With President Biden’s announcement on Thursday that he had tested positive for COVID-19, CNN saw a chance to both reinstill fear and hysteria in the hearts and minds of viewers over the virus as well as throw punches at former President Trump for how his own diagnosis transpired in October 2020. Among the craziest takes, one CNN medical contributor invoked the pandemic alongside the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner was said genius who found away to mention Abe alongside COVID as he told CNN Newsroom co-host Poppy Harlow that Abe’s murder took place in Japan, a country where they have a population “of 140 million people,” but only “30,000 deaths, so it's a country 40 percent the size the United States with only three percent of the mortality for COVID.”
The reason, Reiner said, was “universal masking” and that the Japanese people “haven’t fought” these edicts, so it would be helpful if Americans would just accept “proactive mitigation.”
Harlow blew right past the insanity of that statement, lamenting that what Reiner “just described in Japan will not happen in America,” leaving the push to reinstitute mask requirements to “municipalities and cities.”
Prior to that whopper, Reiner was already on the mask train and complaining that “there's no sense of urgency” for the “tremendous amount of virus” and “very few municipalities have reinstituted mandatory masking in public places.”
“We see very few of our public figures coming out into public wearing a mask. And it has put in place this sort of sense of complacency that, you know, we're done with this, we're moving on,” he added.
Reiner also demanded that “we should be ratcheting up” COVID measures by requiring masks in “public venues” and that people need to mask up “anytime you're meeting with people that you don't know or you don't know have been tested.”
In the 5:00 p.m. Eastern hour, Reiner kept up the hysteria, saying “[e]verybody should be wearing N-95” in public and, at minimum, “the leaders of our country and their families should be wearing them.”
On Inside Politics, former Planned Parenthood president and CNN medical contributor Dr. Leana Wen gave her first on-air comments about Biden’s diagnosis by trashing Trump: “I commend the White House for being so transparent. There certainly a big difference between how they're responding now versus with former President Trump.”
The Trump bashing continued into the next block with host John King remarking that Biden came into office having run a campaign “about Trump bungled the COVID pandemic, put an adult in charge will make it differently.”
“And they also seem determined, needed to show that this is not the Trump White House where it was hard to get information. And we got conflicting information about Donald Trump's COVID case early on,” King boasted.
King continued to make the contrast with Trump by claiming Team Biden has been fully transparent, which senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson furthered herself by scoffing at the “theatrics” from Trump’s bout (click “expand”):
KING: Very quickly, a memo from the White House physician to the White House press secretary saying, here is what we know. Dr. Jha, the COVID coordinators, our Jeremy Diamond, our correspondent there ran into him. He said, President does not have a fever, just has a runny nose. And they're going to have doctors at the briefing later today. They seem determined to not only give the president saying, I'm feeling fine, but to give you the medical information to back it up.
HENDERSON: That's right. Very different from what we saw from the Trump White House. I think he tweeted himself at 1am in the morning that he had COVID, went through all sorts of theatrics of projecting strength that writing in his presidential motorcade with his — I think his mask was off and then arriving at the White House and ripping his mask off in dramatic fashion. I don't think we'll see that from this President. But we do see this idea of projecting strength, this idea that, “I'm keeping busy.” I will say that, you know, I think too many people sort of want to push through this illness and maybe it would be better just sort of listen to your body and just kind of rest, take a day off. I don't think Americans would mind that. But that's just a personal aside.
CNN’s return to COVID hysteria was brought to you by advertisers such as Ancestry and Colonial Penn. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from July 21, click “expand.”
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
July 21, 2022
10:42 a.m. EasternJONATHAN REINER: But we're in a worse place in that almost certainly we've never seen as much virus circulating as is currently circulating in the United States. We probably are currently seeing somewhere between 600,000 and 800,000 new cases per day, most of them being tested at home. So there's a tremendous amount of virus around. And also what's worse is that there's no sense of urgency in this country. No municipality has reinstituted or very few municipalities have reinstituted mandatory masking in public places. We see very few of our public figures coming out into public wearing a mask. And it has put in place this sort of sense of complacency that, you know, we're done with this, we're moving on. I hear people talking about, you know, sort of — using the pandemic in past sense. But it's still very much present.
HARLOW: Very here. Yep.
REINER: And the fact — and the fact that the President of the United States tested positive is a stark reminder of that.
(....)
10:51 a.m. Eastern
REINER: But because the vaccines are not great at preventing you from getting infected, we need to resort or return to, I should say, strategies that we do not work and more and more people should be wearing an effective mask in public. We always spoke about these kind of mitigation strategies as being, you know, not an on-off switch, but more like a dimmer switch and now when there's so much virus in the community, we should be ratcheting up that protection. Public venue should require masks. Any time you're meeting with people that you don't know or you don't know have been tested, people should be wearing masks. There is so much virus in this community. What we've done is we've created this sort of magical thinking that the pandemic is behind us and we're moving on. Look, the best news today is that the President is very well protected by the vaccines and the therapeutics that he's receiving should hasten his recovery. But there is, you know, there are still many, many millions of vulnerable Americans who have not been vaccinated or have underlying medical conditions that compromise their ability to mount an immune defense to this virus. And this virus is continuing to kill now over 400 people per day. And as I said earlier, hundreds of thousands of people are getting infected. We need to have a more aggressive stance and — and bring masks back to the United States. I'll point out that, you know, Japan has been in the news recently because of the tragic death of former prime minister but Japan is a country of 140 million people. That's about 40 percent the size of the United States. But they've had 30,000 deaths, so it's a country 40 percent the size the United States with only three percent of the mortality for COVID. And that's because that country has essentially universal masking.
