Tucker Carlson says health experts are “clearly” lying about safety and effectiveness of COVID vaccine

Carlson: “If the vaccine was so great, why were all these people lying about it?”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the February 9, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): When are we finally going to repeal corona law, and what about this vaccine? Why are Americans being discouraged from asking simple, straightforward questions about it? Questions like how effective are these drugs? Are they safe? What's the miscarriage risk for pregnant women, for example? Is there a study on that? May we see it? And, by the way, how much are the drug companies making off this stuff?

Well, there's nothing QAnon about questions like that. They're not conspiracy theories. They're the most basic questions. In a democracy, every citizen has a right to know the answer. But instead we got fluff and propaganda.

The media rollout for the vaccine came off like a Diet Pepsi commercial at the Super Bowl -- tons of celebrity endorsements, not a lot of science. It was totally disingenuous and, naturally, it had the opposite of the intended effect.

Most Americans already supported vaccines. They didn't need to be browbeaten in order to be convinced. They were grateful their kids no longer get tetanus and polio and chicken pox. They weren't anti-vaxxers.

And yet, from the very first day, the way the authorities handled the COVID vaccine did not inspire confidence.

If the vaccine was so great, why were all these people lying about it? Honest question. And they were lying, clearly they were lying. You know that for certain, because from the moment the COVID vaccine arrived, the most powerful people in America worked to make certain that no one could criticize it.

As many others have pointed out, Carlson's boss Rupert Murdoch recently received the vaccine in the United Kingdom. Murdoch said in a statement at the time that, “I would like to thank the keyworkers and the NHS staff who have worked so hard throughout the pandemic, and the amazing scientists who have made this vaccine possible. I strongly encourage people around the world to get the vaccine as it becomes available.”