Sean Hannity

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Hannity hosts anti-vax conspiracy theorists to provide “special hour” of medical advice for unvaccinated listeners

Hannity’s guests have previously promoted content warning of “the demon needle,” an “urgent warning about poisonous jabs,” and claims that the “COVID vaccines are killing people”

Written by Brendan Karet

Published

Fox News host Sean Hannity devoted an hour of the August 3, 2021, edition of his radio show to platforming anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists Dr Brian Tyson and Dr. George Fareed and urged unvaccinated listeners to call and ask medical advice from his guests. (Fareed also appeared on Hannity's Fox News show on Monday night, and Tyson was mentioned in the segment; Tyson himself has appeared on OAN and local news. Fareed also testified to the Senate in November about hydroxychloroquine.)

At the start of the second hour of his show, Hannity rhetorically asked, “What if, either you're unvaccinated or you're a breakthrough case, what is the best therapeutics?” He then informed his listeners that subsequent medical advice provided by his guests would be “informational for you,” and declared, “They're giving you their expert medical opinion, being on the front lines of this from day one, unlike, say, flip-flop Fauci.”

Across the hour, Tyson and Fareed advised a caller to not vaccinate his child with special needs, blamed vaccinations for new COVID-19 variants, and declared, “The vaccine has lost its efficiency as far as protection.” 

Following these remarks, Hannity concluded his “special hour” by telling Tyson “I love my audience and I want to give them the best information I can, which is why I invite experts like you on and even people, doctors that I don't agree with.” He also claimed, “I’ve been pressured again and again to tell people what to do, and I refuse to do that.”

In addition to their history of pushing hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, the pair also has extensive anti-vaccine narratives on their Twitter accounts.

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  • Dr. Brian Tyson

    • Tyson’s Twitter profile links to “Seeing2020movie.com,” which promotes a movie titled Seeing 2020: The Censored Science of the COVID-19 Pandemic. As Media Matters has previously noted, “the film itself features multiple misinformers about the virus, such as [Simone] Gold, Lee Merritt, and Mark McDonald. McDonald has claimed masks are harmful to children as part of a lawsuit.” Tyson is featured in the trailer.
    • Tyson retweeted criticism of social media companies who took action against America’s Frontline Doctors, an organization that has previously campaigned against COVID-19 vaccinations, and whose founder was arrested for storming the capitol.
    • Tyson has previously associated himself with America’s Frontline Doctors, a group which has pushed COVID-19 misinformation. Some of its members also stormed the Capitol on January 6.
    • Tyson responded to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s call for vaccinations by tweeting, “What your suggesting is illegal, immoral and unethical. #naturalimmunity is real.”
    • Tyson promoted an online petition to remove COVID-19 vaccine mandates on colleges.
    • Tyson retweeted an account claiming the National Institutes of Health is “conducting spinal tap CSF testing on vaccine injury patients,” because “they know prion disease is about to hit.”
    • Tyson retweeted an account promoting a video of doctors “protesting the demon needle,” referring to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for doctors and nurses.
    • Tyson promoted a Bitchute link claiming “45k jab deaths from Medicare/Medicaid patients by June, is only for first 3 days since” vaccination, “likely >100k in USA overall."
    • Tyson: The government wants to “mandate an experiment onto” doctors by requiring a COVID-19 vaccination.
    • Tyson promoted a tweet that claimed vaccinations provide “failed” immunity, and that the “Delta wave in UK will end soon. … We should embrace more mild infections in USA.”
    • Tyson: “NONE OF THE MANDATES OR VACCINES MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I hate being right (not really).  Another conspiracy theory proven. I am sure somehow you will blame the Unvaccinated. … Now [you’re] the super-spreader.”
    • Tyson called for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to pull the emergency use authorization for Pfizer vaccine.
    • Tyson: “This is clear evidence that this is not a pandemic of the Unvaccinated. CDC says 74% of people in Massachusetts Covid outbreak were fully vaccinated - CNBC”
    • Tyson retweeted content portraying vaccines as potentially harmful.
    • Tyson retweeted an account calling on nurses and health care workers to protest employer/college vaccination requirements with a “SayNoToThePrick” hashtag.'
    • Tyson: “Do not let them Mask you!! Clearly it all BS!!”

  • Dr. George Fareed

    • Fareed promoted a bitchute video titled “Dr. Peter McCullough - URGENT WARNING About Poisonous Jabs.”
    • Fareed: “Dr. Peter McCullough joins Dr. Jane Ruby to discuss the dangers of getting the COVID-19 vaccine and how the mainstream media is behind a concerted effort to cover up those dangers from the public.”
    • Fareed promoted a video “describing vaccine injuries as they emerge for clinical evaluation.”
    • Fareed: “‘3 countries that had brutal massive vaccination campaigns witnessed their worst epidemic mortality peak and their longest deadliest phase ... in conjunction with vaccination campaign initiation.’”
    • Fareed: “‘Covid vaccines are killing people’ - Dr Peter McCullough - Jerm Warfare”
    • Fareed retweeted a Twitter user who wrote: “More young people R dying from the vaccine than Covid. The 11,000 reported vaccine deaths & 500K very adverse effects should be a gross underestimation. And long term effects won't be known for years.”
    • Fareed retweeted a Twitter user who wrote: “Children, young adults should NEVER be shot up with mRNA or DNA to make foreign inflammatory spike proteins, especially with NO LONG TERM SAFETY DATA. How about we talk about half a million incident reports and 11,000 dead from the shots?"