Speaker 1: We have something very dangerous going on, not only do we have anti vaccine
conspiracies spreading at exactly a time when we most need to be vaccinating people so that
we can be done with this horrifying pandemic, we actually are seeing anti vaccine nonsense
do so well among the American right wing that right wing media is trying to one up each
other as to who can be the most anti vaccine.
And we covered Fox News host Tucker Carlson's anti mass comments last week.
We covered podcast host Joe Rogan's anti vaccine comments as well.
I'm almost wondering whether Tucker Carlson was jealous about the attention that Joe Rogan
was getting last week, because last night, Joe, not Joe Tucker, went even further off
the deep end into a completely unhinged, baseless and deceptive anti vaccine rant that unfortunately
is having an impact now for people saying, why are we talking about this?
We are talking about this because we are now at a point where people just don't want to
get the vaccine.
And daily doses have been declining for about ten days now.
We're only at forty four percent of the country has had one dose.
Thirty two percent of the country has had full vaccination vaccinations should be increasing
right now, but it's declining because people are increasingly not interested in getting
the vaccine from those that have not yet received any of the doses.
So let's get into the first outrageous vaccine related clip from last night.
Speaker 6: That does not mean that they are dangerous.
And we are not claiming the Kronosaurus vaccines are dangerous, but we are telling the truth,
which is there are unresolved concerns about their long term effects on some people, including
their effects on female fertility.
Speaker 1: So first of all, there is an image behind Tucker that says mandatory vaccinations.
Now there are no mandatory vaccinations.
Some schools have said if you want to come to the school, you'll need to be vaccinated.
Yes.
And there will be businesses that may decide if you want to do business with us, you will
need a vaccine.
But there are no mandatory vaccinations from government.
It's just not happy.
Nobody's forcing anyone to get a vaccine.
Now, the female fertility question is one that has been raised, but it is without evidence.
There is simply no evidence that the vaccine impacts female fertility.
Now, Tucker says, well, we don't know.
It hasn't been studied.
It would be like if I say we don't know the long term effect of the vaccine on curling
skill.
You know, the Olympic sport, curling.
I mean, yeah, it's true.
It's not been studied, but we have no reason to think that the vaccine impacts how good
you are going to be at Olympic curling.
And then he gets into some more specific claims that are also deceptive.
Take a look.
Speaker 6: That is not a conspiracy theory.
That is true.
It's an honest question.
What's the long term effect that no one so far has been able to answer?
And it's not simply being asked by partizans.
It's being asked by practicing physicians.
Katherine Lee, for example, is a research fellow in the Division of Public Health Sciences
at Washington University in St. Louis.
Lee doesn't seem like a partizan Republican or a quit on adherent or a crank.
She gladly took the coronavirus vaccine.
She seems to support the coronavirus vaccine strongly.
But then in herself she noticed unexpected effects on her menstrual cycle.
Quote, It wasn't a symptom that was on the list, Lisa said.
I expected that my arm would be sure that I might have a fever or headache, but this
just wasn't on the list.
Kate Clancy, another scientist who studies female fertility at the University of Illinois,
reported that she had the same symptoms after she got the vaccine and she wrote about it
in some detail on Twitter.
You could look it up after she did write about it.
Dozens of other women wrote in about similar experiences they had had after getting the
vaccine.
None of these symptoms had been described in the medical literature.
The reason the clinical trials for the vaccines never tested for the effects on the female
menstrual cycle or for fertility or on pregnant women.
So maybe the symptoms amount to nothing that's often the case.
Maybe they amount to something we don't know.
The fact is, we can't say what the long term effects of this vaccine will be on women,
including pregnant women.
Speaker 1: Now you really have to pick each thing apart there.
The statements by Katherine Lee and Kate Clancy about the heavy periods after the vaccine.
Those are true statements.
Tucker is accurately quoting them, but it's not complete.
We know, first of all, that menstrual cycles are heavily affected by stress of all kinds.
Vaccines work directly on the immune system.
The menstrual cycle is very sensitive to anything that affects the immune system.
I know women who have mentioned experiencing this.
Then they went back to normal after one cycle after being vaccinated.
What Tucker is not telling you.
Is that the very same Dr. Katherine Lee that he quotes also said this would have no effect
on fertility?
Tucker tells you, look, Dr. Katherine Lee said, whoa, heavy period.
But Katherine Lee also said this will have no effect on fertility.
And Tucker doesn't tell you that he's only giving you a partial quote.
And then Tucker shifts into saying no one is allowed to ask questions.
Speaker 6: Honest people admit this.
Every scientist knows it.
According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, quote, More
longitudinal follow up, including follow up of large numbers of women vaccinated earlier
in pregnancy, is necessary to inform maternal pregnancy and infant outcomes.
In other words, at this point and there's no changing this because it's true.
We just don't know.
Again, that does not mean the coronavirus vaccine is dangerous.
There is no proof that is dangerous, but there doesn't need to be.
Speaker 1: Now, I have to tell you, this is pretty sophisticated propaganda.
In total, we can see through it.
But but it's actually quite sophisticated.
Tucker opens by saying, I'm not anti vaccine.
He ends by saying it's these vaccines may well be safe, but in between, he puts out
carefully truncated partial statements from doctors about vaccines side effects with pictures
above his shoulders that say mandatory vaccinations which don't exist, no questions allowed, as
if someone is silencing him, even though he's been doing this now for weeks.
It's really pretty sophisticated propaganda.
Let's look at one more clip Speaker 6: that NBC News is now running.
And you may have seen these PSA public service announcements with its on air talent demanding
that everyone in the country get the shot.
Barack Obama just released this creepy little video telling small children to get the shot.
Speaker 3: Hi, everybody.
It's Barack now that every American over the age of 16 is eligible to get the vaccine.
I want to talk about you getting yours.
The vaccine is safe.
It's effective.
It's free.
I got one.
Michelle got one.
People, you know, got one.
And now you can get one, too.
It's the only way we're going to get back to all the things we love from safely spending
time with grandparents to go to concerts and watching live sports.
So get the vaccine as soon as you can.
Speaker 6: Some creepy old guy telling your children, your little kids to take medicine
whose effects we do not fully understand is totally normal.
Yeah, that that happens every day.
Don't ask questions, just do it.
As CNN explained recently, we're not getting our freedom back until you do.
Speaker 1: The funny thing is Trump said the same thing as Obama, just not at all eloquently.
It's not about we can ask questions.
It's the questions have been asked and they've been answered, Trump said during that weird
interview in March.
I think with Sean Hannity, I got the vaccine.
People should get it.
I don't know why people don't want to get it.
It's essentially what Barack Obama said.
No one's being forced.
Obama is just more eloquent in saying it.
And that seems to really anger Tucker Carlson.
But Tucker only talks about Barack Obama saying go and get vaccinated when Donald Trump also
said go and get vaccinated on the Hannity program in a much less articulate and less
eloquent way.
Sure.
So this is really dangerous stuff because Tucker's audience is made up disproportionately
of people who are vaccine skeptical Republicans at this point, the most covid vaccine skeptical
group out there.
And this is going to make it even worse at a time when we just we have the ability look
at the Israeli numbers.
They had, I think 13 cases or something like that.
Same size in population is New Jersey.
We can do it, but people like Tucker Carlson are making it more difficult.