A Washington Post reporter was slammed on Twitter after she tweeted a photo of the White House Correspondents' Dinner and said she 'was afraid of breathing near people,' at the crowded, 'out-of-a-horror-film' event.
Before sparking outrage online, Jada Yuan, a politics correspondent at the Post, had shared a picture of herself maskless, smiling, and wearing a peach gown at the distinguished event.
Just two hours later, Yuan took to Twitter again to share the unsettling experience of attending the WHCD, which made a comeback this year after being canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
'This room is like a horror film. No exits. Literally getting trapped between tables. Fear of breathing near people but people are everywhere. Creeping sense that you’re the only one who know this is insane,' Yuan tweeted on Saturday.
Twitter users rushed to criticize her remarks, deeming Yuan an alarmist and citing that attendees were vaccinated, boosted and required to provide a negative COVID-19 antigen test.
'Jada, this post was 9 hours ago. Are you okay? Did you make it out alive? Please let us know!' one Twitter user wrote mockingly.
The White House Correspondents' Association dinner, sidelined by the pandemic in the last two years, featured Biden as the first president in six years to accept an invitation. Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive this past week and Dr. Anthony Fauci skipped the dinner for health precautions.
The last WHCA gala before COVID-19 broke out was in 2019. It featured neither the president nor even a comedian as Donald Trump refused to attend while in office.
Jada Yuan, a politics correspondent at the Washington Post, took to Twitter to share the unsettling experience of attending the WHCD, which made a comeback this year after being canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic
Before sparking outrage online, Yuan had shared a picture of herself at the distinguished dinner, maskless, smiling, and wearing a peach gown
Twitter users rushed to criticize her remarks, deeming Yuan an alarmist and citing that attendees were vaccinated, boosted and required to provide a negative COVID-19 antigen test
Another user mockingly asker whether 'she had made it out alive' after the event
User Pete Sheffield hinted that Yuan had to know the event would be crowded
Yuan, who joined the Washington Post as a features writer covering politics in 2019, said before attending the dinner that she had been asked to avoid her workplace for a week after the event.
'I’ve kindly been asked not to show up in the office for a week after covering WHCD weekend, which shows how much faith we all have that this won’t be another superspreader,' the reporter wrote on Friday.
Many empathized with her, tweeting that her employer was irresponsible for making her cover the event.
But that outpouring of support vanished on Saturday, when Yuan lightheartedly shared snaps of the dinner along with jokes told by host Trevor Noah and President Joe Biden, before complaining that the event was crowded.
Yuan tweeted that she 'experienced the centrifugal force of Kim Kardashian and Pete walking into a room,' before going on to say that the event felt like a horror film.
The reporter, who covered the entertainment industry for New York Magazine for nearly two decades, said she had decided to wear a mask toward the end of the event, while acknowledging that the measure was likely very ineffective.
'Toward the end, put on a mask — a technique my dad says is “like closing the barn door after the animals have gotten out.” #whcd,' she wrote.
One Twitter user asked why she didn't wear one for the entirety of the dinner, while another wrote: 'Get over yourself. Everyone was vaxxed & tested, including you.'
An user joked: 'She hasn’t tweeted in 12 hours. I wonder if the house of horrors consumed her #WheresJada.'
'I went to an event I knew would be crowded. It was terrifying, like a horror film. So I stayed to the end. And eventually put on a mask. #covidtheatre,' user Pete Sheffield also wrote.
Yuan, who was hired by The New York Times as the first '52 cities reporter' for her 'writerly voice and keen sense for personal narrative,' has not publicly responded to criticism about her remarks.
Yuan, who joined the Washington Post as a features writer covering politics in 2019, said before attending the dinner that she had been asked to avoid her workplace for a week after the event
The reporter said she had decided to wear a mask toward the end of the event, while acknowledging that the measure was likely very ineffective
One Twitter user asked why she didn't wear a mask for the entirety of the dinner
Another user joked: 'She hasn’t tweeted in 12 hours. I wonder if the house of horrors consumed her #WheresJada'
The WHCD, the premier event for news media in Washington, mixed Washington journalists like CNN´s Jake Tapper and MSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid with celebrities Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson, Brooke Shields, Caitlyn Jenner, Drew Barrymore and Martha Stewart.
Among the large swath of government officials and other prominent figures was Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Biden, 79, decided to pass up the meal as a precaution but turn up later for the program.
While he planned to be masked when not speaking, a maskless president greeted award winners on the dais and could be seen smiling broadly during the dinner program.
Host Trevor Noah joked about the dinner being 'the more distinguished superspreader event.'
'For real, what are we doing here? Did none of you learn anything from the Gridiron dinner? Nothing?' he said.
'You guys spent the last two years telling everyone the importance of masks and avoiding large in-doors gatherings, then the second someone offers you a free dinner you all turn into Joe Rogan.'
In the wake of the recent Gridiron Club press dinner in Washington, dozens of attendees, including members of Congress and of Biden's Cabinet and journalists, tested positive for COVID-19.
The White House Correspondents' Association dinner, sidelined by the pandemic in the last two years, featured Biden as the first president in six years to accept an invitation
The White House Correspondents' Association said it was requiring same-day antigen testing for its dinner attendees even before the Gridiron outbreak, then added a vaccination requirement
The event made a comeback after it was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. In the US, confirmed infections have risen to about 44,000 per day, up from 26,000 a month ago. More than 990,000 Americans have died from COVID-19
The White House Correspondents' Association said it was requiring same-day antigen testing for its dinner attendees even before the Gridiron outbreak, then added a vaccination requirement.
WHCA president Steven Portnoy, from CBS radio, had said it was time to return to tradition, with an evening honoring pioneering reporters of the past, prize winners from today and paying respect to journalists who died covering the war in Ukraine.
While the US has experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases from a highly contagious Omicron subvariant, virus deaths and hospitalizations are near, or at, pandemic lows, with the BA.2 variant proving less severe than earlier virus strains.
Still, confirmed infections have risen to about 44,000 per day, up from 26,000 a month ago. More than 990,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
