Mother Jones shines a spotlight on the growing epidemic of 'white guys on social media' sounding off on COVID19

Sarah D | 2:28 PM on April 17, 2020

COVID19 isn’t the only dangerous epidemic out there … Mother Jones is shedding light on another one:

There's another epidemic spreading right now: White guys on social media who suddenly have become infectious disease experts. https://t.co/RzuTUrtNjA

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 17, 2020

White men, are we right? They’re bad enough when there’s not a pandemic. But in the time of COVID19? Forget about it.

Everything about this piece is awful. But did no editor notice that the single verifiable social media post cited…is from a fake Twitter account with zero followers? https://t.co/JtU6eRpWar

— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) April 17, 2020

Did they change it? There's a quote, but it doesn't give the name or handle of the "white man" behind it.

— I'm Just Asking (@JamieTheDyer) April 17, 2020

We didn’t see it, either. This was all they had from a “white guy” on Twitter:

Sure, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been doing this for 36 years, but that guy you vaguely know from summer camp just doesn’t think Fauci understands the disease like he does. “When this is all over, the country will know that Dr. Anthony Fauci was the anti-hero,” a Twitter user who self-identified as a retired math teacher but neglected to mention he doesn’t understand the meaning of “anti-hero” tweeted. “So wrong on number of deaths. Not one bit concerned about Americans and their loss of jobs.”

There’s nothing wrong with calling out armchair epidemiologists/medical experts for pushing bad information. Unqualified, self-appointed COVID19 “experts” of any political stripe — and any race — are potentially dangerous. But the fact that Mother Jones is so hung up on white guys suggests that their real beef is with, well, white guys.