The Media Is Now Blaming Outdated COVID Vaccines For Latest ‘Surge’
Starting in late 2020, the media and public health establishment had two obsessions. One related to forcing the public to wear masks, even though the mountains of data and several studies have confirmed that they don't stop transmission of respiratory viruses. The second obsession was forcing everyone to take COVID vaccines, regardless of their actual efficacy, risk of side effects, age or underlying health, or the vaccines' rapidly waning efficacy.
That obsession has not abated, though even the most extreme, hardened COVID extremists have acknowledged that mandates were a mistake and side effects should be acknowledged.
READ: Former CDC Director Makes Stunning Admission On COVID Vaccines
Even now, that obsession continues, despite the pandemic effectively ending. As has happened every single year since 2020, cases have increased in summer. And a Los Angeles media outlet, of course it had to be Los Angeles, has determined the culprit.
![COVID Mask fear New York Times](http://images.outkick.com/static.outkick.com/www.outkick.com/content/uploads/2024/01/668/376/GettyImages-1210101160-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
LOS ANGELES - A hiker wearing a mask because of the coronavirus walks past the Hollywood sign in Griffith Park in March of 2020. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The Media Refuses To Accept COVID Reality
Turns out it's not seasonality causing the increase, it's outdated COVID vaccines and a lack of public masking, of course!
NBC Los Angeles "reported" that COVID cases in California and Los Angeles have "doubled" in the last month. This sounds horrifying and scary, doesn't it? Yet it again, as is so often the case with COVID coverage, is misleading.
Here's the current COVID situation in Los Angeles County. Given the fear about a "doubling" of cases in recent weeks, it should be easy to spot how this surge compares to previous increases.
![](http://images.outkick.com/static.outkick.com/www.outkick.com/content/uploads/2024/07/668/376/7-10-24-LA-COVID.png?ve=1&tl=1)
You can see why the media is scared, given how dramatic this surge appears to be compared to the previous four years. And thanks to NBC's crack reporting, we know why this terrifying increase is happening. People aren't wearing masks, and aren't getting the right COVID vaccines.
"People aren’t necessarily wearing masks; they’re not required to in certain places," nurse practitioner Alice Benjamin said. "We’re traveling, we’re getting out for the summer. We also do have some reduced immunity. The vaccines will wane over time."
Nowhere in the story is it mentioned that the massive jump in COVID cases in late 2021 and early 2022 happened immediately after LA County Public Health issued a press release celebrating the county for achieving 95+ percent masking rates at indoor businesses. No one seems able to ask this nurse practitioner why she believes wearing masks would reduce this "surge," if it failed so spectacularly in previous surges.
Endless Misinformation From ‘Experts’
She wasn't done with the misinformation though. Benjamin warned that not enough Angelenos are getting the "updated" vaccine, which explains the summer increase.
"If you got it in October and later, that’s generally the updated vaccine," Benjamin said. "If you got it prior to October, double check because if you did get the bivalent which has not been phased out, we recommend you do get an updated vaccine."
And according to her, everyone should get it. Because the CDC said so.
"Per CDC recommendations, anyone 6 months or older should have at least one of the updated COVID vaccines," Benjamin said.
Though, of course, no one on the crack NBC Los Angeles team thought to ask Benjamin why the "updated" October vaccine would help against the FLiRT variant when it emerged six months after the "updated" vaccine was released. Especially when the "study" process for booster doses is effectively nonexistent anyway.
Her comments and the media reaction exemplifies the problems with COVID discourse that started in 2020 and will apparently continue forever. A complete and purposeful ignorance of the facts, the data, and the evidence base. A willingness to advocate for the same sort of restrictions and interventions that have already failed. Ignorance of the booster process and endless appeals to public health authorities. Even though those authorities have made countless mistakes and refused to update their findings after being proven wrong.
READ: Former CDC Director Admits COVID Mandates Were Destructive And Ineffective
The obvious question is how does this type of absurdist discourse ever end? The answer, as we continue to see, is it doesn't.