Tucker Carlson’s Wild Vaccine Speculation Draws Contempt: ‘Dangerous Misinformation and Disgusting’

Tucker Carlson opened Wednesday night’s program with what many found to be dangerous speculation on the unknown health risks associated with taking the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Fox News host did not come out and explicitly say that his viewers should not take the vaccine; in fact, he congratulated those who already had. But he did raise specious concerns about the vaccination in a manner that could have deadly results for anyone looking for reasons to avoid vaccination.

His show opened with a segment focused on Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), which is a public health tracking system used to identify trends in reactions to the various Covid-19 vaccines. Carlson used it, however, to warn of an “apparent death rate from the coronavirus vaccines.”

Carlson did hedge his warnings about the vaccine with an odd disclaimer. “Vaccines are not dangerous,” he said, adding  “that’s not a guess, we know that pretty conclusively from the official numbers.”

As Mediaite’s Josh Feldman wrote about VAERS when covering the segment last night:

The CDC’s web page about VAERS says, “As an early warning system, VAERS cannot prove that a vaccine caused a problem. Specifically, a report to VAERS does not mean that a vaccine caused an adverse event. But VAERS can give CDC and FDA important information. If it looks as though a vaccine might be causing a problem, FDA and CDC will investigate further and take action if needed.”

VAERS data alone cannot determine if the vaccine caused the reported adverse event.

“You probably already had your shot, and good for you,” Carlson said, before telling unvaccinated people they’re going to be forced to get the shot, even through “social pressure.” And the social pressure, and his argument that “he’s just asking questions,” is what is at the root of his essay. He’s not going after the vaccine so much as he is the group-think surrounding it, because all group-think comes with a need for skepticism.

This neatly illustrates Carlson’s approach: find a topic that is too forbidden to question and exploit that controversy for attention and ratings. I explained this approach in a recent assessment of cable news:

Tucker Carlson is currently the most powerful person in media because nary a day goes by that he is not at the center of some outrage. That is clearly by design; Carlson delights in exploiting the verboten topics of the day and does so with a high brow/low brow sophistry that works both as a meta-commentary for some and pure outrage grievance for others. These controversies could catch up to Carlson.  Tucker has got to continue pushing the envelope but stay out of trouble simultaneously, which raises the question: is threading the needle between controversy and what many see as increasingly irresponsible broadcasting a viable long-term strategy?

Carlson hosts the highest-rated cable news program and his influence is significant, particularly for legions of his dedicated viewers. Many will watch the segment above and get the high-brow meta-questioning of medical science and public health, and the need to ask questions. But just as many, if not many more viewers, will likely watch the segment and see confirmation that the vaccine is dangerous, may cause death, and decide that getting vaccinated during a global pandemic that has cost nearly 600,000 American lives so far, is just not worth it.

Over 100 million Americans have been vaccinated so far, but numerous surveys reveal millions of vaccine-hesitant people that are insisting they don’t get the jab. Polls show that the vast majority of those who are refusing to get vaccinated for Covid-19 identify as White Republicans, in other words, the target demographic (and psychographic) of Carlson’s show.

So the speculation that the vaccine may be deadly? That’s just enough to keep more people from getting inoculated, which is not just dangerous as hell, but ironically, could lead to a spiked death rate of Carlson’s viewers that will opt not to get the prophylactic vaccine and die from Covid-19 as a result. That danger was spelled out by many blue-checks on Twitter, and not just of the progressive type.

In a since-deleted tweet conservative thought leader Allahpundit tweeted “one of the worst things fox has ever aired.” Others followed suit. To wit:

https://twitter.com/walidgellad/status/1390265268941819904?s=20