Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy whined that President Joe Biden's "rebound" COVID case proves she's right to be an anti-vaxxer.
Anchor Anita Vogel said “maybe it is such a mistake to make COVID political” just as she began a discussion about President Biden’s rebound COVID case with three political pundits, none of whom have a single medical or public health credential.
Charles Hurt was the first up. He’s the Opinion Editor and a columnist for The Washington Times, i.e. not any kind of medical expert, but he soon began knocking the CDC guidelines that Vogel and correspondent David Spunt had just accused Biden of not following. Hurt now said Biden’s case “underscores sort of the absurdity of a lot of these CDC guidelines that they’re still sort of pushing.”
Vogel murmured “Hmm,” as if he were an authority.
Hurt went on to claim, as Vogel murmured her agreement, that Americans are capable of making their own decisions. She did not point out that CDC guidelines are just that, not rules.
Next, Vogel turned to anti-vaxxer Campos-Duffy for her totally amateur views dressed up as credibility. “Let’s not be political” Vogel laughed appreciatively as Campos-Duffy joked that maybe Biden likes being in quarantine because he doesn’t have to work. (Vogel didn’t mention that Biden worked through his last quarantine.)
Campos-Duffy, with a new face but the same ugly personality, went on an anti-vaxx rant.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: I think you brought up a great point, Anita, when you said this is the problem with politicizing it. And when I saw this news pop out … I thought, gosh darn it, I deserve an apology and so do millions of Americans who were – lost their jobs, were harassed, were shamed, and now on the heels of this stuff from Dr. Birx, when she’s admitting that she knew the vaccine was not going to stop transmission and they put all of us and especially our children and our old people under all this stuff - I mean, we deserve an apology.
And right now, on the heels of this, every single member of the military who was discharged ought to be given an apology and reinstated.
We don’t know why he got re-infected [never mind that we had just seen a clip of Fox's Dr. Jeanette Nesheiwat saying doctors think rebound cases are due to insufficient courses of Paxlovid] but I can tell you anecdotally, everybody I know who has been vaxxed, vaxxed, vaxxed, boosted, boosted, boosted is getting COVID and everybody I know who has natural immunity is doing just fine. And I know that’s just anecdotal but it counts for something.
If you think Vogel had any problem with that load of unprofessional politicization, think again. She didn’t mention that vaccinations are effective at preventing severe illness (as in Biden’s case) even if they don’t protect people from getting COVID. Nor did she mention that Fox News had a stringent vaccine mandate for people working in its New York headquarters. (Funny how Campos-Duffy never said a word about Fox News management owing anyone an apology.)
Instead, Vogel legitimized Campos-Duffy’s rant by saying, “Well, I wouldn’t hold your breath on that apology.” Then she turned to her third political guest with no medical qualifications, Joe Concha.
Concha’s thoughts immediately went to politics. He complained that Biden had said on CNN that if you get vaccinated, you won’t get COVID. (Concha conveniently ignored the part where Biden said that even if vaccinated people get COVID, they are “not likely to get sick.”)
“Now he’s gotten four vaccine shots, right? And he’s getting COVID the way that I get those robocalls saying that my car’s warranty has expired.” Concha continued by saying that there’s not much difference between Biden being in quarantine and “his actual schedule.”
Then Concha offered his unqualified and ignorant medical opinion that COVID is no biggie:
CONCHA: We’ve all either had COVID, right? And most people do fine with it. The immunocompromised, the elderly – of course, they’re going to have a problem with this, just like they would if they had pneumonia or the flu and if they had other issues but clearly now we see that we’re a society that knows how to live with this and we know how to handle it and we wish the president well.
You can see how Fox “doesn’t politicize” President Biden’s COVID case below, from the July 30, 2022 The Big Saturday Show.
Oft-repeated message ‘til a few days ago: "Masks are bad, an affront to American manhood! (somehow that means women and kids shouldn’t wear them either). Masks don’t work! Parents who make their kids mask up should be reported for child abuse, etc. etc. etc."
The message as of a couple of days ago: “Biden provided Americans with a horrible example by not wearing a mask while speaking at a podium located several feet away from the reporters.” Escapes me why they might think Biden should wear something that doesn’t work, but, your average foxy just laps it up and will proudly repeat the nonsense should s/he get a chance to appear on TeeVee.
In Italy, the phenomenon of lingering covid (not a rebound nor a reinfection) is attributed to the fact that the tests were developed over 2 years ago while the virus continues to mutate. The latest estimate is that about half the results for subsequent variants are false negatives. Some virologists are saying that people should get 2 negative results before assuming they’re no longer contagious. It is also recommended that recovering patients mask up both indoors and outdoors for at least ten days after a negative test.