Fox & Friends falsely claims “the vaccines aren’t working,” lies about Biden administration’s orders of Pfizer antiviral drugs
Written by Eric Kleefeld
Published
Wednesday’s edition of Fox & Friends was another example of the network pushing false talking points against the COVID-19 vaccines and lying about the Biden administration’s efforts to distribute the new antiviral medications.
During the first hour of the program, co-host Ainsley Earhardt attacked President Joe Biden, claiming, “He didn't shut down the virus, and now we’re learning the vaccines aren't working for this latest variant.” In fact, data shows the vaccines are still effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths for breakthrough infections from the omicron variant.
In the next hour, co-host Brian Kilmeade ridiculed Biden for saying “the same thing for a year — get vaccinated, get vaccinated, come on, get vaccinated.” He also claimed that the country needs “a new plan” of living with the virus — as if such a “plan” would not require everyone to be vaccinated and to take certain other precautions to be remotely workable (as, for example, Fox News does in its own corporate offices).
Kilmeade and co-host Steve Doocy also falsely suggested that the Biden administration had done nothing to provide the public with Paxlovid, an antiviral regimen from Pfizer that received emergency use authorization a month ago. In fact, the federal government already began releasing supplies of the drug to state governments the very next day and Biden offered to use the Defense Production Act to assist in the complex processes of making the drug. In early January, the administration doubled its order to a total of 20 million courses of treatment. (One difficulty, however, is that the drug itself currently takes nine months to manufacture, which the company is working to cut in half.)