Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson opened his program with a monologue questioning the push for individuals to wear a mask, despite having received the vaccine.
Carlson pointed to media personalities and politicians who insist on masks but offer no scientific justification for doing so.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: On Friday, Joe Biden participated in a kind of Summit with more than a dozen other world leaders. They were all there, including the guy who runs France.
The meeting itself turned out to be only marginally interesting. What got your attention was Joe Biden.
Of the 16 heads of state who were present, only Joe Biden wore a facemask. He sat there silently, nose and mouth covered in black cloth like a wrestler from an old Western, as maskless Vladimir Putin held forth on international affairs.
But here was the weirdest part. That meeting took place over Zoom. None of the leaders were in the same room. They were thousands of miles from each other. So why was Joe Biden, who has been fully vaccinated, the only one wearing a mask? No one asked that question.
All precautions against COVID are considered legitimate by the American news media no matter how self-evidently lunatic they may be. Cover your face during a Zoom call. Drive to work alone with a mask on. It’s all normal, says The New York Times.
But then finally, yesterday, our own Peter Doocy, at the White House asked what the hell was going on? And here’s the response he got.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Why was President Biden the only world leader at the Climate Summit Zoom, who was wearing a mask?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Because he is sending a message to the world that he is putting in place precautions and continuing to do that, as leader of the United States.
And I don’t know what setups they all had in their countries that may warrant some more reporting or not, but obviously, he had a pool there for portions, there were additional staff there, additional personnel. And that’s the sort of model that we try to keep ourselves to here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, so there we go. That’s the answer. Joe Biden was sending a message to the world. And that message was not as we had suspected that Joe Biden has some sort of emotional disorder that makes him afraid of conference calls. No, not at all.
The message, as his flack explained, is the Joe Biden is quote, “putting in place precautions.” Those of course would be sensible precautions, precautions against Zoom. Because it turns out that COVID is digitally transmissible. It travels through the fibers through WiFi networks.
The virus embeds itself among the ones and zeros and then springs unsuspected, teeth bared and ready to strike from any available hotspot, whether it’s at Starbucks, down in your basement rec room, even in the Oval Office. Digital COVID could be anywhere. Where there’s an internet connection, there’s a pandemic.
So mask up on those Zoom calls, ladies and gentlemen, YouTube and online backgammon, too.
We are kidding, of course. If that were true, we’d be super-spreaders given we’re in the digital media business, and we would hate to bear that burden.
In the end, the White House never really did explain why Joe Biden was wearing a face mask on a Zoom call after getting fully vaccinated. You’re not supposed to ask, you’re supposed to except that. It’s a good thing. Shut up.
Just like you’re not supposed to ask questions about why children are being forced to wear facemasks while they exercise outside. That doesn’t make sense, in fact, it is dangerous.
Kids are not at great risk from COVID. The coronavirus generally doesn’t spread outdoors, we’ve got a lot of studies that prove that, and wearing a mask when you’re breathing heavily is not good for you, to say nothing of the psychological effect of it. But whatever, shut up.
Last night, we did not shut up and we asked those simple questions and for our trouble, Bill Kristol promptly denounced us as Nazis. Pretty funny.
Ask whatever questions you like, as long as they are not relevant questions and you don’t insist on answers to them. Those are the rules. Break the rules and you’re a bad person.
But as it happens, the CDC
did finally coincidentally offer us some clarity today and we’re grateful for that. Joe Biden shuffled outside to announce the new mask guidelines. Watch the scene.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: If the risk is so low outdoors, why doesn’t this new guidance apply to everybody?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because the science indicates that this most certain way to make sure it doesn’t spread if both people have been vaccinated. The people you’re with and you’re outside.
QUESTION: And you chose to wear a mask? Sir, you chose to wear a mask? You chose to wear a mask as you walked out here. What message were you sending by wearing a mask outside alone?
BIDEN: And watching me take it off and I put it back on like I did inside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Got it? So, here are the standards. The government is now allowing people who have been fully vaccinated to go outside without masks as long as they remain with other people who have been fully vaccinated but only under certain circumstances.
So why you may ask was Joe Biden walking alone to the mask announcement with a mask on like it was a Zoom call or something? Because they put him in a costume and he forgot he had it. A mask? Oh yes, right. Took it off.
The whole thing inspired more amusement than confidence. But here’s the real headline: according to the CDC, Americans must remain under COVID restrictions indefinitely, even those who have been fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated Americans must continue to wear masks at all times while they are indoors, whether they are in church or getting a haircut or walking into a restaurant.
So get a vaccine cover your face. Period. No one is saying so. But consider the logic here, it doesn’t make any sense.
We know the vaccine works. We know that anyone who wants a vaccine in this country can get one. They’ve told us those two things again, and again and most of us are willing to believe that they’re true. But if they are true, then why wear masks? Anyone who is afraid of getting COVID can get a vaccine, and then everyone else can return to normal life, including people who don’t want to get the vaccine.
