Fox News anchor spreads baseless anti-vaccine rumor about California governor’s low public profile

Rumors about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 booster shot circulated in extremist right-wing spaces, before being repeated by a purported “straight news” Fox anchor.

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the November 10, 2021, edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom

DANA PERINO: Also, I wanted to ask you about this. Governor Newsom, so he’s been like out of sight for, like, 13 days. It’s like, where is he? Here is where he says he was.

(BEGIN CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): The kids, literally, they kind of had an intervention. They said they couldn't believe that I was going to miss Halloween … I had no damn choice, I had to cancel that trip.

(END CLIP)

…

PERINO: And I bet also, if you ask children today, Would you rather have your dad go to Halloween or go to climate change conferences? Please go to climate change conferences! That’s why I’m not buying it.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: I want to put one period on this thing here. He got a booster shot two weeks ago, then he went out of — he was on camera for the booster shot, then he disappeared for two weeks, and we don’t really know why. But that was the first rationale we were given, is that it was Halloween.

Claims about Newsom’s health had circulated in extremist spaces online following his booster shot, alleging that an adverse health event would have occurred in relation to the COVID-19 vaccines.

The governor was recently seen in public attending a wedding, and also spoke at a state economic summit on Tuesday.