Fox News has spent the last 8 months mocking and downplaying the threat of COVID-19 variants

Written by Alicia Sadowski & Jane Lee

Research contributions from Brendan Karet, Katherine Abughazaleh & Rebecca Martin

Published

Over the last eight months, Fox News has led a relentless effort to ridicule and dismiss the danger of new COVID-19 variants, with some network figures suggesting that the threat is being hyped to promote vaccination campaigns and enable government overreach.

Now, amid stalling vaccination rates and an uptick in COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations in the United States, a new strain of the coronavirus known as the delta variant threatens to reverse the progress the country has made in eradicating COVID-19, especially in areas with low vaccination rates. Scientists have been concerned about previous variants -- the Brazilian, South African, and U.K. variants -- because they often alter the virus’s transmissibility and lethality. Recent research suggests that the delta variant causes more severe illness and is as contagious as chickenpox, and scientists are consequently concerned that unmitigated spread of the delta variant may lead to future variations that evade the highly effective COVID-19 vaccines. 

Despite public health concerns, Fox News and its hosts, anchors, correspondents, and guests have complemented the network’s campaign against vaccinations with a concerted effort to downplay and undermine the threat of coronavirus variants.

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  • December 2020

  • December 2020

    • When asked about the danger of variant strains, Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel said, “I'm very concerned about all the fear this spreads. You hear the word ‘mutation’ or ‘shape-shifting’ and suddenly you're in a sci-fi movie. And we have enough -- enough fear already here. This is a new strain we have to take very seriously, but we shouldn't be panicking about it.” [Fox News, Bill Hemmer Reports, 12/21/20]
    • Appearing on Fox prime time that night, Siegel again dismissed the threat of variants evolving in lethality: “The real science is that these changes that occur to the virus are almost always inconsequential. They don't mean anything, they don't add up to anything, which is why scientists don’t tell us about them. The one time we talk about it is if the changes occur in a way … which makes the virus a little bit more transmissible, easier to catch. Now that may be happening in Great Britain, but I’ll tell you what they haven’t done: They haven’t proven that in a laboratory yet." [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 12/21/20]
    • Guest Dr. Harvey Risch argued the U.K. variant could be a good thing: “It might even be better that it's more transmissible because, by and large, almost everybody that gets these viruses do well. … The fact is it could even hasten the end of the pandemic by being more transmissible and not any more virulent.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 12/21/20]

  • January 2021

  • January 2021

    On The Ingraham Angle, Minnesota Republican state Sen. Dr. Scott Jensen said the “gloom and doom, Chicken Little, sky-is-falling thing” over the U.K. variant is “way overdone” and complained that reports the pandemic is not over are a way to “paralyze people’s ability to think for themselves.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/18/21]

  • February 2021

  • February 2021

    • Guest Dr. William Grace argued that concern over new variants are only to “try and make you more dependent on politicians.” Grace continued that the only people to suffer from COVID-19 are those with low vitamin D levels, adding that “most of the people that I know who are taking vitamin D and get the disease say they would much rather have COVID than a common cold.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/15/21]
    • Fox host Laura Ingraham implied that new variants are a way for “Democrats, the media, the medical cartel” to “keep you scared, compliant, and, frankly, distracted.” She concluded: “The CDC and Fauci will always have another virus variant to hype, another holiday to warn us away from celebrating, another alleged superspreader event.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/17/21]
    • Ingraham suggested that “viral mutations, variants” will be used indefinitely as “a reason to keep things closed, to keep you living with less freedom.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/19/21]
    • In the same episode, Ingraham wondered why there is concern over “another variant around the corner” rather than being celebrated for “getting us closer to herd immunity.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/19/21]
    • Ingraham made light of concern over new coronavirus variants -- with mock newspaper headlines announcing, “The variants are coming! The variants are coming!” -- and argued that recent research proves politicians’ “scary variant thesis just falls apart. It’s embarrassing.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/22/21]
    • Former Trump coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas said that Americans cannot “be fearful for the rest of our lives about what-if scenarios,” including if there is a “new variant” or “new pandemics.” [Fox News, Hannity, 2/23/21]
    • In a segment attacking “Liars in Labcoats,” Ingraham suggested that Californians should not be “tolerating” concern over coronavirus variants. Guest Dr. Harvey Risch responded that the variant probably won’t matter and then suggested that concerns will lead to prolonging the pandemic because “the more you lock down, the longer it takes to get to herd immunity, the longer the whole thing spreads and the more variants occur. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/23/21]
    • Ingraham complained that the “medical cartel” is “fearmongering over the virus variants.” Former Trump administration official Dr. Paul Elias Alexander responded that variant emphasis is more about “pushing vaccines” than “arming the public with the truth and allowing the public to make commonsense, sensible decisions.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/25/21] 
    • Ingraham deemed public health experts’ concern over variants as “vague threats ... meant to suppress us or keep us down.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/26/21]