The people who want it can get it and they’ll be protected and that should be the end.
So why the mask fetish? Honestly, what’s the answer? Well, no one will say.
Instead, the CDC has produced a new round of guidelines that are about as indecipherable as a Turkish train schedule. Next up, Istanbul — or is it Ankara? We still don’t know.
According to the CDC, fully vaccinated Americans can go on maskless bike rides with other fully vaccinated bike riders. They can even have dinner outside. Oh, bless you, CDC. Thank you.
But they may not under any circumstances, despite their vaccines, attend baseball games or music concerts or parades. Why is that? I don’t know. Just speculating, maybe because they will unknowingly carry the coronavirus and accidentally infect people who have refused to take the vaccine. That’s our only guess. Joe Biden didn’t explain.
Once he got his mask off, he just asserted it. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I want to be absolutely clear. If you’re in a crowd, like a stadium or at a conference, or a concert, you still need to wear a mask, even if you’re outside.
CARLSON: OK, so see if you can fit these two thoughts in your head, accept them both as true and see if they match like Lego pieces or if they repel one another.
Vaccinated people have to wear masks outside. Joe Biden just told us that, but at the same time, vaccines work perfectly and if you suggest otherwise, you’re a Nazi and we’re going to ban you from the internet.
OK, what is going on here? We never learned.
According to Joe Biden, the science isn’t really the point. The point as always, is race, and that’s the one subject the White House is always delighted to talk about as long as it’s from their very specific perspective.
Here’s Joe Biden telling you that it’s a sign of quote “progress” that certain racial groups are more protected from the virus than other groups.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I said from the beginning that we are going to fight this virus with equity, equity for all. As a matter of fact, if I’m not mistaken, there are more Latinos and African-American seniors that have been vaccinated as a percentage than white seniors. These numbers are a sign of progress on that front as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, and now it’s getting even more confusing. It is equity, he says, but we thought equity meant achieving the same outcome. If that’s true, why was Joe Biden bragging about different outcomes, but calling it equity? Maybe there’s another meaning of the word equity. We’ll make a note to check up on that.
Meantime, next up in today’s edition of pandemic theater, here’s the new Director of the CDC bringing much-needed actual science to bear on these questions. Again, why are vaccinated people — fully vaccinated people — being told to wear facemasks? That’s what we are wondering, and here’s her answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: And right now, it’s very hard to tease apart who is vaccinated, where they are in the vaccination. So it’s not just to protect themselves, but largely to protect others and really to protect the unvaccinated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Did you catch the last line? Save that on TiVo? Wearing masks is — we are quoting — “really to protect the unvaccinated.” Oh, there you go. That’s the answer. And it’s just as we guessed, the vaccine is now universally available, everyone can get it. But because some people have chosen not to get the vaccine, the rest of us must continue to live as if we haven’t gotten the vaccine either. That’s the reasoning.
Because some people decide not to wear seatbelts, you can’t drive. That’s just science. Got it? Thanks, Mom.
So how do we fix this problem? The problem of people who refuse to get vaccinated for whom we are pretending that we haven’t been vaccinated either? Hmm.
Thankfully, our media were on the scene with fresh ideas about how to solve that problem. Here’s the race lady from MSNBC finally putting her Harvard degree to work.
It is simple, she said, just charge people who don’t get the vaccine with felonies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Now the vaccine-resistant Trump crowd is becoming a problem for the rest of us. That’s because the country is fast approaching a tipping point when vaccine hesitancy will become the biggest hurdle to achieving herd immunity.
So after a while, so-called vaccine hesitancy might be better described as reckless endangerment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, wait a second, Harvard-educated race lady, now you’re really confusing us. If you’ve gotten the vaccine, why is other people’s refusal to get the vaccine a problem for you? If the vaccine is so effective, why are the people who choose to get mad at the people who choose not to get it? Huh?
Do people who have slimmed down from gastric bypass yell at fat people on the street? You wouldn’t think so. It’s not really their business. Your body your choice, remember?
But your body, your choice is definitely not the standard with the COVID vaccine. With the COVID vaccine, it is your body, MSNBC’s choice. Watch this guy explain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don’t know how we get to herd immunity unless we normalize the framework around vaccine certification. Listen, we’re doing it in colleges. Some organizations are doing it.
We’re in a global crisis. We have to reach herd immunity and the carrot and stick of, you get the vaccine you’ll be able to participate and travel, restaurants — you name it, because that’s frankly easier for small businesses to adhere to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Herd immunity? Boy, it seems like not so long ago, maybe it was back in the 50s or like last week that using the phrase “herd immunity” was enough to get you yanked off the air as an anti-vaxxer. Now, we are bragging about herd immunity.
But again, people who have got the vaccine and are totally safe are angry at the people who haven’t gotten it because somehow they are endangering the people who are already vaccinated.
