Yes, The Media Is Still Desperately Trying To Bring COVID Panic Back

We are now in August 2025, and the media still thinks it's the summer of 2020.

That's the only possible conclusion after seeing yet another cycle of fear-mongering coming out of media outlets desperate to push people back into masks. And ignore the obvious seasonal patterns of viral spread that have persisted every single year since the start of the pandemic.

The Los Angeles Times posted an article this week, not July 2020, or 2021, or even 2022, July 2025, warning of the dangerous increase in COVID cases and activity spreading throughout California.

"The uptick was first registered in Northern California, but has more recently started being seen in the Southland," the subheadline warns. "Coronavirus activity now remains lower than in recent summers, but it’s unclear whether that will hold or if the state will see another surge."

READ: COVID Lockdowns Hurt An Entire Generation Of Children For Nothing

"COVID-19 is once again on the rise in California," the first sentence ominously explains. "It remains to be seen whether this latest uptick foreshadows the sort of misery seen last year — when the state was walloped by its worst summertime surge since 2022 — or proves fleeting. But officials and experts say it’s nevertheless a reminder of the seasonal potency of the still-circulating virus."

This is, of course, wildly inaccurate.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, wears a protective mask during a news conference in the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020. Photo: Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Media Inaccuracies On COVID Seems To Be Permanent Condition

There's plenty more to dig into, but it's important to address the first claim the Times makes in its article. The current dashboard only presents statewide data through late 2024, and it starts from summer 2022, but it's obvious that the spread of COVID is highly seasonal, rises and falls in predictable patterns, and that the percentage of tests returning positive in summer 2024 was actually below that of summer 2023. 

The Times described summer 2024 as the state being "walloped by its worst summertime surge since 2022." In what world is a lower test positive rate "walloped?"

Sure, but what about COVID deaths, you might be wondering. Maybe those skyrocketed in summer 2024, justifying the media panic. Well, you'll be stunned to read that COVID deaths were also significantly lower in 2024 than in previous years.

What a surprise. The media was wrong again.

Still, does that stop "the experts" from chiming in with their endless push for more useless "interventions?" Of course not.

"We definitely are seeing an uptick in the summer," said Dr. Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health and the state health officer. 

Another doctor, Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, also chimed in. "My colleagues at Northern California Kaiser Permanente have already noticed this trend, so I suspect it will be coming to Los Angeles soon," she said.

"We’ll know over the next couple of weeks which direction things are going," she concluded.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, yet another "infectious disease expert" from UC San Francisco, brought up the always scary "variants" when joining in the chorus.

"It’s been a longer time since a lot of people got infected," Chin-Hong said, explaining that meant lower immunity this year. "And just like last year, there are new variants afoot."

"Just because you had an easy case the last time doesn’t mean that you’ll have an easy case this time," he continued . "A lot of people I’ve talked to who’ve gotten COVID this year, it was a pretty vicious case that lasted a long time."

That translated seamlessly to more ridiculous panic-pushing, with the article warning that current infections are causing "razor blade throat," an entirely made-up condition done to describe normal reactions to seasonal respiratory illnesses.

Lost in this entire article is any mention that California has seen an increase in COVID spread every single summer since 2020, regardless of restrictions, mandates, mask wearing or vaccine uptake, because we cannot control a highly infectious respiratory virus. Instead, it repeats nonsensical propaganda from Erica Pan, repeating California Public Health talking points that everyone "should have access and the choice to receive currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines, with an emphasis on protecting higher-risk individuals, such as infants and toddlers, pregnant individuals and others with risks for serious disease."

You read that right, infants and toddlers should get COVID vaccines in 2025, despite the lack of testing for boosters targeted at nonexistent variants, risk of side effects, and miniscule efficacy that rapidly wanes over time.

This article is just as irresponsible as the many, many pieces of misinformation laundered through the media throughout the pandemic. Media outlets are creating an atmosphere of permanent fear for susceptible members of the public who refuse to admit they were misled by Anthony Fauci, the CDC, the "expert" community, and the media they rely on. There is no credible claim that masks work, that COVID presents an ever-present danger, especially with the completely fabricated "razor-blade throat" nonsense, or that toddlers should get COVID vaccines. But media outlets will not stop parroting inaccuracies to placate their ideological base. It's embarrassing, wrong, and at the end of the day, ultimately dangerous.