  • March 2021

  • March 2021

    • Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marty Makary denied that there will be a fourth surge: “The threat of a surge now has quelled. And we can now follow the new variants in their native countries. The U.K., they’ve had an 82% reduction in daily cases while we've had a 77% reduction. South Africa, 90% reduction. So we're not seeing the variant pose this risk of a surge in the fall. Of course, we'll have to follow things into the fall. But right now, in the spring, we're not seeing that risk of a surge” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 3/1/21]
    • Laura Ingraham mocked “Dr. Doom” Michael Osterholm, a former Biden administration adviser, for expressing concern over reopening schools amid the U.K. variant. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/8/21]
    • The next day, Ingraham lamented that Osterholm is “still out there ... fearmongering over these COVID mutations.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/9/21]
    • Makary accused public health experts of “cry[ing] wolf” on the threat of variants and using “fear to tell people we could flare into another surge.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 3/15/21]
    • Fox contributor Dr. Marc Siegel downplayed the severity of coronavirus variants: “I think it's the politics of fear. The word ‘variant’ scares people. The word ‘mutation’ scares people.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 3/16/21]
    • Ingraham praised Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) for exposing that “all the hype about reinfections and variants is bogus.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/18/21]
    • Fox & Friends gave Paul a platform to demand additional proof that the variant is dangerous before following Dr. Anthony Fauci’s recommendation to continue wearing masks. He went on to dismiss Fauci’s recommendation, saying it’s based on “his conjecture.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/19/21]
    • Fox host Greg Gutfeld praised Paul for his opposition to mask-wearing based on Fauci’s “conjecture about the possibility of a variant.” Gutfeld continued that the variant “hypothesis can suppress your freedoms indefinitely because that possibility, it never goes away.” [Fox News, The Five, 3/19/21]
    • Tucker Carlson Tonight let Paul assert that new public health restrictions to protect against the delta variant were introduced because “Dr. Fauci is very blasé and unconcerned about liberty,” claiming that he had asked whether “some new variant, some new strain of COVID is now hospitalizing and killing hundreds or even thousands of people in the United States, and the evidence is zero.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/19/21]
    • Ingraham said “gloom and doom” warnings of COVID-19 variants are part of a “disinformation campaign.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/31/21]

  • April 2021

  • April 2021

    • On The Ingraham Angle, guest host Pete Hegseth mocked Dr. Michael Osterholm for suggesting a more infectious variant could bring another disastrous wave of the pandemic: “A whole new pandemic? How convenient that would be for the medical bureaucrats. It would allow them to control your life and our economy even longer.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 4/5/21]
    • Your World with Neil Cavuto gave Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) a platform to attack Dr. Anthony Fauci regarding potential government mandates, saying there’s no proof that the variants are a “real problem;” Paul added: “What we need to do is not, you know, push fearmongering.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 4/6/21]
    • Guest host Mark Steyn mocked reports of a double mutant COVID-19 variant: “Just imagine what could happen if this Indian double mutant met the South African variant in an abandoned New York singles bar and they both did the horizontal mambo and spawned COVID’s first triple mutant.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 4/6/21]
    • Laura Ingraham dismissed the idea of getting a vaccine booster shot for new variants: “It's like lions and tigers and bears and variants, oh my!” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 4/19/21]
    • Guest host Tammy Bruce dismissed Osterholm’s warnings of a new variant because he has “been consistently wrong” on COVID-19 resurgences and has pushed “a bunch of fear porn,” claiming that the administration has been “making us afraid. It seems like that is their plan for the next four years.” Fox contributor Katie Pavlich responded, “If you make people afraid, you can justify controlling their lives.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 4/28/21]

  • May 2021

  • May 2021

    • Dr. Marty Makary warned that “there’s too much variant fear going on out there.” He claimed, “The variant fear is a big problem. It's creating a distorted perception of risk out there. … We’ve got to, at some point, move on and recognize we’re below seasonal flu levels." [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 5/4/21]
    • Makary criticized warnings that new variants could reverse the country’s progress against COVD-19: “Now, why would you say that? That’s like me taking someone out, discharging them from the hospital after a long, successful battle with cancer, and saying, ‘I just want you to know the cancer could come back.’ Why would you say that right now?” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 5/23/21]