So to protect people who voluntarily have taken the risk of not getting the vaccine, we have to hurt those people. We’ve got to burn the village to save the village. As the doctor on television put it, we’ve got to use the carrot and the stick, but especially the stick.
Colleges love this idea. Many of them are requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of return to campus in the fall. In the State of California, both of the big state school systems, University of California and the Cal State system are forcing students returning to campus to prove they’ve been vaccinated.
Schools in New York, places like Columbia, Fordham, Syracuse, the big ones are doing exactly the same thing. What is interesting is that no one has bothered to explain why we are doing this.
Virtually no college-aged kids have died of COVID. In fact, according to an April report by the CDC, a total of 587 Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 died of the virus last year, most with profound underlying health conditions.
Many times that thousands and thousands and thousands died of suicide over the same period, which we’re not concerned about. In the State of Michigan, which now requires two-year-olds to wear masks outside. There were just 13 coronavirus, total last year, for people aged 15 to 24. Compare that to overdose deaths in Michigan. It’s a tiny fraction, not that we care about those either.
So the coronavirus doesn’t kill a lot of young people, but it does infect quite a few of them and that’s the other problem. Many thousands of college-aged kids already have been infected. They have antibodies from previous corona infections they’re now recovered from.
Science suggests these kids are highly unlikely to be re-infected with COVID. So why are they being forced to get the vaccine? That’s a serious question. That’s not an anti-vaxxer question. That’s the question people who support vaccines and care about them would ask.
Because we don’t give medicine to people unnecessarily, that is unethical. Meningitis, for example, kills a fair number of people every year. But we don’t require everyone to start a regimen of antibiotics before they return to work. That would be crazy. It would be wrong. We wouldn’t do it.
But we are requiring universal vaccination even of kids who have already been infected. Is that a medically sound idea? Some physicians are concerned that it’s not.
Joe Rogan over on the podcast voiced his concern on the air the other day, and here’s what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE ROGAN, PODCAST HOST: When people say, do you think it’s safe to get vaccinated? I’ve said, yes, I think for the most part, it’s safe to get vaccinated. I do. I do.
But if you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I go, no. Are you healthy? Are you a healthy person? Like, look, don’t do anything stupid, but you should take care of yourself.
You should — if you’re a healthy person and you’re exercising all the time and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Yes, so if you’re at risk, get the vaccine, protect yourself, and be happy with it. Be grateful we have the vaccine. And if you’re not at risk, maybe you don’t. Is that a crazy point? Oh, yes, it is. That’s crazy.
“Joe Rogan’s idiotic advice: healthy young people don’t need COVID-19 vaccine,” steered a headline, a representative headline of thedailybeast.com, America’s foremost defender of ruling class absurdities.
You’ll notice that the piece never explained why exactly Joe Rogan’s advice was so idiotic. It just dismisses him as a moron. He’s crazy. Don’t listen to him. He is probably a Nazi — or worse, a Trump voter. That’s MSNBC’s concern. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: I don’t know how the right got so far ahead on creating such a political connotation around the conversation about vaccine passports.
There are all sorts of things you have to do to travel to all sorts of different places. How has that debate become so corrupted so early?
CLAIRE MCCASKILL, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: I don’t know, but it’s bad. I live in a state that the state legislature is dominated by Trumpers and they are busy making it illegal for a business to require a passport, a vaccine passport.
And now, they are politicizing the appropriate way to encourage people to get vaccines, which will cost lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: How did it get so political, says Jeb Bush’s former flack and the longtime Governor of Missouri, political? See that? All the mouth breathers, the dumb people, the hillbillies and in-breeds, and extra chromosome folks, the Trumpers, are all spun up with their conspiracy theories about vaccine passports. Come on.
There are no vaccine passports. That’s insane. It’s Alex Jones stuff.
And by the way, just so you know, as proof, if you want to get a job, you’ll need your vaccine papers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Although it’s always challenging in society to make things mandatory, perhaps in certain employment settings, especially where there is higher risk, we may as a society decide that mandatory vaccination is a reasonable thing to do in certain circumstances.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Did I just call Claire McCaskill, a former senator? Governor? Whatever. She was a senator, I guess.
Anyway, to recap, it’s always challenging when you make things mandatory. Yes, it’s also sometimes unconstitutional and not science. But whatever. Here’s where we are right now.
If you want to live in this country, you will need a vaccination. If you’re the right skin color, the government will celebrate when you get that vaccination. But either way, you must get it. The vaccine works perfectly. Do not question that. Then once you do get the vaccine, you must continue to live as if you didn’t get the vaccine for the protection of people who chose not to get the vaccine. And if that bothers you, if you have any questions about why we’re doing it this way, then you were a bad person, and we must hurt you.
So get ready to be unemployed, if not in prison for reckless endangerment. That’s a felony.
We hope that settles your concerns tonight about the available science on vaccines. So roll up your sleeve.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor