While the Delta variant is on the rise in the US, some top Fox News moderators are increasingly ranting against the vaccinations. The mood for Biden’s vaccination campaign comes at a bad time.
Delta is ringing the alarm bells in the USA. The particularly contagious corona variant is now responsible for around 83 percent of all infections examined. “That’s a dramatic increase,” warned CDC chief Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday. At the beginning of July, the variant would only have made up half of the cases. The CDC boss therefore emphatically emphasized vaccinations as “the most important weapon in the fight against the pandemic” and urged all Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, some top presenters on the conservative broadcaster Fox News are spreading a completely different message. Especially in the prime-time shows of Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, there was massive mood against the CDC’s vaccination recommendation, reports the “”. Both the moderators and the talk show guests said several times that the vaccines could be dangerous and that people were entitled to refuse them.
Carlson calls the vaccination plan the “biggest scandal” of his life
For Carlson and Ingraham, food found was also the Biden government’s latest plan to increase vaccination rates. Health care workers as well as volunteers should go door-to-door to personally convince skeptics of the vaccination. “Go from door to door?”, Moderator Laura Ingraham railed on her show “”. “This is creepy stuff.”
Tucker Carlson, who is considered the most popular Fox News presenter with an average of 2.9 million viewers, even went a step further. The Biden plan is an attempt “to force people to take drugs they don’t want or need,” said Carlson, describing the initiative as “by far the biggest scandal of my life.”
The anti-vaccination rhetoric of some Fox News presenters comes at an inopportune time for the American vaccination campaign. Almost 60 percent of adults are already fully vaccinated – in relation to the total population, however, this is less than half. In addition, the vaccination rate has slowed down significantly in recent weeks – also due to the resistance of conservative citizens, which is fueled by right-wing politicians and the media.
Not all Fox News presenters are vaccine-critical
Carlson and Ingrahams criticism of the vaccination hit the very conservative audience that is already more suspicious of vaccinations than the average American. The repeated criticism of vaccinations is thus moving further and further from the right wing to the focus of conservative discussions – opinions such as that the government’s vaccination strategies violate civil liberties and waste taxpayers’ money are becoming more common.
The bare figures show the effects that widespread vaccination skepticism can have. In those parts of the United States where there is little vaccination, the delta percentage is more than 83 percent. More than 99 percent of all corona deaths are now people who are not vaccinated. “This will become a pandemic for the unvaccinated,” warned CDC boss Walensky. As a result, Tucker Carlson scolded her statement on his show as “simply not true”.
But not everyone at Fox News is so one-sided about vaccinations. Carlson’s colleague Sean Hannity appealed to the viewers of his primetime show on Monday evening: “Please take Covid seriously.” The influential moderator – who is also a close ally of ex-US President Donald Trump – made it clear: “I believe in the science, I believe in the science of vaccination.” The moderators Steve Doocy and Bill Hemmer also came out as supporters of the vaccination campaign.
It remains to be seen how many conservative Americans will listen to the voices that support the scientific point of view – and still get vaccinated. One thing is certain: Delta won’t wait for you if you don’t make up your mind soon.
Swell: “”,,, with DPA
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