Fox News Hosts Smear Covid Vaccine, Despite Outbreaks Among Unvaccinated

While two of Fox News’s prominent hosts and their guests have questioned vaccination efforts, the channel has also produced its own vaccine P.S.A., a 30-second spot featuring the hosts and anchors Steve Doocy, Harris Faulkner, Dana Perino and John Roberts. “If you can, get the vaccine,” Ms. Faulkner says in the ad.

Bret Baier, the chief political anchor of Fox News, said in an Instagram post that he was “grateful” for the shot. In May, the hosts of “Fox & Friends” spoke on-air of their “relief” at getting vaccinated. And Ms. Faulkner hosted a prime-time special in February that sought in part to “debunk common myths” about the vaccine.

The prime-time Fox News host Sean Hannity, who fell behind Mr. Carlson in the ratings race during the Trump years, said on a May episode of “Hannity” that he planned to get a Covid-19 shot. “I do believe in science, and I believe in vaccinations,” he said.

“Talk to your doctor,” he continued. “You don’t need to talk to people on TV and radio that aren’t doctors.”

Ms. Ingraham has been more skeptical. Last week she accused the news media of overhyping the threat of Covid-19 to children and often refusing to discuss adverse reactions linked to the vaccines, although such outcomes have been covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other outlets.

“Despite everything the experts either got wrong or lied about, they still think that parents should trust them and inject their kids with an experimental drug to prevent a disease almost none of those kids will ever get sick from,” she said on her show. Ms. Ingraham has not revealed whether she has received a Covid vaccine.

While children are less likely to develop severe illness from Covid-19, data from the American Academy of Pediatrics showed that more than four million children had tested positive for Covid since the pandemic began, that more than 16,500 had been hospitalized and that more than 300 had died in the United States.