The White House’s current goal is to prevent coronavirus-related deaths from numbering in the millions.
It is not the administration’s “goal” that somewhere between 100,000 and 240,000 die from this viral pandemic. That should be obvious, but some on social media took that message away from a viral tweet by a New York Times reporter this week.
President Trump and Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx held another press briefing Tuesday to discuss the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. During the briefing, the White House displayed a chart titled “Goal of community mitigation.”
The chart, whose purpose was to explain the administration’s efforts to “flatten the curve,” showed the difference between a pandemic outbreak with no intervention versus a pandemic outbreak with intervention. To underscore the contrast between the two approaches, the chart included projected death counts: 1.5 to 2.2 million deaths with no intervention and 100,000 to 240,000 deaths with intervention. The “goal” of “community mitigation,” then, is to ensure that the death toll does not number in the millions, the chart explains.
New York Times national political reporter Shane Goldmacher captured the moment on social media, tweeting to his 58,000 social media followers: “This White House briefing room slide lists as ‘goals’ 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. Breathtaking.”
This White House briefing room slide lists as “goals” 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.
Breathtaking. pic.twitter.com/CrajjVGqVf
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) March 31, 2020
Again, the White House graphic highlighted by Goldmacher was about the goal of “community mitigation.” The administration’s operating model for deaths was not even introduced until later in the briefing by Birx.
For reference, that second chart outlining the White House’s operating model for deaths looked like this:
As of this writing, Goldmacher’s tweet has been shared by more than 11,700 social media users, including New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, GQ’s Julia Ioffe, Vox’s Dylan Matthews, and NBC News’s Tom Winter.
Goldmacher’s emphasis on the word “goal” has left some with the impression that getting to 240,000 deaths is the White House’s objective, as opposed to preventing 2.2 million deaths.
“‘Goals.’ Stunning,” the New Yorker’s Paige Williams said in response to the viral tweet.
Ad Age’s Tam Nguyen said, “People dying should never be a ‘goal.’”
“Hashtag death goals,” quipped Vice’s Susan Rinkunas.
The more Goldmacher’s tweet is shared, the more the mischaracterization is shared, too, and journalists seem most apt to get it wrong. Almost as bad as people misunderstanding the graphic is that some in the press have gone beyond merely sharing the tweet. Some — including the New York Times’s Nikole Hannah-Jones, who only recently learned the difference between “some” and “all” — are defending Goldmacher’s presentation of the White House graphic even after questions have been raised about whether his remarks are misleading.
He “literally wrote what was on the slide that you can see with your own eyes,” Hannah-Jones said in defense of her colleague.
Whatever Goldmacher’s intention, his tweet has gone viral, and the meaning of the White House’s “community mitigation” chart is being misinterpreted by reporters, pundits, politicians — you name it.
So, just to make sure there is no confusion: Death is not the White House’s “goal.” Community mitigation is.
