{"id":610801,"date":"2021-08-04T11:26:07","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T15:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=610801"},"modified":"2021-08-04T11:26:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T15:26:11","slug":"obama-scales-back-birthday-party-plans-over-delta-variant-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obama-scales-back-birthday-party-plans-over-delta-variant-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama \u2018Scales Back\u2019 Birthday Party Plans Over \u2018Delta Variant\u2019 Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fobama-scales-back-birthday-party-plans-over-delta-variant-concerns%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=610801&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1184273900.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Former President Barack Obama will scale back his star-studded Martha\u2019s Vineyard birthday party amid concerns about the \u201cDelta variant,\u201d and following a wave of criticism.<\/p>\n<p>News of Obama\u2019s 475-person bash, which was supposed to include A-list guests like Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg and feature a performance from Pearl Jam, broke earlier this week, days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its mask-wearing guidelines, urging even individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 to mask up indoors in areas experiencing a significant resurgence of the virus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObama is hosting a 60th birthday bash for himself and hundreds of guests on Martha\u2019s Vineyard this coming weekend amid heightened public health concerns \u2014 locally and nationally \u2014 about the COVID-19 Delta variant,\u201d Axios reported on Monday.&nbsp;\u201cOne person with connections to Obamaworld said there were 475 confirmed guests \u2014 including friends, family and former aides \u2014 and 200-plus staff planning to work the party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The news was met with shock and criticism, and Obama allies defended the party, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/psaki-dodges-whether-obama-setting-bad-example-by-hosting-massive-birthday-party-amid-pandemic-surge\">noting that<\/a> the Obama family had hired a \u201cCOVID-19 coordinator,\u201d that the event would be held outside, and that Martha\u2019s Vineyard is not among those areas with significant spread.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about the former president\u2019s plans, the White House, which has stressed the importance of following CDC guidelines, would only say that current President Joe Biden would not attend the event. Instead, a spokesperson for Biden said the president&nbsp;\u201clooks forward to catching up with former President Obama soon and properly welcome him to the over-sixty club.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, the Obama family finally announced that they would \u201cscale back\u201d the party in light of the spread of the Delta variant, days after the CDC\u2019s decision and a full public relations defense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDue to the new spread of the delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends. President Obama is appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon.\u201d Obama\u2019s spokesperson, Hannah Hankins, said in a statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201coutdoor event was planned months ago in accordance with all public health guidelines and with covid safeguards in place,\u201d Hankins maintained.<\/p>\n<p>The change does appear to be last minute. \u201cHundreds of former Obama administration officials, celebrities and Democratic donors had been planning to attend the huge bash on Martha\u2019s Vineyard on Saturday,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/04\/us\/politics\/obama-cancels-60th-birthday-party.html?referringSource=articleShare\">the New York Times reported<\/a>, adding that many of the guests had already arrived for the party.<\/p>\n<p>Former Obama strategist David Axelrod claimed the change was over new information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve been concerned about the virus from the beginning, asking invited guests if they had been vaccinated, requesting that they get a test proximate to the event,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when this was planned, the situation was quite different. So they responded to the changing circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Biden Administration is expected to make a second plea for Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Marketwatch reported Wednesday, though the White House has, so far, largely avoided talk of lockdowns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe seven-day moving average stood at 72,000 newly diagnosed cases a day, 6,200 hospital admissions a day, and 300 deaths a day, as of July 31, according to CDC data. All metrics have increased at least 25% week-over-week, as the more infectious delta variant spreads throughout the U.S,\u201d per Marketwatch.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former President Barack Obama will scale back his star-studded Martha\u2019s Vineyard birthday party amid concerns about the \u201cDelta variant,\u201d and following a wave of criticism.News of Obama\u2019s 475-person bash, which &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-610801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}