  • June 2021

  • June 2021

    • The Story with Martha MacCallum let Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) downplay the threat of the delta variant: “I don't think we should be alarmed about this. We should be reasonable, rational, but we shouldn’t jump the gun and say immediately, ‘Oh, everybody’s got to get vaccinated again.’” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 6/9/21]
    • Dr. Marty Makary dismissed the threat of future COVID-19 variants as a “distorted perception of risk” because “right now we’ve got to move on and live a normal life and turn our attention to other infections and medical problems in society.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 6/9/21]
    • Laura Ingraham lamented that Dr. Anthony Fauci “still can’t stop the constant fearmongering over the variants.” Guest Dr. Harvey Risch responded that Fauci had also hyped the earlier U.K. variant, which ended up being of “no consequence whatsoever.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/9/21]
    • Ingraham ridiculed Prime Minister Boris Johnson for delaying the U.K.’s economic reopening due to “supposedly fears over the delta COVID variant.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/17/21]
    • Ingraham accused public health experts and Democratic politicians of “scaring people about the delta variants and the other variants” to coerce younger, healthy people into getting vaccinated. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/23/21]
    • Ingraham called the Biden administration’s PSA educating Americans on the threat of the delta variant “a total flop” and “embarrassing,” claiming it “exposed Fauci’s fraud” because COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are decreasing “despite all the variants we are supposed to cower in fear of.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/24/21]
    • The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld accused “liberals” concerned about the delta variant of embracing a “forever pandemic,” which “sounds like a cologne.” Co-host Jesse Watters undermined threats of the delta variant by noting that “more people died from gunshot wounds in Chicago last week than died from COVID. … But you can’t convince liberals with facts, I’ve tried.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/28/21]
    • On America Reports, Makary said LA potentially reinstating masks is “overkill,” warning, “You’re going to hear a lot of fearmongering about the delta variant.” He later added that “I think it’s used to manipulate people to get vaccinated, and I’m for vaccines, but this has turned into a tool to try to coax people into it.” [Fox News, America Reports with John Roberts and Sandra Smith, 6/29/21]
    • Gutfeld accused the media of overhyping concerns about the delta variant: ”The possibility of future variants is an easily manufactured story that creates fear tactics that could conceivably go on forever.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/29/21]
    • Watters mocked warnings of the delta variant: “So put your mask on and don’t ask any questions. Otherwise, the delta variant will kill you and kill everybody that you love.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 6/29/21]
    • Guest host Jeanine Pirro criticized Fauci for appearing on PBS to “fearmonger about the latest COVID variant.” Guest Dr. Peter McCullough then claimed that the vaccine offered “no protection against the delta variant” and likened the variant to a common cold that can be “easily managed.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/29/21] 
    • Watters said the left is “fearmongering over the delta variant of COVID-19, despite the strain only making up 20% of cases across the country, and all the cases are going down.” He then accused California Democrats of wanting “to keep the pandemic alive” by using variant fears to send out “millions of unsolicited mail-in ballots to every citizen in the state, alive or dead,” for his upcoming recall election. [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 6/30/21]
    • Pirro mocked the “usual variant fearmongering” from Democrats and Fauci, arguing that the concern proves Democratic politicians are using the delta variant to prepare people “for another round of extreme COVID measures” because “they can’t stand the sight of Americans living free.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/30/21]

