I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Monday, May 17th.

We'll start out the week with a great pairing of guests looking at the same thing from different areas of expertise. WNYC

Health and Science editor, Secon Akpan, and Washington Post White House reporter Annie Lindschi.

Seekon's new article on Gothamist is called the COVID vaccines could easily squash the

pandemic. The hard part is finding the best incentives. Annie's latest for the Washington

Post is called the right decision wrongly handled inside the Biden administration's abrupt reversal

on masks. Let's get right to it. Hi, Sikon, great to have you back on the show. And Annie, welcome to WNYC.

Hi there. Hey, how's it going? Good show. And Annie, welcome to WNYC. Hi there.

Hey, how's it going?

Good. Cican, your article starts with a list of New York Times headlines from the last two weeks

that you want to critique for a false impression that they might leave when taken together.

Want to start right there with us?

Yeah, it's your thing. So on May 3rd, the Times published a story about how reaching herd immunity is unlikely in the

U.S. citing experts who say reaching the vital threshold would be difficult due to vaccine

hesitancy and because there are all these variants out here that are trying to bypass our immune

systems.

So, you know, the story went viral, obviously, because it's an issue that concerns a lot of people.

And it's common for media outlets, the Times ran a bunch of follow-up stories, most likely

to capitalize on the moment.

Our pathetic herd immunity failure, why herd immunity is slipping away. What if we can't reach herd immunity?

...