Thanks to the Lab Leak - All Conspiracy Theories about COVID-19 Are Now FACT!
A Condensed Overview of 16 hours of Fox News for the week ending 3/5/23
Fox News interpreted the low confidence report by the Department of Energy that COVID-19 might have been created in a lab as evidence that everything the government has ever said about the disease was false. The network didn’t tell its viewers that eight agencies have studied the origin of COVID-19 and that four of them think the origin is natural, two other agencies don’t have an opinion yet.
Only the Department of Energy and the FBI both favor the lab leak theory.
Fox News anchors used fuzzy logic. They claimed the government has mislead the public about every aspect of COVID-19 for nearly three years but suddenly a government agency, the Department of Energy’s assessment on the origin of COVID-19 is completely trustworthy.
Other major stories last week included more discussion on the train derailment in East Palestine, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s loss in a primary election, the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial and the prospect of Biden running for president in 2024.
Any Fox fan who watched the same shows I did might have missed out on stories about continued political unrest in Israel, a Black Vietnam vet receiving the Medal of Honor, and a slew of anti-trans bills that have sprung up in state legislatures across the country.
Shows I covered last week
Fox & Friends - 1st hour
The Five
Jesse Watters Primetime
Tucker Carlson Tonight - Thursday only - wanted to see if he was going to promote deceptive video about Ukraine’s President that was popular on social media. He didn’t include it in his show.
The Five Promotes Several Conspiracy Theories about COVID-19
The cast of the Five were the first hosts to insist that all conspiracy theories about COVID-19 must be true since one government agency tepidly supported the idea that the virus could have come from a lab.
Dana Perino started the discussion.
“One study concluded natural immunity provided just as much protection as being double vaccinated. And another this one gets me. Found that masks made no difference in stopping the spread of COVID,” said Perino.
Judge Pirro included several theories about the disease.
“It will be here for a long time. How many people in America lost their businesses that they weren't allowed to go to their business? You know, and then there was the unequal treatment. If if you if you go to your salon, we're going to throw you in jail. Was it disinformation? Absolutely not,” said Pirro.
Pirro made the same conclusion. If the lab leak was true then every theory that went against the CDC and WHO guidelines must also be true.
If the disease was created in a lab and was intentionally or accidentally released it wouldn’t change the fact that the disease was highly contagious and could cause severe symptoms including death in some patients.
Pirro continued to make these wild assumptions.
“In fact, at a time when they were silencing us, they should have had more free speech, more discussion. So the doctors that I know who were giving out hydroxychloroquine, who were who are afraid of losing their licenses, who were afraid of saying anything, they were they were hiding in the background for fear that they would lose their positions at hospitals,” said Pirro.
So again, if the lab leak theory is correct how does it make hydroxychloroquine an effective treatment for COVID-19? Hundreds of clinical trials showed the drug did not have clinical benefit for COVID-19.
The Judge continued down this warped logic by insinuating that the vaccines weren’t useful agains the virus.
“I mean, the impact is enormous. How about the people in the military who were fired? Did they get back pay? How about the cops?” asked Pirro.
One quality of the virus does not make other theories true. The vaccines were effective at lowering the severity of symptoms, reducing hospitalizations and deaths. Members of the military and police officers who refused the vaccine were still putting themselves at risk.
Jesse Watters went right off the rails with his assumptions.
“It was also a CIA back door to get visibility into the bioweapons program in China. And companies like Pfizer use gain of function analysis to engineer better vaccines,” said Watters.
Where is his proof of bioweapons? The lab was set up to study coronaviruses not to create bioweapons. If COVID-19 was a weapon why would the Chinese release it on their own people first? Why would they not have some type of vaccine or antidote ready before it killed countless Chinese people and wreaked havoc on their economy.
What is he talking about in terms of vaccines? As usual Watters provides an elaborate theory with no evidence to back anything up.
Brian Kilmeade Attempts to Debunk Every “Myth” about COVID-19
Dr. Marty Makray published an article in the NY Post meant to debunk the top 10 myths about COVID-19. On Wednesday Brian Kilmeade featured Makray along with the top five myths from the article.
Again, I’m not sure why the origin of a virus would have anything to do with the effectiveness of face masks but Kilmeade went ahead and made the connection.
