22 August 2021 ⚡️ From Afghanistan (the who-to-blame narrative) to the Delta variant (mask up, even if vaxxed)
Beware the rush to judgment evident in the week's coverage of the US withdrawal and remember the caveats of breaking news. Covid-19 case/hospitalization flashback.
I agree with Sen. Chris Murphy. Data from 2016-2020 show that 37% of global arms sales originated with the United States. Russia is a distant second, accounting for only 20% of global sales.
The US military paid defense contractors billions to work in Afghanistan; the contractors, in turn, hired retired officers to represent them on TV. Flagrantly missing: disclosure over that financial connection.
In 2008, David Barstow at The New York Times found dozens of instances of this; Laura Bassett at HuffPost found the same thing in 2010; the Public Accountability Initiative found the same thing again in 2013; Lee Fang at The Nation found the same thing again in 2014; Paul Farhi at The Washington Post found the same thing again in 2020; and The Intercept found the same thing yet again over the last few days. Troop worship means that corrupt former generals get to ignore fundamental journalistic ethics.
If it seems as though you’ve been inundated with headlines and news blurbs about the Afghanistan withdrawal, it’s because you have been.
A search of the ProQuest index of only 23 major US daily newspapers reveals 212 stories contained Afghanistan in the headline during the past week.
The Russian state-controlled international TV network RT plus CNN, MSNBC and FOX News have devoted 698 segments to Afghanistan this past week. In 2020, ABC, CBS and NBC news devoted five minutes to Afghanistan.
What neither search can reveal quickly is how much of that coverage is opinion and how much is factual. It’s not just that the lines between the two are blurring in newspaper reporting and porous on television. American media are vested in our military-industrial-Congressional complex as well as this Forever War:
We've got … thousands of op-eds and cable news coverage so obsessive and breathless that even MSNBC barely interrupted Afghanistan coverage to mention that a Trump-supporting terrorist with an apparent truck bomb was threatening to blow up the Capitol building on Thursday.
We invaded Afghanistan 20 years ago. The week-long narrative (a story spun by political insiders, columnists and talking heads) has been reactive, grounded in bias and opinion, and prematurely critical.
In addition, black-and-white thinking that is endemic to news organizations treats politics like a sporting event and rejects nuance. For example, see the news media reactions to changing COVID-19 recommendations as the science has changed.
Josh Marshall (Talking Points Memo) has been one of the best sources for context this week. He reminds us that the Defense Department had successfully “rolled” both Obama and Trump when they attempted withdrawal. Withdrawal probably never crossed Bush’s mind.
Forget public interest journalism showing up soon. What we have is “give us eyeballs for our advertisers” faux illumination. Amidst a temper tantrum.
Two important points to keep in mind when you read, listen or watch news about Afghanistan:
Skip the breathless clickbait.Breaking news is notorious for reporting errors, even when the “news” is a domestic event. When it’s outside our borders, the errors are multiplied.
Look for a real source (not another news outlet) for every claim, even in a “news” story. Openings and conclusions are often not supported by data. Named sources have been sorely missing this week; historical actions, ignored:
🤓 Recommended reading
The Afghan debacle lasted two decades. The media spent two hours deciding whom to blame. Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post, 16 August 2021.
The Fall of Kabul, Washington and the Guys at the Fancy Magazines. Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, 20 August 2021.
The generals lied and the fantasy died. Anatol Lieven, Responsible Statecraft, 16 August 2021.
The media's systemic failure on Afghanistan. Judd Legum, Popular Information, 18 August 2021.
The One Thing That Could’ve Changed the War in Afghanistan. David Frum, The Atlantic, 15 August 2021.
What We Need to Learn: Lessons from 20 Years of Afghanistan Reconstruction. John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR), 17 August 2021. Summary.
COVID-19 and the Delta variant
The coronavirus has killed more than 625,000 people in the United States. We ended the first wave on 22 June 2021; the closest we’ve come to bottling the virus was that daily case rate of 11,299 (seven-day average).
On August 20, states reported 141,060 cases, 10-fold+ increase in about two months.
What happened? The Delta variant plus the unmasked and the unvaccinated.
News flash: unvaccinated COVID-19 hospitalizations cost the US health system $2.3 billion in June and July 2021 alone.
Why mask if vaccinated:
Despite vaccination, Rev. Jesse Jackson, 79, was admitted to a Chicago hospital on Saturday due to a coronavirus infection. Rev. Jackson has Parkinson’s disease.
Despite vaccination, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, 63, tested positive and was reportedly asymptomatic, according to his office on 17 August. Nonetheless, Abbott received Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody therapy, a treatment approved for those “who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.”
In July, almost one-in-five Oregon Covid-19 hospitalizations were fully vaccinated patients. Almost one-in-five deaths were among the vaccinated.
Most private insurers are no longer waiving cost-sharing for Covid-19 treatment. I predict pushback if waivers are not reinstated for the vaccinated who are hospitalized.
Data suggest that mRNA vaccines may begin to lose some of their protection after six months, which is why the US government is promoting booster shots. Bob Wachter, Chair, UCSF Dept of Medicine, discusses the tension over booster shots: individual health versus public health (ThreadReader).
On Monday, the FDA is expected to fully approve the Pfizer vaccine, which will make it easier for employers (including schools) to require vaccination. However, many adults and children (no vaccines for the younger-than-12) cannot be vaccinated, and the vaccinated can spread the disease, which means masking, distancing, contact tracing, and quarantine remain critical tools to halt the spread of Covid-19.
🏥 On Friday 20 August, US hospitals were treating 89,000 patients.
Flashback to 28 November 2020, when hospitalizations were rising rapidly (before the mid-January peak, 133,214). In November, there was no vaccine.
Hospitals are dangerously full - including youth and pediatric cases - in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.
Orlando mayor asked residents to conserve water due to liquid oxygen shortage
Man shot six times waits more than a week for surgery after hospital is overwhelmed by Covid
Covid-19 booster shot distribution must learn from vaccine roll-out mistakes
🪦 Deaths per day (seven-day average) topped 1,000 on Friday.
Flashback to 06 November 2020, when deaths were rising rapidly before peaking in mid-January 2021 at 3,425. In November, there was no vaccine.
📷 Photo of the week
Point Wilson Lighthouse, adjacent to Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend, WA.
21 August 2021. CC license; attribution to this post, no commercial use, no mods.
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