On Sunday night’s CNN Newsroom, host Pamela Brown and Biden coronavirus advisory board member Celine Gounder continued CNN’s ongoing efforts to fearmonger about COVID, melt down over alleged super spreader events, and express anger and disgust with Americans trying to return back to normal.
In particular, Brown freaked out over Americans having a “false sense of security” and Gounder predicted that “we’re going to see another surge” because “people are so letting down their guards.”
As part of CNN’s obsession with scaremongering about any event that brings people joy, Brown flipped out over “people packing into Atlanta” for this weekend’s NBA All Star Game and also took a shot at states ending lockdowns and mask mandates:
And it seems like part of the country feels like they've already gone past the finish line, like they've already ran the marathon. They’re over it. I mean, you see people packing into Atlanta for the NBA All-Star weekend even though tonight's game is closed to the public. Local night clubs and bars are attracting -- are trying to attract fans. Some states are rolling back their restrictions. People are making spring break travel plans. How dangerous is this false sense of security right now?
Readers may recall that, ahead of last month's Super Bowl, CNN was so upset over people celebrating that correspondent Randi Kaye admitted she called the cops on maskless Floridians. However, despite the gloom and doom predictions from the liberal media, Tampa Bay officials confirmed that the Super Bowl was not a super spreader event.
Of course, CNN didn't care then and still doesn't about their mentally-crippling narrative about the virus and sully those who dare to step outside their homes (and away from keeping their eyes fixed on watching CNN).
Gounder then ghoulishly predicted the U.S. will “see another surge” due to Americans “letting down their guards” and advocated for the continuation of draconian COVID policies, insisting “we should be able to hopefully lift some of these mitigation measures” once “we have enough vaccine available for every adult who wants to be vaccinated to get vaccinated.”
Her timeline for eliminating “some of these mitigation measures?” “Sometime by the middle of the summer.” Uh-huh.
It should be noted that she's proven herself in the last year to be no less partisan than anyone else on CNN. For example, she once griped on CNN that President Donald Trump was “cult leader who is jumping off the cliff.”
Brown then suggested that people who have been vaccinated should wait around for the CDC to tell them when they can resume normal life and Gounder stated that even those who are vaccinated should “continue wearing masks and social distancing” if they are not exclusively around people who are also vaccinated (click "expand"):
BROWN: In the absence of CDC guidance telling people what to do once they’re vaccinated, what advice do you give people watching right now who are wondering -- who have been vaccinated and want to know if they can see their grandkids, what they should be doing?
GOUNDER: Well, I think a good rule of thumb is if you have been vaccinated and you are around other people all of whom have also been vaccinated, you can go back to whatever you did before the pandemic. If you are in a group of people that's mixed, some vaccinated, some not, probably you should still be wearing masks and of course if no one has been vaccinated, you really do need to continue wearing masks and social distancing and all the rest.
Brown continued to bizarrely undermine the point of even getting the vaccine by insisting that one should “wear a mask because you could still give -- you could still be a holder of the virus, right, and spread it.”
Gounder concurred: “That's right. So you -- even though you have been vaccinated, you could become a carrier for the virus and not get sick and spread it to others.”
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Read the full February 7th transcript here:
CNN Newsroom
03/08/21
6:28:32 PMPAMELA BROWN: And it seems like part of the country feels like they've already gone past the finish line, like they've already ran the marathon. They’re over it. I mean, you see people packing into Atlanta for the NBA All-Star weekend. Even though tonight's game is closed to the public, local night clubs and bars are attracting -- are trying to attract fans. Some states are rolling back their restrictions. People are making spring break travel plans. How dangerous is this false sense of security right now?
CELINE GOUNDER: (CNN MEDICAL ANALYST; INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST; EPIDEMIOLOGIST): Well, I do think we're going to see another surge. I think even without the B.1.1.7 variant, because people are so letting down their guards, they're not masking, they are gathering in -- in large groups indoors, there is no question we're going to see a surge as a result of this. And I can only hope that the rates of hospitalizations and deaths are -- are not on par with what we've seen with prior surges.
BROWN: Well, how do the vaccines factor into this? Because I believe it's 30 million Americans have been vaccinated so far. We're averaging over 2 million vaccinations a day. So how much will that help prevent another surge or at least put a dent in it?
GOUNDER: Well, it will certainly prevent some of the worst cases, especially the way long-term care facilities, nursing homes, for example, have been hit especially hard over the course of the pandemic. Those facilities were targeted first -- targeted first for vaccination. So, hopefully those -- those residents, those elderly persons, disabled persons who are living in such facilities will be insulated from some of what's happening in the general public. But there are still many people with chronic medical conditions, older people who are not in long-term care facilities who have yet to be vaccinated and it really won't be until May that we have enough vaccine available for every adult who wants to be vaccinated to get vaccinated. And so that really should be our target for -- for when we should be able to hopefully lift some of these mitigation measures.
BROWN: But there's a difference between enough supply and people actually being able to get vaccinated. We heard one official this morning, Jeff Zients from the White House, he wouldn't confirm a timeline. What do you see in terms of that timeline, when everyone who wants a vaccine will be vaccinated?
GOUNDER: Yeah, I -- I think would anticipate sometime by middle of the summer, by the time we get enough vaccine supply, ramp up our distribution, that's going to require really ramping up what we’re doing through federally qualified health centers, which are these community health clinics embedded in some of the most vulnerable communities, ramping up what we're doing through retail pharmacies, through your local drug store, as well as continuing some of these mass vaccination sites. Right now, as you said, we're at about two million doses a day. Yesterday we hit almost about three million doses in a day. So we’re on track but we need to be expanding that distribution capacity.
BROWN: In the absence of CDC guidance telling people what to do once they’re vaccinated, what advice do you give people watching right now who are wondering -- who have been vaccinated and want to know if they can see their grandkids, what they should be doing?
GOUNDER: Well, I think a good -- good rule of thumb is if you have been vaccinated and you are around other people all of whom have also been vaccinated, you can go back to whatever you did before the pandemic. If you are in a group of people that's mixed, some vaccinated, some not, probably you should still -- still be wearing masks and of course if no one has been vaccinated, you really do need to continue wearing masks and social distancing and all the rest.
BROWN: And you're saying wear a mask because you could still give -- you could still be a holder of the virus, right, and spread it. Is that correct?
GOUNDER: That's right. So you -- even though you have been vaccinated, you could become a carrier for the virus and not get sick and spread it to others. And so you know, when I think about these multigenerational families, grandparents, adult children, and kids, the -- the group I'm actually most worried about assuming the grandparents have now been vaccinated, it's those adult kids. Many adults in the United States have chronic medical conditions. They may themselves be in their 40s, 50s, or 60s, so not young spry chickens themselves and -- and so very much at risk for severe disease.
BROWN: All right, Dr. Celine Gounder, as always, thank you so much for coming on sharing your -- all of your wisdom on this. We appreciate it.