The full length clip was over seven minutes long and if I included it along with a detailed analysis it would take over the entire newsletter and podcast. I created a Twitter Thread that broke all of this down and that alone was nearly 11 minutes long.
This is my abridged version of the breakdown of all the misinformation promoted in the segment.
“After spending the last three years, plus denying the possibility that more government agencies come around to it now, more government agencies have come around to the consensus that COVID-19 came from a lab leak in China and called the FBI in that. So what other myths are being spread to the American people that we instinctively knew were lies, and it was ten of them,” said Kilmeade.
Kilmeade stood in front of a giant screen with “Myth #1 - Natural Immunity” splashed across in three foot high letters. Dr. Makary was on another screen answering Kilmeade’s questions.
Natural Immunity
“Myth number one Natural immunity offers little protection compared to vaccinated immunity,” said Kilmeade.
Natural immunity might offer more protection than a vaccine but that’s hardly the whole story. The vaccines lessened the severity of symptoms and reduced hospitalization rates dramatically.
COVID-19 was also a highly unpredictable virus that would cause extreme symptoms in one patient while another might experience something that felt close to a mild cold.
The problem with relying on natural immunity is, it could cause some people to take the risk that getting infected was safer and more effective than getting immunized.
Countless anti-vaccine advocates died after getting infected with COVID-19. I found so many examples a few publications even compiled lists of several high profile vaccine deniers who died.
The divide surrounding information about COVID got so partisan that residents of counties that voted by high margins for Donald Trump were more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than those that lived in areas that went for President Biden
The Effectiveness of Face Masks
Kilmeade then moved to the effectiveness of face masks.
“You selfish people that weren't wearing masks. Are you trying to kill me? I can't die,” said Kilmeade.
Dr. Makary added that a Cochrane Study had shown masks were ineffective at preventing COVID-19 from spreading.
The study “Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses,” actually measured if masks were effective for “flu like viruses” and included studies of mask wearing before COVID-19 existed.
The evidence summarised in this review on the use of masks is largely based on studies conducted during traditional peak respiratory virus infection seasons up until 2016. Two relevant randomised trials conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic have been published, but their addition had minimal impact on the overall pooled estimate of effect
Cochrane studies are highly regarded but not without some criticism. From MDLinx.
Recent studies raise questions about bias, inconclusive evidence, and time lag regarding Cochrane Reviews.
I also found countless medical organizations and health-related websites that encouraged mask wearing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 - The American Academy of Pediatrics, The Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford University Medical School.
School Closures
“Number #3 - School Closures reduce transmission,” said Kilmeade.
The main source Makary used for this example was comparing the United States to Sweden. Sweden’s policies had plenty of critics and comparing a country of 10 million people with a well funded universal health care coverage to the U.S. is imperfect at best.
Teachers and school staff were more at risk of catching COVID-19 from a student than children were of developing severe symptoms. One study early in the pandemic found that teachers were more likely to die from COVID than the average American.
The Risk of Getting Myocarditis from a Vaccine
“This hurt so many athletes that I know in their twenties because they took a vaccine that they didn't want to take, but they wanted to be able to go to college or play high school,” said Kilmeade.
Makary mentioned a study from JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Cardiology that showed patients had a higher risk of developing Myocarditis from the vaccine than from the disease itself.
I went to the source and couldn’t find the exact study Makary cited. I did find several though that showed completely opposite results. The largest study I found from Penn State which included 58 million subjects and showed patient were seven times more likely to get Myocarditis from an infection of COVID-19 than any vaccine. I found similar results at the American Heart Association and from the same source Makary cited JAMA Cardiology.
“Now, what about that as it relates to the vaccine and the consistency of symptoms? Oh, please. The COVID originated from a natural environment or from the Wuhan lab. The FBI joins the Department of Energy. The CIA says we stopped looking. I guess they have not made a decision yet that is debunked. You've always thought that,” said Kilmeade.
I hardly think that one government agency’s report of low confidence in the lab leak theory is a consensus but Brian Kilmeade was convinced otherwise.
Jesse Watters Goes Full Tin Foil Hat with His COVID-19 Theory
Jesse Watters took things to a completely absurd place claiming the Department of Energy’s report was part of a proverbial chess game the Pentagon was using to intimidate China.
