to the same point last year. Hospitalizations nearly two times the state of Florida, which has been seeing record COVID numbers considered the top holiday destination over the weekend.
The White House announced on Tuesday that 75% of adults have now received at least one shot, but that didn't stop McLaughlin from decrying, "The stadium there tens of thousands of college football fans turning out for the Gators game."
Apparently MSNBC and the public health officials they cite have been living under a rock for months, because large crowds at sporting events have been going on for months. Still, those public health officials, according to McLaughlin, were both "exhausted and frustrated. One doctor in south Florida she’s approaching burnout. Another doctor saying that she's refusing to see patients in person unless they are vaccinated."
Even if refusing to see unvaccinated patients is legal it is borderline unethical, but McLaughlin portrayed it as a reasonable response. She also declared that "compounding this entire picture is the Mu variant, the WHO Considering that variant a variant of interest and lab studies show it has the potential to be resistant to vaccines, although real world studies need to be conducted to confirm those findings."
According to the WHO, which McLaughlin cited, but with no context, Delta outpaces the Mu variant and while Mu "is a variant of interest," it is not yet "a variant of concern." They also say Mu decreases in areas where Delta is present, but you would not have gotten any of that information if you just watched MSNBC.
This segment was sponsored by Prevagen.
Here is a transcript for the September 7 show:
MSNBC
Hallie Jackson Reports
10:22 AM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: New concerns this morning about the potential for a post-Labor Day surge given all the travel, all the activities over the holiday weekend. After hitting 40 million COVID cases in the U.S, this past weekend since the start of the pandemic, the country is now averaging more than 1,500 deaths each day for the first time since March. NBC’s Erin McLaughlin is in los Angeles with the latest. Hey Erin, good morning.
ERIN MCLUAGHLIN: Hey, Hallie, that's right. Health officials are concerned about the possibility of another surge due to the holiday weekend. Millions of Americans went out at the weekend filling up stadiums, theaters, and beaches. Meanwhile, the Delta variant continuing to fill up hospital beds, look at the numbers, truly staggering. There are four times the number of COVID cases right now compared to the same point last year. Hospitalizations nearly two times the state of Florida, which has been seeing record COVID numbers considered the top holiday destination over the weekend. The stadium there tens of thousands of college football fans turning out for the Gators game. Meanwhile, I've been speaking to doctors who were exhausted and frustrated. One doctor in south Florida she’s approaching burnout. Another doctor saying that she's refusing to see patients in person unless they are vaccinated. At the same time, you have millions of American students going back to school. We're seeing COVID outbreaks for example in Kentucky, a fifth of all school districts are temporarily closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks, compounding this entire picture is the Mu variant, the WHO, considering that variant a variant of interest and lab studies show it has the potential to be resistant to vaccines, although real world studies need to be conducted to confirm those findings. Hallie?
