
Tucker Carlson Ignites Outrage With Tirade Against Vaccines
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Fox News host Tucker Carlson is being accused of promoting coronavirus vaccine skepticism and anti-vaxxer talking points when he posed questions Monday night as if they were unanswered and legitimate – questions that have been very publicly answered for months.
"So all of this should prompt some pretty tough questions for our public health experts in this country," Carlson insisted to several hundred thousand viewers. "And one of those questions is, how effective is this coronavirus vaccine? How necessary is it to take the vaccine? Don't dismiss those questions from 'anti-vaxxers,'" he said scornfully.
"Don't kick people off social media for asking them, answer the questions."
"The administration would like you to take this vaccine. Joe Biden told you last week if you don't you can't celebrate the Fourth of July. But it turns out there are things we don't know about the effects of this vaccine — and all vaccines by the way."
Americans generally agree that the job of a journalist is to inform, to deliver news and information, not to ask basic questions that are easily answered because – in this case – the federal government and the vaccine manufacturers have already answered them.
These are not state secrets, but as many on social media noted, when you posed them as if they were, you're promoting anti-vaxx skepticism, and during a pandemic, that is potentially deadly.
Watch Carlson from his Monday night show:
Last year CNN reported Carlson makes $10 million a year. And while the combined annual salaries of everyone I know don't reach that staggering umber, let's do Tucker's job for him.
Just going to Google and entering "how e" literally gave me the answer:
And, as most Americans already know, the vaccines range between about 85% effective (Johnson & Johnson, one dose shot) to about 95% effective (Moderna and Pfizer, two-dose shots.)
But Carlson thinks the government is hiding this information. It's not.
Media Matters has a longer clip here.
Here's how some are reacting:
- Fox News Falsehoods About Virus Masks Are A Public Health ... ›
- Neo-Nazis Idolize Fox News' Tucker Carlson - National Memo ›
- On Fox News, Fauci Urges Trump To Back Vaccination Drive ... ›
- How Trump's Narcissism Undermines The National Vaccination ... ›
- What You Can Do To Clean Up Tucker Carlson's Fascist Barf ... ›
- Anti-Vaccine Network Pushes Pandemic Conspiracies And Lies On ... ›
- Punishing The Murdochs For Carlson's Racist Poison - National Memo ›
- Fox News Buried Trump’s Endorsement Of Vaccination Campaign - National Memo ›
- 'Put Me In Jail': Fierce Vaccine Resistance By Far-Right Republicans - National Memo ›
- ‘Tucker Must Go’: Carlson Endorses Neo-Nazi Conspiracy Theory On Air - National Memo ›
- Trump can't save vaccine hesitant Republicans: Fox News has ... ›
- Tucker Carlson Goes Full Anti-Vax, Says COVID Vaccine Is ... ›
- Tucker Carlson Says Authorities Are 'Lying' About COVID Vaccine ... ›
- Tucker Carlson fans flames of vaccine skepticism, telling Fox News ... ›
- Fox News' Tucker Carlson Is Spreading Dangerous Misinformation ... ›
- As Fox's Tucker Carlson Stokes Covid-19 Vaccine Fears— Here's ... ›
- Fox News hosts undermine COVID-19 vaccines after Biden took office ›
- Republican men are a central part of coronavirus vaccine resistance ... ›
- Tucker Carlson's vaccine questions and what they do - The ... ›