Culture

People Have Savagely Turned This Man’s “Diverse” Mid-Pandemic Group Holiday Into A Huge Meme

Ah, nothing screams diversity like 26 different shades of white.

by Michelle Rennex  8 September 2020
summer fun meme private island

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As summer starts to wind down in the US, people are desperately trying to soak up any last-minute rays of sunshine they can.

And even though America’s coronavirus numbers are still not under-control, some are determined to make sure they still have themselves a summer to remember.

One of these people are Daniel Newman — known for his role as Daniel on The Walking Dead — who went viral for all the wrong reasons when he uploaded a picture with 25 of his mask-less friends and captioned it: “Summer fun! 🏖️❤️”.

In attempt to avoid inevitable criticism, Newman prefaced the image in his now-deleted tweet with a note that he and his friends were on a private island together after testing negative for COVID-19.

“(*Private island, all tested negative multiple times, wear a mask ❤️),” the caption continued.

Now beyond the obvious issues in the photo — like the clear lack of diversity, zero social distancing occurring, literally no one wearing a mask and 26 people putting others at risk by traveling during a pandemic — this isn’t the first coronavirus-related controversy Newman has been involved in.

At the start of the pandemic, Newman spoke about possibly contracting COVID-19 after travelling to Sydney for Mardi Gras. During his last week in Australia, the actor noted that he had a cough and just assumed it was a cold, but still decided to board a fully-packed flight home to Atlanta, Georgia.

As his symptoms worsened, Newman was informed that someone in his Mardi Gras group had tested positive for coronavirus. However, when he went to get tested at the hospital, he was told that his test couldn’t be processed due to “limited capacity”.

View this post on Instagram

Thanks for all the concern! I guess a lot of #WalkingDead fans saw me in the emergency room regarding #CoronaVirus. Sorry I didn’t reply I needed time to process. So here’s what happened. Yes I was just in Australia with Sam Smith, Dua Lipa, and thousands of people from around the world for Mardi Gras Pride. I was exposed to some sick people and I started developing symptoms and then back in the states I was notified someone in our group tested positive for #Covid19. I spent all day calling every urgent care and hospital no one had tests! Finally I found one emergency room that told me my symptoms match and to come in immediately. I did all the tests and they told me because I have “mild symptoms“ the government won’t allow them to process my tests! They don’t have enough they’re not prepared, even though all my symptoms match. They’re only allowed to process “severe symptoms, elderly, or people recently in Italy and China”. It cost me $9,116!! and they didn’t even give me results. They sent me home and tons of other ill people that could potentially infect their communities, just telling us to “self Quarantine“. Why after almost 3 months since China is our country not prepared with tests, masks, hand sanitizer, toilet paper! Why after one day of shaky stock markets did they invest 1.5 trillion into the markets, but not the Healthcare system after three months! This was not a surprise, this was not being prepared. We’ve already gone through #H1N1 #SARS why didn’t we have a pandemic unit ready when this happens every few years!? Everyone please treat each other with kindness and Love ❤️! We are all going through this together. Young people are not immune, thousands of people are dying around the world. Please be safe, wash your hands, stay 6 feet or more away from people and stay home. I love you guys so much you can get a hold of me on here or Twitter if you need to talk I’m here for you. Love – D

A post shared by DANIEL NEWMAN (@danielnewman_) on

Despite not knowing whether he actually had contracted COVID-19, it’s baffling to see the actor continue to travel in large groups without masks when he had previously experienced very serious symptoms at the hands of the very same thing – travelling in large groups during a pandemic.

So the sheer stupidity of planning another mid-pandemic group adventure — even if it is said to be on a private island — is both equally laughable and disappointing.

It’s even more disappointing when you learn that the “private island” Newman spoke about was actually just Tulum, Mexico and not a secluded spot at all. For reference, Mexico is currently facing an average increase of around 4,000-9,000 new coronavirus cases each day.

Naturally, telling others to stay safe and “wear a mask”, while you flaunt your privileged ~private island rendezvous~ didn’t sit well with people online.

So “Summer fun! 🏖️❤️” quickly became its own meme, with people using it to take the piss out of Daniel Newman’s private island party. Twitter was flooded with photos of different groups of people, coupled with Newman’s original preachy caption about Summer fun.

Hell, even the official New Jersey account got involved on the piss-take by sharing the Shore’s most notable group: The Jersey Shore cast, with Angelina cropped out, of course.

And if that wasn’t enough, to rub salt into the wound, people also started to point out that Newman had actually tweeted about the importance of diversity in friendship groups mere hours before sharing his dreaded pandemic photo.

You know, his pandemic photo that was full of men who were all very similar shades of white?

Anyway, don’t be like Daniel Newman. Stay home and don’t take photos of your terrible decisions to put others at risk during the pandemic. Or do, so we can clown you too.