Fox has yet to air live a single second of the Biden administration’s eight COVID-19 response briefings. This is a stark change from the network’s practices during the Trump administration, when it showed nearly all of the COVID-19 task force briefings -- which frequently featured coronavirus misinformation and then-President Donald Trump’s meltdowns. 

During the Trump administration, Fox aired over 61 hours of the COVID-19 task force briefings, 89% of the total speaking time. Of the 55 official task force briefings, Fox aired large portions of 49, nearly always showing them in their entirety. 

In refusing to air the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response team briefings live, Fox continues its commitment to misinforming viewers about the coronavirus. Throughout the early months of the pandemic, Fox continually aired Trump administration briefings that featured Trump himself pushing dangerous medical misinformation like unproven drug treatments and unhinged medical suggestions such as injecting bleach. Ultimately, these press conferences became so toxic that the group Free Press appealed to the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that networks properly contextualized the misinformation from the briefings, a call that Fox News did not heed. 

The Biden administration’s briefings by comparison have avoided the political theater and misinformation that were hallmarks of the Trump administration task force briefings. These briefings have featured medical and epidemiological experts and have focused on delivering information about the virus and the response rather than sparring with the press. Fox’s decision to ignore the Biden administration’s more reasonable approach to informing the public on the pandemic is dangerous but ultimately unsurprising given its continued commitment to undermining public health measures, even as the United States passed the 500,000 dead mark. 

Media Matters reviewed all 55 official COVID-19 task force briefings under the Trump administration from January 31, 2020, through November 19, 2020, and all eight of the COVID-19 response team briefings under the Biden administration from February 3, 2021, through February 24, 2021. We included briefings that either administration explicitly listed as COVID-19 task force briefings or COVID-19 response team briefings in the respective administration’s press archives. 

For the length of each briefing, we reviewed video archived by Factba.se on its official YouTube account. When video was not available through Factba.se, we used the official times given in the White House press archive to determine duration. We then reviewed video in the Grabien and Kinetiq databases and timed all instances of Fox airing the briefings live. We included any portion of any briefing broadcast live.