Dr. Sanjay Gupta Torches ‘Reckless’ Tucker Carlson: We Could Be in ‘Much Better Position’ Without Him
Tucker Carlson’s segment Wednesday night in which he wildly speculated about the Covid-19 vaccines has been met with scorn across the media spectrum. On Thursday morning, that condemnation ratcheted up further — and even included a vociferous denouncement from a normally stoic medical correspondent.
During Thursday’s 8 a.m. hour of CNN’s New Day, hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar teamed up with guest Dr. Sanjay Gupta to absolutely level the Fox News host for spreading what they all deemed to be dangerous theories about the vaccines.
“Does he want his viewers to live?” Berman asked of Carlson. He added, “if you watched it, you were left with the impression this guy with no medical degree was suggesting that vaccines are killing thousands of people.”
“It’s so reckless, John,” Gupta said. “It’s so dangerous what he’s doing.”
The typically mild-mannered Gupta appeared visibly irate at the Fox News host — while wholly dismissing the content of his Wednesday night broadcast in which he mused about the “apparent death rate from the coronavirus vaccines.”
“It’s absolutely 100 percent false,” Gupta said. “The problem is that it continues to stir up this vaccine hesitance or outright vaccine reluctance. It is so frustrating because we’ve been stutter starting our way through reporting on this pandemic for a year. Because instead of continuing to build a knowledge tree, we’ve had to continuously fact-check and correct misinformation. It’s been so frustrating as a scientific reporter and it’s still happening. In the midst of what is arguably one of the greatest scientific achievements that we’ve had maybe ever, these vaccines, we are still stutter-stopping our way through what is happening here.
“We could be in much better position if it were not for people like Tucker Carlson who continue to embolden this vaccine hesitance. It’s really very irritating.”
Gupta, in his commentary, noted the death of his uncle in India due to Covid-19. Berman observed that Gupta’s loss made commentaries like Carlson’s seem all the more insulting.
“[H]ow heartbreaking and infuriating it is to hear you talk about losing relatives, or having relatives sick for want of a vaccine — that some guy goes on TV and throws shade on it,” Berman. “Sanjay, you don’t get mad. But I can see that it really is pushing you over the edge.”
“It’s so infuriating,” Gupta said. “I have to say, I look at the number of lives that have been saved and it’s something to really celebrate, these vaccines. … I’m still getting questions from people who probably hear from Tucker Carlson or others even who then ask me, ‘Well, is it true the vaccine is causing people to die?’ And it’s constantly correcting the record. How do we grow as a society and grow our knowledge tree if we have to keep doing that? Yes, it’s maddening. It’s very frustrating.”
“The Murdochs have to answer for this,” Berman said, in closing.
Watch above, via CNN.
