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MSNBC’s Chris Hayes tore into Fox News on Tuesday night, unloading on the rival network in a scathing, five-minute opening monologue in which he called out a concerted misinformation campaign to downplay the risks of Covid-19 as “coronavirus trutherism.”

“There’s a concerted effort on the part of influential people at the cable network that we all call Trump TV right now to peddle dangerous misinformation about the coronavirus. Call it coronavirus trutherism,” Hayes said, jumping right out of the gate. “The question at issue is one whose answer should be obvious to everyone: Is this disease really as deadly as the vast majority of experts tell us it is, as we’ve all seen with our own eyes? Last night, one host told his viewers that experts are wrong. We should lift the lockdowns because it’s not as deadly as we thought.”

Hayes then played a clip from Tucker Carlson’s Monday night show, where he openly dismissed the nationwide lockdown, saying it likely had no effect on “flattening the curve” of the viral spread and death toll. In that segment, the Fox host also cited two urgent care facility co-owners, whose claims have been repeatedly debunked, to justify an argument that the mortality rate of Covid-19 has been greatly exaggerated. Those same two doctors appearing two hours later on The Ingraham Angle.

“Now, if you were thinking, ‘

Wait, how did he can say the curve flattened not because of the lockdowns, not because of the wholly unprecedented nationwide lockdowns ?’ Well, you are right to ask that question. But Tucker Carlson based his claim, in part, from two urgent care doctors from Bakersfield, California. They say their research found the coronavirus is basically no worse than the flu,” Hayes explained, before citing one of the more notable debunkers of their claims. “Of course, most public health experts have dismissed these doctor’s findings. According to the University of Washington biologist Dr. Carl Bergstrom, who specialized in infectious disease modeling, the pair have used methods that are ludicrous to get results that are completely implausible.” The MSNBC host also pointed out that the two doctors’ video claim about the virus was even removed from YouTube for violating the site’s rules against posting medical misinformation.

Hayes then called out hypocrisy of Fox News hosts like Carslon over social distancing guidelines.

“There is a reason many of the employees of Fox News, which is based in New York, are working from home right now. At least someone there understands why it is important to continue to keep physical distance,” Hayes pointed out. “That is what ordinary, everyday working Americans have bought the time to do with their own sacrifices. And yet, Tucker Carlson, who has been broadcasting in safe isolation, is telling you it’s safe to go out.

That’s his message to you bus drivers and people who work in meat processing facilities and you who are providing elder care in a senior home or assisted living facility or a cashier at a grocery store or working in an Amazon warehouse. The cable news pundit wants you to get back out there because it’s just not that deadly. But for all the faux-populist ire being mounted by the conservative politics legacy case from La Jolla, most Americans continue to believe shelter in place is the right policy.”

“But here’s the thing, if Tucker Carlson thinks people need to get back out there, he can help,” Hayes helpfully offered, sarcasm dripping from his words. “Because right now, they need people in assisted living facilities, that have been decimated by this. And they need people in meat and pork processing plants, too. They’ve lost a ton of people to this disease. So get in there if you think it’s that bad, and go chop up some pork!”

After a supercut of Fox News pundits and right-wing talk radio hosts dismissing the coronavirus as no more deadly than the seasonal flu in the early stages of the pandemic, Hayes lowered the boom.

“At the beginning of this horrible period, the president, along with his lackeys and advisers, and propagandists, they all minimized what was coming,” Hayes said, his disdain nearly boiling over.

“When the toll became too great, when the facts could no longer be ignored, many of these same people started then taking the virus seriously. And yet now, now after nearly 60,000 of our fellow Americans have been lost to this vicious virus, they are back to where they started, suggesting it’s not that dangerous.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.

Tags: Chris Hayes, Coronavirus, Covid-19, lockdowns, misinformation, Social Distancing, Tucker Carlson