The Super Bowl Should Bring an End to Super-Spreader Claims in the Press

It was one of the loudest claims of a pandemic outbreak, and the numbers should lead to silence on the matter. 

When the NFL Championship was played in Tampa we were an audience to numerous reports of how this ill-fated idea was setting the stage for disaster. The press was both delivering dire warnings of promised dismay and death, AND they could not wait to stampede into Tampa to report on that very danger. (They are the firefighters of Normandy Beach, after all.)

How irresponsible was it to be staging a major cultural event live, encouraging gatherings, and not showing proper oversight in the name of public safety? Very irresponsible. Horribly so. Hatefully callous, and such, made all the more so that it was being staged in Florida, that accursed state where the governor is having success by defying the melodramatics in the media. This just had to be the formula for imminent suffering and deaths, and many could barely contain themselves.

Looks like it’s shaping up to be a super spreader after party down in Florida pic.twitter.com/JV4ptJeAHd

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) February 8, 2021

 The histrionics began during pregame, when Tom Brady was seen arriving at the stadium without an appropriate face diaper, in a toxic display. Over at CNN, brave reporter Randi Kaye donned two masks to file her report about the numerous crowds she encountered of people gathered in dangerous fashion. She even went so far as to report them to the police; Karen, reporting live, for CNN. The press later was handed a golden image — Governor Ron DeSantis, that favorite target of journalists following the departure of President Trump, was spotted in a luxury suite not wearing a mask!

Then somehow it managed to get worse; the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the championship, and as the home team they provoked a massive street celebration throughout the area. Pandemic pandemonium erupted. The press had precisely what they wanted – instant images that assured an outbreak and, of course, brought with it the promise of death.

Well, it has been two weeks since the catastrophic cacophony of championship revelry, and what has that incubation period delivered in the form of explosive infections? Uh…the opposite. Looking over the datasheets provided by Hillsborough County, there is little data suggesting a super-spreader event occurred. You cannot even call it a mild-mannered-spreader. According to the local government the cases during the two-week rolling average have plunged by -20 percent.

This is what the collective media complex and opportunistic Democrat politicians delivered; a promise of catastrophe and instead we saw a stark dropoff in cases. By this measure, we should be holding street festivals on a daily basis across the country and Covid will be wiped out by St. Patrick’s Day! Yes, that is a ridiculous cause/effect synopsis, but it is no less so than the promises we were delivered by the media. 

This is the case with the press in the time of Covid. They rush with the promises of these events becoming dire and the cause of rampant misery, yet their follow-up analysis is always lacking. One might even come to the conclusion that they rely upon faith and hype, all while ignoring the data and the science.

Super Spreader updates!
Following the Crimson Tide street celebrations, and the Tampa Bay Super Bowl parties. pic.twitter.com/1PRcdEq9eQ

— Brad Slager – In An Augur Roll (@MartiniShark) February 22, 2021