The Hill’s media reporter Joe Concha blasted the mainstream media’s “selective outrage” over so-called “superspreader” events amid the coronavirus pandemic telling “America’s Newsroom” on Monday that they pick and choose “when to use ‘superspreader’ headlines based on political affiliation.”
Thousands of Americans flooded streets of major cities, including New York City, Washington and Philadelphia, to celebrate Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, who claimed victory on Saturday night.
While many were wearing masks, the crowds tended to violate social distancing guidelines that have been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Concha asked on Monday where the headlines were throughout the weekend on the different networks blasting those events in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington as ‘superspreaders.’
“The ‘Oh, everybody was wearing masks’ argument, yeah, it doesn’t really help when you have thousands of people all jammed together singing and screaming,” he added. “Suddenly the masks might not be quite as effective.”
BIDEN PREACHES UNITY, PROMISES TO ADDRESS CORONAVIRUS CRISIS IN FIRST SPEECH AS PRESIDENT-ELECT
Biden had made fighting the coronavirus a central message in his campaign, saying it would be a top priority in his administration. His campaign declined to hold large-scale campaign rallies and criticized President Trump for bringing thousands of people together for rallies.
Concha noted on Monday that so far Biden has not addressed concerns that some celebrations of his projected victory may contribute to the spread of coronavirus and said the former vice president “has a responsibility here” as “the president-elect.”
“He needs to lead by example,” Concha said. “His central campaign theme was we’re going to get COVID under control. OK, so you have to step up here, Mr. Biden, and say, ‘OK, I appreciate your support at all these rallies outside, but we’re now eclipsing 100,000 cases per day, so while I appreciate your support, at the same time, this needs to stop.’”
As of Monday afternoon, the United States has reported 10,042,654 coronavirus cases and more than 237,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
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“Joe Biden talks about unity, he talks about bringing the country together, but he has to start, even though he isn’t sworn in yet, that won’t happen for two months, he still has a voice, he needs to step up to the microphones and say ‘that must stop,’” Concha said, referring to large gatherings.
Fox News’ Evie Fordham contributed to this report.
