There’s been a lot of articles the last couple of days as “Fox News” icons Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy have told viewers that the coronavirus is real and that getting vaccinated is a Good Thing.
It’s nice – and important -- to see them finally embracing science and reality, it’s hard to separate this from the gut-wrenching hypocrisy that has long been the “Fox News” and their own party line, that the virus is a hoax, and the vaccine not necessary. Despite the fact that they no doubt have been double-vaxxed themselves for months, as has likely most every “Fox News” employee. Of course, after a year-and-a-half and 660,000 American deaths one would like to think that this wouldn’t be news, even to “Fox News” viewers. But then, this isn’t the “Fox News” party line yet, since we still have hosts like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham doing their best to kill off the channel’s viewers. And also Lisa Boothe, the “Fox News” host of The Truth with Lisa Boothe, Only yesterday, she had two tweets there were pretty galling for their seeming even-handed fairness. The problem is that this isn’t an “on the other hand” two-sided issue. What first caught my eye was when I came across her tweet – again, written yesterday -- that said – If vaccinated individuals are still getting infected and spreading COVID, what is the rationale for young and healthy people to get vaccinated? I wrote back – “Wait, you're a reporter for ‘Fox News’ & STILL ask this?? And your show is called The Truth? Do you not watch or read actual news, or only what’s on "Fox News"? The vaccine keeps you from being critically sick or going to the hospital or dying. BTW, everyone is healthy until they get sick. Later, I came across another tweet from her posted yesterday, as well. She wrote – I am not for or against COVID vaccines, I am just for common sense. The virus poses a high risk to some American, [sic] but little to no risk for others. That’s why it should be up to each individual American to decide what makes the most sense for them. I replied with a couple of tweets – “This is not common sense. It is an INFECTIOUS disease that has killed 660,000 Americans alone. Yes, people ‘can’ decide for themselves, that's life, but they risk infecting and KILLING others -- and letting the virus mutate even worse. Not being ‘for’ vaccines is SO ’Fox News.’ “P.S. And you're spreading this ‘indecision’ to ‘Fox News’ viewers that only helps continue the pandemic as it worsens with more variants. ‘Personal choice’ is true but a canard. People got the polio vaccine & it's near-eradicated. And measles & mumps vaccines. Yet COVID kills.” On the surface, Ms. Boothe is surreptitiously trying to be oh-so even-handed. The problem is that being "even-handed" only serves to exacerbate the problem. Further, in her attempt to seeeeeem even-handed, she’s showing her disingenuousness at best and ignorance at worst. For a host on a purported “news” channel to wonder out loud in public what the point is for young and healthy people to get vaccinated is a stunning admission that you don’t pay attention to the actual news you’re supposed to be reporting. To ask why a healthy person should get vaccinated during a worldwide pandemic that has killed over four million previously-healthy people around the world is just mind-numbingly empty-headed. Why give healthy children vaccines for measles, mumps and the chicken pox? Why put on sunscreen if you’re healthy? Why should a healthy person put on a helmet before riding a motorcycle? Or before playing football? It’s hard to imagine telling anyone, but especially an adult, and especially a host supposedly delivering the news on a show called The Truth that healthy people take protective actions so that they Can Remain Healthy. And young people do die from COVID-19. And even if they don’t, they can get infected, and then pass it to a (previously healthy) unvaccinated adult. Who might contract the disease and die. Further, to suggest the coronavirus can be dismissed since it’s only a “high risk to some people” is playing fast and loose with the concept of “some.” At the moment, “some” equates to the 660,000 Americans who have died of it. That’s only .02% of Americans, a very small number and worthy of “some,” but in real-world terms it’s a ghastly high “some total.” And I would suggest too that “some” also equates to every adult American who is unvaccinated. If one wants to play semantics that being merely “at risk” is not the same as being at “high risk,” I would say that with infectious diseases that spread like wildfire and can destroy a person’s health even if they’re not killed by it, and keep mutating into more dangerous variants that keeps undermining society, the line between “at risk” and “high risk” is a borderline difference without much of a distinction. Finally, as for “it should be up to each individual American to decide what makes the most sense for them,” that’s a lovely Kumbaya sensibility, but it only works if the actions of each individual American only affect them alone. This isn’t to say that such things aren’t still a “Personal Choice” – they are. It’s to say that when we make a “Personal Choice” to decide what makes the most sense to us, if that choice affects the actual lives of others, to not take those lives into consideration is reprehensible. All of this is not only pretty common sense, I think, but also generally accepted in society after a year-and-a-half of the pandemic. The point, though, is that for all the lovely words from Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy finally, at long last joining in with that acceptance after 660,000 Americans have died, it’s worth making as clear as possible that as “Fox News” policy goes -- filled with the Carlson, Abraham and Lisa Boothes of the world -- it’s still howling at the moon there.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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