A SOPHISTICATED, VACCINATED CROWD: Buzzfeed Holiday Party, With Masking and Vaxing Rules in Place, Is a #SuperSpreader Event.
Several BuzzFeed staffers have been infected with Covid-19 following the company’s Holiday party in Manhattan last week, according to a report from Insider.Three BuzzFeed employees who tested positive following the party told Insider that they were vaccinated and received their booster shots prior to contracting Covid-19 at the event, and are experiencing mild symptoms.
BuzzFeed has reportedly strengthened Covid-19 protocols following the party and amid a surge of cases in New York City, including putting a temporary freeze on group meetings over six people, requiring masks in the office until further notice, and freezing all non-essential business travel until the new year.
The company is also conducting contact tracing, as well as offering free testing for close contacts.
The rules were strict, but did not stop the #SuperspreaderEvent:
“BuzzFeed requires vaccinations for staffers, and partygoers had to present their vaccination cards to get into the event,” Perlberg reported, noting that CEO Jonah Peretti was in attendance. “Two days before the party, BuzzFeed updated its rules to require masks ‘unless you are actively eating or drinking.'”
Related: Ben Shapiro asks, “What if I told you there was a variant nearly everyone would get, but that would kill almost no one. Would you shut down society over that? Because that appears to be Omicron. And for a lot of people, the answer appears to be yes.”
Especially now that New York-based media is getting Omicron; their job was to create fear porn even before COVID; they’re going to be doubling their efforts now: As Jon Gabriel writes at Ricochet:
BuzzFeed hosted a staff holiday party in Manhattan that turned into a super-spreader event among the 100-percent vaccinated and boosted attendees. Other Gotham CEOs canceled their soirées and opted for yuletide classics like online yoga and meal delivery.
The Atlantic published a piece, “I’m Starting to Give Up on Post-pandemic Life,” with the subhead “Despair is not a mild symptom.” CNN’s Chris Cillizza wrote about his “long December” and how his “Covid anxiety is spiking.” Neurotic journalists keep using their day jobs as free therapy and insult readers for not being as miserable as they are.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom stopped attacking Ron DeSantis long enough to announce yet another state mask mandate. Politico noted that “many Californians have already reconciled themselves to a perpetually masked lifestyle.”
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The shrieking reports from coastal media bewilder those of us in free states. Outside of doctor’s appointments and air travel, I haven’t worn a mask since … I don’t know … May 2020? A handful of my neighbors wear masks while shopping, perhaps 5 percent and nearly all elderly. The rest? We moved on a year and a half ago.
A NYC-based journalist friend was dumbfounded when I told him this, and more than a little envious. The national media is stuck in a different world, and a different time. It’s like the White Witch’s Narnia, but with the additional horror of online yoga.
I wish a Merry Christmas to the vast majority of the country and a Dreary Covidmas to those unquestioning minds trapped in locked-down cities. If these New Yorkers, Angelenos, and Washingtonians happen to own an old wardrobe, perhaps they could step through it to celebrate Christmas with the rest of us.