Fox & Friends hosts bicker after host Steve Doocy describes his omicron experience – and recommends boosters
Written by John Whitehouse
Research contributions from Ryan Masri
Published
After being notably absent from the show in the new year, host Steve Doocy returned to Fox & Friends, describing how his family -- including his son and Fox News employee Peter Doocy -- were hit hard by the omicron variant of the coronavirus over the holidays. Doocy used the experience to encourage viewers to get vaccinated and boosted (which is the best protection available). As Doocy did this, his longtime co-host Brian Kilmeade went back to casting doubt on boosters.
The network spent 2021 casting doubt on COVID-19 vaccines and then boosters at an industrial scale, despite having a clear moral responsibility to protect its audience.
When Doocy encouraged vaccination on Thursday morning, his own co-hosts immediately railroaded him and undermined his point. Doocy implored viewers to get vaccinated and boosted, relaying a metaphor from his doctor who likened the vaccines to a kevlar vest that protects wearers from bullets killing them, if not from being shot. In return, co-host Ainsley Earhardt bemoaned that different doctors were telling her different things. Kilmeade railed against the vaccines, saying he did not want to become a human pincushion, adding that he heard anti-vaccine doctor Robert Malone talk with Joe Rogan.
Watch the segment here:
Citation From the January 6, 2022 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): We know also that there – kids will get it, this is very transmutable, but it's also not something nearly as severe. In fact, many people have outlined and looked at omicron and said could be a blessing because it gives you the antibodies you need to fight the virus. But at the same time gives you mild symptoms with the virus, for the most part. Now, I understand that there are things and challenges like bus – bus drivers and actual teachers who get it. You can't go in if you're Steve Doocy on Monday. You're not teaching a class. I understand that. And there was four thousand five hundred schools who took at least one day off. There were school districts in Atlanta, in Milwaukee, 80 in Philadelphia, that took days off and said, you've got to go remote. We get that. That's called trying to get into school. And sometimes it doesn't work because the teachers are sick. The question is, are you trying? Are you really sick? And are you sending the right message to the kids where when in trouble, we find a way to persevere? We don't hide. The timidity, I think along with missing the interaction, is really hurting kids, Steve.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Well, first of all, Brian, I don't know how you don't know I wasn't teaching class on Monday because –
KILMEADE: That's right, you're right. You're right. I was wrong. I was wrong to say that.
DOOCY: No, I know. But here's the thing. What we've learned about omicron and I started by saying, and for people who are just tuning in it, it gets your throat first, and that's how it got me. When they are looking now at how this is impacting people, they essentially are saying we could have dodged a bullet with this particular variant, which is good news because keep in mind, Delta and Alpha both impacted your lungs. Now, as it turns out, omicron hits you right in the throat. But what if the next variant doesn't hit your throat? What if the next variant hits your lungs or hits your heart or hits your brain? We just don't know. And that is one of the reasons why the best protection for people is to get the vaccine. We've all been double vaccinated. I've been boosted now. I've had omicron, so I'm I'm at the gold level for immunity. But nonetheless, there are people who have extenuating circumstances, like a Chicago teacher who is battling cancer, but he knows it is so important and he I believe he's been boosted and he's been double vaccinated. But he knows that he has got to go to school because that's where the teachers belong. And he won't stop in-person classes. And in fact, I think 10 percent of the Chicago teachers went to school yesterday to try to open things up. Here is Joseph Ocal, who is a Chicago teacher with cancer on making a difference in students' lives.
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AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): He went on to say that he wants to make his life relevant and he wants to make a difference in the lives of these children, and he became a teacher to teach not to be a part of the union. Yale University, they're telling the students they're not allowed to leave campus and go to a local restaurant. They have to quarantine there on the campus until February 7. New York City teachers unions are ramping up pressure now to go remote. Our new mayor, Eric Adams, says he wants to keep the schools open. And in New Jersey, where you live, Steve, they're looking for retired teachers because of all the staff shortages due to COVID.
KILMEADE: Yeah, yeah. And I just like to add that I'm not sure they know what the heck they're doing when it comes to these vaccines and shots. Now we're getting a booster. What I know so many people have been double vaxxed and boosted who are getting this at the same rate as this horrible unvaccinated people. I want to slow down a little because I don't want to be getting a shot every three months until they figure it out. I don't want to be a pin cushion and experimental, you know, show horse for a medical, for a government that's showing nothing but incompetence over the last year. Because now you're talking about our health in a extreme way. And I don't want politicians in control of my 18 year old, my 20 year old, my twenty-five year old and – not me. And so I'm losing a lot of faith in, go get another shot because I think we're going to be here in two months and we're going to be hearing, how dare you not get a fourth shot? How selfish not to get a fifth shot. So get a hold of yourself. Settle down. We need a third partym outside government, no political bent to give us an idea of what's actually hitting us in America. Meanwhile, up next, business owners in –
DOOCY: Brian, Brian, can I add something? Can I add something? Here's the thing. You don't trust government and I get that, and a lot of people don't. However, you know who I trust? I trust my doctor. And in talking to my doctor yesterday about omicron and the you know, the thing about omicron is the vaccines have not been as effective with that as it was with Delta. And he said, Think about it this way, Steve. He said think of the vaccine as like wearing a kevlar vest. It is not going to – essentially what the kevlar vest is going to do. Is it going to stop a bullet, but it won't let the bullet kill you. And that's why people, that's why I trust the doctors. I trust the science. You know, it's the only game we've got right now is to get vaccinated and boosted. And unfortunately, this omicron is sweeping through the area. Yeah.
EARHARDT: But Steve – Steve, can I add something? Can I add something? Every doctor you talk to has a different answer. I talked to one doctor about vaccinating my daughter, not over my dead body, he said, will I vaccinate my grandchildren. Talked to another doctor who said more children – the flu is is probably a little bit more deadlier, that's what we're seeing in the past if you compare years, he said. But if you want your daughter to go to events in New York, then you're going to have to get her vaccinated. I had another doctor say, yes, absolutely, get your child vaccinated. Three different opinions for different reasons.
KILMEADE: Yeah, I just love the creator of the mRNA vaccine was on with Joe Rogan. I listened to it for three hours yesterday. The creator of the virus thinks this is out of control and that really, I find that relatively disturbing because when he says that the creator of the virus with the patent, he gets the vaccines, he comes out and then he gets sidelined off social media. So let's get a little scary. But Steve, you are 100% right to go to a doctor and not your local politician.
The three hosts were still broadcasting from different studios due to Fox’s pandemic precautions.