HARLOW: Yeah.
REINER: They haven't fought it. They continue to have that and we need to get back to that kind of proactive mitigation in this country.
HARLOW: And the President, Kaitlan Collins, has been such a supporter throughout, right, even before he was President, of masking and pleading with the American public to get vaccinated, to get boosted, but what Dr Reiner, Kaitlan, just described in Japan will not happen in America. That is not the reality and this discussion now among municipalities and cities about, do we, you know, reinstitute mask mandates indoors this really comes to the fore again now.
(....)
10:55 a.m. Eastern
COLLINS: And Dr. Jha himself has been warning about what the cases could look like this fall, and so this is obviously still very much a forefront concern for them. It changes the calculus compared to the last time I was covering a President who tested positive for COVID-19 because there are vaccines, there are boosters, and you're right, President Biden is someone who has been very vigilant about his messaging on that front and about wearing a mask as well.
(....)
CNN’s Inside Politics
July 21, 2022
12:04 p.m. EasternJOHN KING: The President is 79 years old. He has been twice vaccinated. He has been twice boosted. The last booster was at the end of March. He is taking Paxlovid. The White House physician says, he has a little fatigue and an occasional dry cough that he started experiencing last night. This is obviously, it's not just any patient. It's a 79-year-old man who is President of the United States. What you've heard so far from the White House sound right to you?
DR. LEANA WEN: It does, and I commend the White House for being so transparent. There certainly a big difference between how they're responding now versus with former President Trump. In this case, I do expect that President Biden is going to make a full recovery and that is symptoms are going to remain wild. And that's because the initial vaccination and the first booster already protects you very well against severe illness.
(....)
12:27 p.m. Eastern
KING: Franco, you covered the Biden White House. They took over of course, coming out of the whole campaign, was about Trump bungled the COVID pandemic, put an adult in charge will make it differently. We are now year and a half into the administration. We've seen even the Biden White House trying masks sometimes, but not always, travel when you can. What has — what has been the big shift? And on this day, they always said they were prepared for this moment. What is the mood in the building today?
FRANCO ORDONEZ: Well, I mean, they have always been very rigorous as someone who has traveled with the President a lot. The protocols that are in place, have always been very extensive, testing, mask, everything. And they have indicated that they have been preparing for this for a long time. That said, you know, it's still going to be, you know, there's some stunnedness [sic] here. I mean, he's a 79-year-old man, the oldest President in history. There is going to be some concern and some caretaking. I'm very interested in watching those tweets of him, you know, in the Treaty Room at his desk, because it's clear, they want to make — they’re presenting — there's imagery here that they want to show that he's strong, that he's tough, that the symptoms are mild, and then he wants to go ahead and do his work.
KING: And they also seem determined, needed to show that this is not the Trump White House —
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Right.
KING: — where it was hard to get information. And we got conflicting information about Donald Trump's COVID case early on. Very quickly, a memo from the White House physician to the White House press secretary saying, here is what we know. Dr. Jha, the COVID coordinators, our Jeremy Diamond, our correspondent there ran into him. He said, President does not have a fever, just has a runny nose. And they're going to have doctors at the briefing later today. They seem determined to not only give the President saying, I'm feeling fine, but to give you the medical information to back it up.
HENDERSON: That's right. Very different from what we saw from the Trump White House. I think he tweeted himself at 1am in the morning that he had COVID, went through all sorts of theatrics of projecting strength that writing in his Presidential motorcade with his — I think his mask was off and then arriving at the White House and ripping his mask off in dramatic fashion. I don't think we'll see that from this President. But we do see this idea of projecting strength, this idea that, “I'm keeping busy.” I will say that, you know, I think too many people sort of want to push through this illness and maybe it would be better just sort of listen to your body and just kind of rest, take a day off. I don't think Americans would mind that. But that's just a personal aside.
(....)
CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper
July 21, 2022
5:34 p.m. EasternREINER: Everybody should be wearing N-95.
JAKE TAPPER: Yeah, not just her, of course.
REINER: You know, they went from this sort of exotic, rare, hard-to-find item to much to more widely available and an N-95 mask will protect you in a very heavily-laden viral environment. It’s where we wear in the hospital and if you have a tight-fitting N-95 mask, even if you’re in very close contact with someone who’s infected and even if you're in contact with them for a long period of time, you are unlikely to get this disease. But you don't see many people who aren’t somehow involved in medicine wearing them. I certainly think the leaders of our country and their families should be wearing them. I think all Americans should be wearing them. One of the questions I’ve asked this week is: what have done to change the manufacturing capacity in the United states? What we found out in the early months of — of COVID was that we didn't have the manufacturing ability to create enough N-95 masks for this country. Has that changed over the past couple of years? I don’t — I don’t know.
