End Note

In May, Joe Biden gave a triumphant press conference in the Rose Garden. A few hours before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had announced that fully vaccinated people did not need to wear masks, inside or outside. “You’ve earned the right to do something that Americans are known for all around the world,” Biden said. “Greeting others with a smile.” By June, news outlets were publishing “summer of fun” coverage: “Where to eat and drink to fall in love with the Bay Area again” (the San Francisco Chronicle); “Put away Zoom and grab the sunscreen” (The Tennessean). New York magazine declared “The Return of fomo,” reporting that “we may now be on the way to a new golden age as we try to make up for the year we lost by doing more than ever.” The piece described an art dealer sliding into a booth, ordering a mezcal, and saying, “It’s gonna be a hot dick summer, you know?”

Those stories didn’t hold up for long. In July, the Delta variant tore through the country, messing with our optimistic pandemic denouement. “People underestimated how transmissible Delta is, or what that would mean,” Ed Yong wrote, for The Atlantic. An infectiousdisease ecologist told him that Delta “really rewound the clock.” The press had to adapt (yet again) to an unexpected turn of coronavirus events. Political coverage not directly related to covid—on subjects like voting rights and immigration— was bumped, to accommodate breaking stories on rising hospitalization rates. When the Senate reached a breakthrough on a bipartisan infrastructure deal, the news was overshadowed by word that the CDC was reversing its guidance on masks. The New York Times observed that “the resurgence of the disease, driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant, threatens to halt plans by both parties to shift their attention to other matters ahead of the midterm elections next year.” Journalists, still debunking right-wing media conspiracies—no, an antiparasitic drug for livestock will not treat your case of covid—have had their plans halted, too. —Betsy Morais

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary

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