In another segment pushing vaccine hesitancy, a Fox host and guest suggest the vaccines are not effective against the Delta variant

As the Murdoch-run WSJ and many others note that the vaccines work, Fox viewers are told that their effectiveness is “collapsing”

Written by John Whitehouse

Published

The COVID-19 vaccines are incredibly effective -- despite what Fox News is telling its audience.



On July 17, Fox News aired this reprehensible segment on Dan Bongino’s new show, in which guest Alex Berenson argued that evidence from England, Europe, and Israel shows that the “vaccines have pretty limited efficacy”:

From the July 17, 2021, edition of Fox News' Unfiltered

DAN BONGINO (HOST) Alex, this focus on so-called misinformation by the government, by the Obama — excuse me — Biden administration now admitting it targeting, quote, "misinformation" seems bizarre because they can't even get their own message straight. What I don't understand, and maybe you can explain, being an expert on this topic, is if the vaccine works, then why are you suggesting that the vaccine isn't working by demanding people put a mask on again in L.A. County. It doesn't make sense.

ALEX BERENSON (AUTHOR): Well, unfortunately now there's considerable evidence coming out of Britain and Israel and actually most of Europe that the vaccines have pretty limited efficacy. And we are seeing a ton of breakthrough cases. But I want to come back to your misinformation point, because on Friday night Twitter blocked me for 12 hours from posting. You know, I've been one of the loudest voices questioning our coronavirus response really for the last 18 months and Amazon came at me last year and then backed down, but I think we are at a particularly perilous moment right now because I can't help but feel that Twitter probably did this under direct pressure from the Biden administration, which is actively and aggressively trying to get social media platforms to silence voices that they don't like. Now, I have what's called a Substack, which is a platform that I control that's an independent newsletter, but let's be honest, Twitter is a very important platform for debate and discussion and breaking news, and the fact that they are now apparently under direct pressure from the administration is just deeply troubling.

BONGINO: Well, Alex, just to kind of harp on what you said there, if that is true and there are breakthrough cases, and I know you have studied the data, then at least Twitter and social media should be a forum to then put that information out there. That's kind of the information in the public interest, wouldn't you think? 

BERENSON: Oh, I mean, absolutely. And I am very careful, OK? I am not out there talking about 5G or graphene oxide or any of this nonsense. I'm talking about data that comes out of the U.K., that comes out of Israel, that comes out of European countries, that comes out of our own hospital systems, and saying look, it does not like these vaccines work for anywhere near as long as other vaccines. We are already seeing so many cases and that's why there's this discussion of booster shots. Booster shots for adults for vaccines are unheard of. There's an annual vaccine for the flu, but the flu vaccine, frankly, is not very effective and doesn't have nearly the side effects that the coronavirus vaccines do.

But the idea that you would have to get a vaccine months after your initial and initial booster dose should really raise red flags for people and that's all I'm trying to say. And again, the fact that Twitter has now blocked me for 12 hours, I'm very -- I think we are in dangerous times.

BONGINO: Alex, I'm concerned because the conflicting messages from the government are contributing to this never-ending fear campaign. People don't even know where they can get information anymore and the Delta variant is the latest, you know, scare tactic. Yes, it's dangerous, it's a virus. But when you look at the cases in January, 251,000 cases of coronavirus, and then the cases now in July, 24,000. It -- the numbers aren't even comparable, and yet we still have the ongoing fear campaign. 

BERENSON: You are absolutely correct. Look, cases may go up. In the U.K., actually, cases are almost as high as they were in January even though that Britain is the most-vaccinated major country in the world, OK? So there -- this -- the vaccines do not appear to work very well against the Delta variant, either that or they are just collapsing after a few months, but we need to learn to live with this virus. That's what I've been saying for 18 months, vaccine or no vaccine, monoclonal antibodies or no monoclonal antibodies. We have to learn to live with this, it is not that dangerous to almost everybody who's not extremely old or morbidly obese or very sick with other factors. I'm not saying that it can't kill some people, but we need to understand what the risks really are and understand that as a society we have catastrophically overreacted to this.

BONGINO: That's right. Alex, thanks a lot for joining us.

On July 18, after Berenson’s apparent Twitter suspension ended, he tried to make a similar point on Israel’s vaccination program, quickly getting called out for pushing misinformation and logical fallacies. That said, a review of people who replied to his statement shows that many clearly appeared to believe the lies. The actual relevant charts, rather than the ones Berenson posted, showed the incredible effectiveness of vaccines.

We can be certain that the people who run Fox News know that the vaccines are effective against the Delta variant; not only did Rupert Murdoch receive his vaccination before the queen of England received hers, but the Murdoch-run Wall Street Journal actually looked at the data on July 15 and reported it in clear and uncertain terms. Of course, others have noted the same, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccination numbers out of India are startlingly good. Even when there are sometimes alarming tabloid headlines, sober analysis shows that the vaccines work well, and experts are clear that vaccination is the best protection against Delta, even if it is not 100% effective.

Furthermore, the read from Berenson and Bongino about the U.K. and Delta is really quite ridiculous if you look at the data. Positive tests are up but deaths are still quite low -- especially in comparison to prior spikes.

Executives at Fox News let their personalities like Bongino, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham and their guests like Berenson and Charlie Kirk cast doubt on these frankly amazing vaccines, just for profit and power. They're certainly not doing it for their audience.