Pirate's Cove

For most Americans, the pandemic is over. But, there are a smattering of those who’ve let the dire news make them Crazy, including those who generate the dire news

Before Washington’s ‘Nerd Prom,’ Lots of Risk-Benefit Calculation

Vice President Kamala Harris’s Covid-19 diagnosis is raising questions that some in the nation’s capital wish would remain unspoken: Is it safe for President Biden to attend the so-called nerd prom, otherwise known as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Should the dinner even be held?

The flashy event, at which journalists, politicians and policy wonks mingle with celebrities, is returning in person this Saturday after a two-year absence because of the pandemic. It will be the first time a president has attended since 2016. Expected attendance: 2,600.

As the nation lurches out of the acute phase of the pandemic and into what some are calling the new normal, the dinner — like so much of American life — is prompting a good deal of risk-benefit calculation. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Mr. Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus, said on Tuesday that he had decided not to attend “because of my individual assessment of my personal risk.”

Why would Fauci be invited in the first place? Oh, right, he’s a celebrity.

But Mr. Biden, who at 79 is two years younger than Mr. Fauci, will be there, as will his wife, Dr. Jill Biden. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters on Tuesday that Ms. Harris’s diagnosis had not changed the president’s thinking about the dinner, which she described as an opportunity to “talk about the importance of journalism in the world.”

And neither Brandon nor Jill will be masked up, despite wanted Other people to wear masks on airplanes, buses, trains, and in transit centers….hey, I wonder, was Joe wearing a mask while he flew on Air Force 1? Funny, if you think about it, how we weren’t seeing any photos from any journalist or the White House photographers of Joe on AF1 since he took office.

Still, there is an uneasy feeling here — and a worry that maybe a gathering of 2,600 people, including journalists and politicians who have spent more than two years warning about the dangers of the pandemic may not be the best look.

“Well, there is a question of whether it’s EVER appropriate to engage in an exercise in gaudy, celebrity-drenched self-adulation,” David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist who served as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, wrote in an email, “but that’s a separate question.”

However, Mr. Axelrod added, “The country plainly is eager to move on and people are regularly gathering in public places — stadiums, theaters, restaurants — and, as a political matter, I’m sure the president is eager to embrace the sense that the siege is largely behind us.”

Yeah, well, we’ve seen this already, with all the big wigs screeching to mask up, and forcing people, including children, to mask up, not wearing their masks, like, say, at the Super Bowl. Joe wore his mask sometime and at other times not. In the few occasions he gave a speech indoors or something he would take it off, in contradiction of his own executive order for masking in federal buildings.

Citing advice from Dr. Fauci, who suggested same-day testing in addition to a vaccination requirement when asked if large-scale events should proceed, Mr. Portnoy said guests would be required to provide proof of vaccination and a same-day negative antigen test via Bindle, a verification app.

He also added some advice of his own, telling members that if they were eligible for a fourth dose of vaccine, they should consider getting one.

Yeah, it’s a cult which just can’t move on. I’ll leave you with this, an interesting article on the difference between Europe and Brandon’s COVID cult.