  • July 2021

  • July 2021

    • Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier downplayed the lambda variant, saying there is “no evidence to indicate that it is more virulent or more severe or deadly.” Fox’s Benjamin Hall followed up by asking, “Do you think that it does a disservice to the public when the media and health organizations make such a big fuss about every new variant that comes along? Does it, perhaps, feed the culture of fear around this? And should we maybe just not be reporting on them until they become more significant?” Saphier responded, “Undoubtedly. I think that this is causing a lot of panic, a lot of fear, and, unfortunately, the message is clear that none of these variants are as concerning as people want to make them seem.” [Fox News, America Reports with John Roberts and Sandra Smith, 7/6/21]
    • Guest host Mark Steyn mocked concern over new coronavirus variants, saying: “We are in the land of lame sequels here, and the COVID franchise is exhausted.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 7/6/21]
    • Sean Hannity criticized “Dr. Doom and Gloom” Michael Osterholm and “flip-flop Fauci” for participating in coronavirus PSAs with popular TikTok influencers amid the threat “of the so-called ‘lambda variant,’ different than the delta variant, which is a new concern to scientists claiming such mutations could potentially become resistant to COVID-19 vaccines -- you know, the ones they told us would keep us all safe.” [Fox News, Hannity, 7/6/21]
    • Host Laura Ingraham and Fox contributor Raymond Arroyo mocked Biden’s concern of the delta variant. Arroyo stated that “the delta variant I am most concerned about is my flight getting delayed.” Ingraham responded that the variant is “another excuse to keep the teachers home.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/6/21]
    • Fox medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel claimed the delta variant is being “overhyped,” saying: “It's an issue but, again, it's been hyped. It's not nearly what they’re saying it is.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/7/21]
    • Steyn suggested that new COVID-19 variants are coming from a collusion between China and pharmaceutical companies: “Pfizer’s perfectly upfront that they’re in this for the money. They made out however many big bucks from the first two shots. So they’re saying, ‘Oh yeah, now, now, unfortunately, Chairman Xi’s come up with a -- a very interesting double mutation of the Ukrainian variant and we think we should have a third shot for that.’” Steyn added that “there’ll be a new variant along in the next 48 hours. … They’re working the night shift at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, putting it on the flight to Italy tomorrow morning.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 7/8/21]
    • Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade downplayed the danger of the delta variant: “One doctor warned against overreaction to the Dallas variant -- delta variant. She went on to say there's no evidence the delta variant is more deadly for any individual who becomes infected.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/9/21]
    • On The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld complained that concern over the delta variant has “amazing potential for controlling the population” because Americans have been “primed” to see new variants as “COVID-2, COVID-3, the reckoning.” [Fox News, The Five, 7/9/21]
    • Speaking to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Ingraham claimed that the media and Democratic politicians are fearmongering about the delta variant because “they don’t want this thing to be done because then their powers are curtailed.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/9/21]
    • Co-host Jesse Watters said that the Biden administration will indefinitely use coronavirus as a scapegoat to blame for unrest, joking that the Cuban protests will be blamed on a “Cuban variant.” [Fox News, The Five, 7/12/21]
    • Ingaham mocked politicians warning that “the whole country is red with delta variant spread” because hospitalization and deaths were down. Guest Dr. Peter McCullough claimed that there is “no clinical reason to get vaccinated” for the delta variant. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/13/21]
    • Guest Dr. Marty Makary highlighted a Wall Street Journal article on the delta variant “that points out that it’s not more dangerous.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 7/16/21]
    • Gutfeld described politicians using the threat of variants as the “perfect mechanism for government control for behavior indefinitely,” claiming: “At any time, you can say, ‘This variant -- there's going to be a new variant, it could go on forever, so you have to do this. And if you don't, you probably want people to die.’” [Fox News, The Five, 7/16/21]
    • Fox anchor Sandra Smith questioned concerns over variants that led to a drop in the stock market, asking, “Is it necessary fear? ... Are these fears real that are leading to the sell-off today?” [Fox News, America Reports with John Roberts and Sandra Smith, 7/19/21]
    • Gutfeld dismissed the roles variants could play in extending the pandemic, arguing that COVID-19 “could be around forever … like a flu” and that everytime “an expert comes up and says, ‘There’s a new variant,’ the masks come back on.” [Fox News, The Five, 7/19/21]
    • Ingraham claimed that the Biden administration is regretting “focus on the delta variant” and putting a “misplaced emphasis on tracking case numbers instead of preventing serious illness.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/19/21]
    • Kilmeade read a Wall Street Journal excerpt urging people to just “live with it without shutting down the economy. Continuing quarantine mandates on nonsymptomatic vaccinated people will prevent a return to normalcy, so will reimposing mask mandates as Los Angeles county did this weekend. Let's hope people understand it is counter-productive to do it.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/20/21]
    • Ingraham accused Democrats of “fearmongering about the delta variant” in their efforts to “exploit” nonexistent crises. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/21/21]
    • Ingraham's show let Sen. Paul dismiss concerns over fully vaccinated people testing positive for the delta variant: “Is it really a disease if you don’t get any symptoms?” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/23/21]
    • Ingraham warned that Democrats can always think of a variant or “something that they would end up citing to put America in reverse.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/26/21]
    • Tucker Carlson suggested that Fauci’s concern over the delta variant is a way for the Biden administration to “justify forcing people to take medicine they don’t want.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/28/21]
    • Carlson dismissed the need for another quarantine, citing data that showed cases and deaths dropped following a spike of the delta variant in the U.K. despite a lack of government-instituted mitigation measures. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/30/21]