Yesterday, the U.S. reached a tragic milestone in the number of people who have died from Covid, but that’s not stopping Fox News from complaining about Dr. Fauci and mask-wearing mandates.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade lost it on air Tuesday morning over a recent CNN appearance by Fauci, who cautioned grandparents from visiting their grandchildren until scientists had more definitive answers on how Covid spreads between vaccinated individuals. Kilmeade became visibly irate over the idea that just a year into managing the worst global pandemic we’ve seen in decades, scientists like Fauci still don’t have all the answers. So, Kilmeade decided to make up his own truth to make himself feel better.
“Unbelievable what is happening,” Kilmeade said before referencing a question journalist Dana Bash asked Fauci. “To that question: ‘My parents are 80 years old, they got vaccinated. Can they go see their grandkids?’ You know what the answer is? Yes. The vaccine is 94% effective. The chances of a kid getting it and falling ill are infinitesimal.”
Of course, children getting the virus isn’t the only concern in this scenario, it’s the asymptomatic spread and how Covid travels between vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals. There are also lingering fears about mutated strands of the virus and how they’ll interact with current vaccines which prevent professionals, like Fauci, from giving the go-ahead to slack off on social distancing measures, especially when it comes to high-risk groups like the elderly.
Kilmeade, being just a TV personality, obviously doesn’t operate under the same rigid standards of truth and responsibility to the public.
“You go over there and do it,” he spewed on. “[Fauci] doesn’t take into account the psychological damage done by not going to school, by not seeing your grandkids, by not playing sports, by not going to work, by losing your job. All he sees is a bunch of graphs.” (Fauci publicly stated he hadn’t planned to spend time with his own children over the holidays because of the virus.)
Kilmeade went on to compare Covid to everything from the flu, which he claims is just as bad — fact check: it’s not — to getting hit by a car and polio before ending his rant predicting the downfall of America because we’re being forced to cut back on tailgate parties and Sunday dinners, saying, “How long do you stay inside? Stop the lockdown restriction and let America get back to being America. It’s got to be happening now or else we have no country left.”
Maybe Kilmeade and Meghan McCain can go to group therapy together when this is all done.