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 to cover the event and then asking her to avoid the workplace.
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