“You know, the real reason this lab leak theory is coming out of the Biden administration now, because China is considering selling weapons to Russia for the war in Ukraine. So this is the US government saying, oh, yeah, if you're going to try that vision, we're pinning the lab leak on you. China doesn't want that. We'll probably never know the whole truth about anything.But we do know the government lies about everything, and you start to realize conspiracy theories are anything that threatens corporate profits,” said Watters.
The last line of his comment is especially ironic, “You start to realize conspiracy theories are anything that threatens corporate profits.” In recently released court documents related to the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against the network Fox News executives and hosts both admit under oath that they knowingly promoted conspiracy theories related to the last presidential election to keep their corporate profits up.
Jesse Watters makes a lot of assumptions with scant evidence. He also doesn't seem to understand logic.
The government lies about everything.
Then he comments that the energy department (the government) says the virus might have come from a lab leak.
Since a government agency claimed the lab leak may have happened, then it’s proof it happened.
Watters should go back and re-read the first statement. There are good reasons why journalists and lawyers avoid words like always. When a person says something is always true then it cannot be sometimes false.
If Watters really believes the government always lies to citizens then why would he think they’d suddenly tell the truth.
Jessica Tarlov points out Past Secretaries of Transportation did NOT visit derailments.
During a discussion on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov, a liberal on the show, managed to get this out.
“So they put together a montage of Republican and Democrat officials all saying, it's fine. Mike DeWine. Well, no, but I'm saying it's important to this because it has turned into just that. Joe Biden is a fake empath, which I would fiercely disagree with. And I don't know how people can trust their government. I think that more should show up for each and every one of these town halls.
And if you're concerned about the money, which the government always is, what is the cost of relocation until all of these tests are consistently clear versus what the cost could be long term for this? Right. If you do end up with a situation where there are long term cancers and God knows what happens when you have toxic chemicals in your water like that, it's into the Ohio River.
And that's something that I’m shocked that we're not talking more about it. It does seem and President Biden gave an interview over the weekend, I believe, about what the response actually looked like. In fact, the EPA was on the ground 2 hours after this happened. It's not something that has been neglected by the administration whatsoever. Pete Buttigieg going is frankly more than Elaine Chao did when she was transportation secretary.
She never visited one single derailment, including it would have been there. People in Flint, Michigan, got ignored for a very long time. But to say that what you're saying is basically President Biden would only care if it was black people because black people vote for President Biden.
But these are 5,000 poor white people who didn't vote for President Biden. Frankly, a lot of poor white people voted for President Biden because he does actually care about everybody, maybe not in Palestine. That is a red state. Odds are that they did not vote for him and voted for President Trump again. But don't do that,” said Tarlov.
Jesse Watters Discovers Republicans Upsold Their Investigations
Jesse Watters expressed his frustration that the congressional hearings weren’t providing much of anything so far.
“We were promised a lot would happen when Republicans took the House. We like these guys. I love these guys, but I just checked the calendar and it's already March. Republicans have had the House since January. Why haven't we had a hearing on the Biden crime family? Tony Bobulinski has been waiting by the phone. He's got nothing else going on. He's cleared his schedule for you.
I haven't seen a single guy sweating under the bright lights. Are we going to drill down on anything or are we going to see anybody squirm and cough up the truth or at least plead the Fifth or something so that we can start showering these goons with subpoenas? Where are the bombshells? Have the investigations even started? How about what did you know and when did you know it?
It's a good question. Where are the smoking gun documents? My producers looked at the house schedule and the house has only been in session for 22 days this year. They spent four days fighting over the speaker. And so really, they've only had 18 days of real work in February. They worked eight days. Guys, I know that's a short month, but it's not that short.
If their schedule holds up, this isn't even a part time job. As for the hearings, well, they had a hearing about Twitter and everything we found out we already knew because of Elon Musk. And then they had a hearing about the border. But Mayorkas wasn't even there. And then they had a hearing about the FBI. But the FBI director didn't show up.
I'm starting to lose my patience a little and this is coming from a place of love. Primetime's a nice guy, but Primetime’s annoyed,” said Watters.
