If Your Job Is To Report COVID Death Totals, Maybe Don't Dress Up As A Clown?

TMZ:  No one's laughing about the rising COVID death toll, which is why this is a total WTF moment -- a senior health official announcing grim numbers ... while rocking a clown costume.

Try not to be distracted by the full clown makeup, red tie, polka dot shirt and yellow pants the official was wearing as she somberly rattled off the tally for COVID cases and deaths in Oregon.

The answer to your question -- who's this clown? She's reportedly Claire Poche from the Oregon Health Authority. We know it's Halloween and all, but Claire never addresses her attire in the video.

Officials are reportedly dismissing it as just a costume, but that doesn't square with the fact the video was recorded Oct. 14, making it 2 weeks old now and pretty early for a Halloween. Plus, the sign language interpreter isn't in a costume ... so, Claire really stands out.

Well this is a bizarre 30 seconds to take in. This health official is reading off the newest COVID case and death totals... while dressed as a clown? 

Look, I know it's Halloween season and all but this video is apparently from October 14th, which is quite a stretch to start wearing your costumes already. Even if it was on October 31st itself, I think maybe you lay off the face paint and polka dot shirt if you're reporting deaths from a pandemic that has shut the world down for a year. Just a thought. How was there not a single person on staff who thought, "You know what? Maybe we scratch this." 

And if you're going to do it, you have to at least make sure the sign language gets the memo. That guy is there doing his job looking all business and just makes this (literal) clown stand out even more. 

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This got me thinking about other jobs where dressing up as a clown would almost certainly not be recommended. This is the list I came up with. 

-A priest holding a funeral mass

-A doctor giving you a cancer diagnosis

-An FBI agent interrogating a suspect

-A lawyer defending a murderer in court

-Preschool teacher

-Health official reading off COVID-19 statistics