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The left-wing media is sounding the alarm about the new variant of COVID-19 called BA.5, claiming it is a “big problem” and calling for people to mask and push themselves.
In recent statements, White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci called for the virus to still be “taken seriously” and warned that Americans who want to put the pandemic in the past should realize that it has not yet disappeared.
Fauci appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday to recommend viewers continue to mask themselves inside and make their second booster to combat the spread of the BA.5 variant, though he admitted it would be a “difficult sale. “for the American people.
“Everyone wants to leave this pandemic behind and feel and hope it doesn’t exist. Yes,” he said.
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People are waiting to be tested for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at an emerging testing site in New York City on July 11, 2022. (Reuters / Brendan McDermid)
Many media outlets quickly repeated Fauci’s warning and advice, sometimes promoting the variant with serious headlines that went beyond the words of the infectious disease expert.
“The rise of a new ‘Deltacron’? BA.5 combines Omicron’s worst features with the potential for gravity reminiscent of Delta, experts say,” a Fortune magazine headline read Tuesday morning.
A Washington Post article on Thursday questioned whether it is safe to travel while spreading BA.5, and health experts who spoke to the newspaper were unanimous in their belief that social distancing should be practiced and that s they should wear high quality N-95 masks. “any form of public transport” and the busiest interior spaces.
CNN, meanwhile, introduced BA.5 news with the headline announcing “The worst variant is here.”
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Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, attends a meeting with members of the White House Covid-19 response team in the executive office building of Eisenhower in Washington, DC, Tuesday, January 4, 2022. (Ting Shen / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s been almost two and a half years since the coronavirus pandemic began, the most infectious and transmissible variant has arrived so far,” wrote CNN senior producer Eliza Mackintosh. “Repeated waves of Covid-19 have left millions dead, with only vaccines helping to reduce the toll. Now the virus is spreading again, evolving, escaping immunity and causing an increase in cases and hospitalizations. The latest version of its change of form, BA.5, is a clear sign that the pandemic is far from over. “
A headline apart from CNN said “Why the Omicron BA.5 branch is a big problem.”
The Daily Beast had its own nickname for BA.5, calling it the COVID variant “ninja” and announcing it as the “most dangerous so far”. The piece also called the virus “unstoppable” and said it could be a “preview of the coming months and years.”
Aggressive print headlines continued, with Bloomberg asking, “How bad is the Omicron BA.5 variant? Bad enough.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer called BA.5 a “super virus,” while the Los Angeles Times called it “dangerous,” highlighting its “impressive spread.”
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The Covid-19 test site at the Walmart Supercenter in Joplin, Missouri, on July 2, 2020. ((Photo by Terra Fondriest for The Washington Post via Getty Images).)
The live reports on the new variant were no less alarming.
CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus joined the channel on Thursday when asked if BA.5 spreads easily outside for those without a mask. Dr. Agus responded with a terrible warning.
“It’s very infectious. You know, it’s up to the most infectious viruses we’ve ever seen as humans,” he said.
Moments later, Dr. Agus warned that people should “watch wherever they are,” labeling the rise of the variant as a “new era” in the COVID-19 pandemic.
CBS News continued coverage of the new variant with the input of Dr. Celine Grounder, presenter and producer of the podcast “In Sickness and in Health.” He suggested it was a “problem” that people felt comfortable dropping masks just for other people to do.
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“Just because everyone around you has stopped wearing a mask doesn’t mean it’s safe,” he added.
ABC News made similar comments, urging Americans to reduce their risk “as much as possible” by wearing a mask, social distancing and keeping up with vaccines.
CNN offered a couple of segments about the variant, repeatedly calling BA.5 “the most infectious variant” and “the most evasive immune variant” to date, echoing the words of the COVID-19 response coordinator. the White House Ashish Jha.
BA.5, which is part of the Omicron family, is the latest variant of the coronavirus that has caused widespread waves of infection worldwide.
According to the most recent World Health Organization report, BA.5 was behind 52% of cases sequenced at the end of June, compared to 37% in one week. In the US, it is estimated to be causing about 65% of infections. BA.5 is not new; first identified in January, the WHO has been monitoring since April.
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Like its closely related sibling, BA.4, BA.5 is especially good at circumventing the immune protection offered by vaccination or previous infection.
For this reason, “BA.5 has a growth advantage over the rest of the Omicron underlines that are circulating,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical director on COVID-19, at a press conference this Tuesday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor at Fox News Digital.