The hosts of “The View” are pleasantly surprised to see this week’s influx of Fox News hosts encouraging their viewers to get vaccinated. But for Sunny Hostin, their words — specifically, Sean Hannity’s — should’ve come much sooner.
On Monday night, Hannity vehemently endorsed the COVID-19 vaccine for his audience, saying on air, “I can’t say it enough. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more death.” And it was that point that particularly irked Hostin.
“It only took Sean Hannity over 600,000 deaths to get on board and advise his many, many millions of viewers to finally get vaccinated. I think it’s too little, too late,” Hostin said on Tuesday’s episode of “The View.”
Meanwhile, Joy Behar wondered about the timing of the remarks by Hannity and colleagues like “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy, who also urged viewers to get vaccinated on Monday — and drew pushback from co-host Brian Kilmeade.
“It’s interesting to me that Steve Doocy and [Sean] Hannity have now come out to take the vaccines. Are they getting some kind of stock in Pfizer? What is provoking this, I’d like to know, all of a sudden?” Behar asked.
A rep for Fox News disputed the idea that the network has suddenly shifted its vaccine coverage and noted that both Doocy and Hannity have vocally supported the vaccine since January.
In response to her co-hosts, Meghan McCain once again doubled down on her defense of Fox News and the Republican party.
“This isn’t political, and it shouldn’t be political. Again, it is not just Fox News,” McCain said. “I think maybe I’m not being clear. Thirty-nine percent of the Bronx is unvaccinated, as compared to much higher rates in other burrows. As I said, in New York City, a third of hospital workers are not vaccinated. There’s all these demographics and all these statistics about different portions of our population in different areas that go along lines of racially, socioeconomically — this isn’t just simply a Republican problem.”