Tucker Carlson has spent the last few weeks pushing some fear-mongering nonsense related to the Covid vaccine, but do the rest of his Fox News cohorts share that same irrational aversion to protecting themselves from the deadliest pandemic in our lifetime? Apparently not.
On Monday morning, just a day after the hashtag #TuckerVaxxed was shared around social media, the gang on Fox & Friends — Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade — used their airtime to reveal that all three of them have been vaccinated, and they’re pretty damn relieved about it. Carlson, who’s shared plenty of disinformation with his viewers (citing unconfirmed death tolls and encouraging his viewers to harass mask wearers), faced criticism from CNN medical advisor and analyst Jonathan Reiner for failing to be transparent about his own vaccination status. Reiner demanded to know if Carlson had actually been vaccinated, which would make his conspiracy-laden, anti-vax campaign on the network not only dangerous but hypocritical as well.
Carlson has yet to fess up about whether he got stabbed or not, but his colleagues at Fox News did this morning as Earhardt admitted all three Fox & Friends hosts had gotten the shot and were happier for it.
“I understand there are people that have vaccine hesitancy but we all three are vaccinated and I tell you when I got it it was like, ‘okay…relief,” Earhardt said on-air. Doocy agreed with her, adding that those who haven’t gotten the shot yet are the ones “in peril.” The trio was discussing recent CDC mitigation efforts focused on masking indoors and social distancing measures that may stay in place longer than we’d hoped, but the timing of this vaccination confession feels a little suspect considering all the heat Carlson got over the weekend. Does this signal a rift at Fox? Are the ultra-conservative, right-wing pundits at the news network actually advocating for wildly liberal concepts like “science” and “facts”?
“I understand there are people that have vaccine hesitancy, but we all three are vaccinated.”
The hosts of Fox & Friends revealed this morning that all three of them have been vaccinated and described feeling a sense of “relief.” pic.twitter.com/OQPRF4UQ2N
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 10, 2021
Probably not. After all, Kilmeade was quick to point out that it was the individual’s choice of whether to receive the vaccine or not though all three seemed to suggest that if their viewers chose not to get the shot, they should expect to have to continue following mask mandates and social distancing policies. Still, even hinting at the possibility that their freedom to choose might come with consequences — and that it is probably safer and easier to just go ahead and get vaccinated already — is in stark contrast to the panic-peddling that Carlson seems to be doing on his own show.