Watch Chris Hayes highlight the dangerous and deadly consequences of Tucker Carlson's COVID-19 misinformation
Hayes: “And through those policies that Fox News would describe as absolute tyranny and whip up anger against if they happened here, well, Australia basically got rid of the virus”
Published
Citation From the April 15, 2021, edition of MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes
CHRIS HAYES (HOST): So these vaccines, they are a gift of science and human struggle and inquiry that have been given to us to finally provide a definitive way out of this thing. But they are being polarized, along political lines, by devious, insidious, or maybe just inattentive actors on the right.
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HAYES: Now, there's one place where this dangerous propaganda has come from more than any other, maybe aside from Donald Trump, throughout the pandemic, right?
I mean, I am just talking all the way from the beginning, and that's Fox News. I mean, when you take a step back, from the beginning, they have tried every single way of undermining the response to coronavirus. Even before the vaccine came along, they spread lies and railed against every possible solution we had -- all the public health measures that were at our disposal to try to save lives.
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HAYES: Here's the thing. A lot of the animus on that network directed at the public health measures like, you know, shelter-in-place orders, closing down businesses, social distancing. Those did have a lot of really brutal costs. I mean, right? We all experienced them -- sitting in our homes, not sending our kids to school. I mean, some level of frustration with that made sense.
But here's the thing. We've now got a way out of that, OK? We can vaccinate our way out of the pandemic and not have to deal with those things. But now -- now that we're at that point -- Fox News, especially Tucker Carlson, is now trying to undermine the vaccines.
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HAYES: The head of Fox News' parent company, Lachlan Murdoch, he moved his family to Australia. Now, let's be clear here. That makes a certain amount of sense, of course. His father grew up there, started his career there. And lord knows, I don't begrudge anyone moving their family anywhere.
But, you know, it is notable because Australia is a place that basically does not have the coronavirus -- which would be a nice thing to experience. But, you know, the reason they don't have that is their government undertook stringent public health measures at the beginning of the pandemic to lock people in place, to stop them from moving around, to contact trace and snuff out the virus. And when it reappeared, you know what they did? They locked down again. And when people violated the movement restrictions, which were stricter than anything any state in America ever did, it was front-page news and a national scandal. Teenagers, crossing the Queensland border.
And through those policies that Fox News would describe as absolute tyranny and whip up anger against if they happened here, well, Australia basically got rid of the virus.