DID THE TIMES PRINT AN URBAN LEGEND?
This week, the Times brings us a story from Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. The headline is: “Texas Hospital Says Man, 30, Died After Attending a ‘Covid Party,’” and what we get is a story with one source.
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But, as I read the story originally earlier this week, I realized the details didn’t quite add up. If you believe COVID is a hoax, why would you attend a “Covid Party?” And, in a pandemic for an airborne disease, aren’t all parties potentially COVID parties? Chicken pox parties were aimed at spreading a local infection purposely to younger children who have milder cases. People don’t hold them because they are skeptics. Something doesn’t make sense.
A closer look showed that not only were there no names named, but there was no date or location of the party and no other sources about where and whether it happened. And then there was the curious fact that a dying man’s self-incriminating final words were relayed to the press. Who gave permission for that?
But if you click on the article link now, as I write this, you will find a few paragraphs of hedging added in:
The Times could not independently verify Dr. Appleby’s account. On Monday, the San Antonio health department said its contact tracers did not have any information “that would confirm (or deny)” that such an event had happened there.
In recent days, the hospital distributed video of Dr. Appleby describing the case , along with a press statement. She did not say when or where the party took place, how many people attended or how long afterward the man was hospitalized with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. She said she was sharing the story to warn others, especially in Texas, where cases are surging.
These paragraphs were added long after publication. They also indicate where the story originated. The young junior reporter who wrote it isn’t in Texas but sitting at a desk, presumably at home. There is also another additional paragraph saying that the Times tried several times, through the hospital, to contact the dead man’s family.
Read the whole thing.