Young kids are handling COVID 'less childishly' than Bari Weiss, other 'done with COVID' elites, MSNBC host says

While hospitals are still fighting a huge wave of COVID-19 cases, verified talking heads on social media and TV are having a heated discussion about whether we should be "done" with the pandemic. (Not that the pandemic cares: New U.S. cases and hospitalizations are starting to fall from record highs as the Omicron surge peaks, but an average of 2,018 Americans are still dying each day from the virus.)
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan went on a "60-second rant" Sunday night about the "done with COVID" crowd, singling out Bari Weiss and her denunciation of ongoing COVID restrictions on Friday night's Real Time With Bill Maher. "The people who should be complaining right now are our overworked health-care workers," he said, very fast. "But no, it's never them moaning or whingeing about the pandemic — it's the Bari Weisses and Bill Mahers and Tucker Carlsons of this world!"
"My young children have handled this pandemic more maturely and less childishly than the likes of Bari Weiss, who — I'm sorry — can't go to as many indoor parties as she'd like to," Hasan concluded.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Weiss made a slightly more nuanced case on Real Time, while Maher's other panelist, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), noted that restrictions are easing even as people are still dying from COVID-19 in large numbers.
Alex Pareene, in the essay Hasan cited, said he finds "the tenor of discussion around COVID-19 restrictions genuinely bewildering," because "there basically aren't any." Despite the "well-publicized opining" from "people for whom COVID-19 is just a thing they are sick of hearing and thinking about," he argued, "the United States is powering through the Omicron wave with its usual enforced individualism. The hard restrictions on our activities are, for the most part, not mandated or enforced by the state, acting at the behest of liberals who refuse to go back to normal because they are addicted to panic and quarantine; the limits are imposed by the virus that isn't going away."
Pareene noted that his child's New York City school, like most schools, is open, even though lots of students and teachers are out with COVID. "As usual in the United States," he said, "the people who won the political argument are now complaining the loudest that they're dissatisfied with the results, and, apparently, it's all the fault of the losers." Read his full essay at The AP (Alex Pareene) Newsletter.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
The banned pesticide poisoning Caribbean paradise
Martinique and Guadeloupe have been rocked by soaring cancer rates amid other diagnoses
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Today's political cartoons - March 23, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - alphabet censorship, American de-education, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 unlawfully funny cartoons about the Executive vs the Judiciary
Cartoons Artists take on halting deportations, attacking judges, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Reports: Musk to get briefed on top secret China war plan
Speed Read In a major expansion of Elon Musk's government role, he will be briefed on military plans for potential war with China
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump signs order to end Education Department
Speed Read The move will return education 'back to the states where it belongs,' the president says
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump pauses $175M for Penn over trans athlete
Speed Read The president is withholding federal funds from the University of Pennsylvania because it once allowed a transgender swimmer to compete
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump purports to 'void' Biden pardons
Speed Read Joe Biden's pardons of Jan. 6 committee members are not valid because they were done by autopen, says Trump
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
'Most Americans have never heard of the Office of Net Assessment'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
White House ignores judicial deportation blocks
Speed Read The Trump administration deports alleged Venezuelan gang members under a wartime law, defying a court order
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Schumer: Democrats will help pass spending bill
Speed Read The Democrats end the threat of government shutdown
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump pulls nomination of anti-vax CDC pick
Speed Read Former Florida congressmen Dr. Dave Weldon was nominated to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published