It’s amusing that the primetime host of one of the top rated cable news shows finally realized that Congress doesn’t work what most people might think of as a traditional work week.
Watters is not a young man he’s in his mid-forties. He should know by now that most Congressional hearings yield very little. Investigations give something for a minority party to focus on while Congress is in gridlock.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare 15 hours of Fox News to five hours of the PBS NewsHour. The following list are stories that PBS included that Fox News did not.
Last week a meeting of the G-20 foreign ministers took place in New Delhi, India ahead of the G20 Summit scheduled for September. The talks were dominated by the war in Ukraine and the divisions it’s caused among some nations.
Protests continued in Israel over Supreme Court changes. On Wednesday protesters marched outside a hair salon while President Netanyahu’s wife was inside. Israeli police and security forces made a dramatic show of force to escort her safely out of the building. On the same day during another protest on a Tel Aviv highway Israeli security forces used non-lethal weapons against Israeli judicial protesters.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill that would ban drag performances in public spaces. Lee also signed a ban on gender-affirming health care for youth in the state. Fox News regularly demonizes drag performers and gender-affirming care. Fox News hosts have referred to medical care for trans youth as mutilation and even castration. A recent study by the National Institutes of Health showed the average age of a patient receiving gender re-assignment surgery at around 29-30 years.
PBS also produced a segment about the 150 bills that are pending in state legislatures that target the trans community.
Things continue to get worse for Fox News in the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against the network. It was revealed in recently released legal briefs that top management pressured Fox anchors to push the false narrative that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen.
PBS returned to Memphis for a segment about how the city is doing since Tyre Nichols was killed by police officers.
After nearly 60 years since he was recommended for the nation’s top military award, Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers to lead a Special Forces team in combat, received the Medal of Honor for his bravery in the Vietnam War. The military repeatedly lost the paperwork involved with the award which is why it took this long for Davis to receive it.
Walgreens declared it would not carry mifepristone, one of the medications used for medical abortions in some states. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone in 2000 to end pregnancy, when used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol. Abortions can still be performed using the second drug but it’s not as effective as the drug combination and the procedure is more painful for the pregnant person.
After a runoff election Nigerian voters elected Bola Tinubu, as their new president. It is the first time a candidate won the election with less than 50% of the vote. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and a population of over 200 million. The country is currently struggling with a rise in violent crime, religious extremism and widespread poverty.
Turkey experienced another less severe earthquake last week, this is after a much stronger earthquake devastated areas of Turkey and Syria resulting in approx. 45,000 deaths and billions in property damage. Over one million people have been left homeless.
A multi-year-long study by seven U.S. intelligence agencies found no evidence to support the belief that a hostile foreign power was responsible for the cause of the mysterious Havana Syndrome. Over 1,000 government officials and diplomats complained of symptoms that include migraines, nausea, memory lapses and dizziness. The first known cases appeared in Havana, Cuba, in 2016, with later incidents reported in Australia, Austria, China, Colombia, Germany and Russia. The theory had been that a foreign power was using some type of energy-based weapon, such as microwaves, to injure Americans.
At least 57 people were killed when a northbound passenger train and a southbound freight train collided last Tuesday north of the city of Larissa, in central Greece.
Wayne Shorter, jazz saxophonist died at the age of 89. He worked with musicians and bands as diverse as Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell.
The temporary boost to SNAP benefits (also known as food stamps) put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, ended nationwide on March 1st. Millions of Americans who rely on the program will have less money to spend on food.
President Biden plans to nominate Julie Su for Labor Secretary. If she is appointed she would be the first Asian American to serve in a secretary-level role in Biden’s Cabinet.
A Belarus court sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison. The court found him guilty of financing protests. The United States and other European Union countries have called the trial a sham.
PBS produced a segment about the push to ban books in public libraries all over the country. Fox News has produced several segments featuring advocates calling for the removal of books from schools and public libraries.
The Food and Drug Administration’s plan to allow plant-based beverages to continue using the term “milk” has frustrated both dairy farmers and producers of plant-based milks.
Advocates are concerned that college partnerships with gambling companies that allow sports betting on campuses could harm some students.
PBS produced a segment that showed a possible link between climate change and the increase in various viruses and other infectious diseases.
*PBS did include a short 1 minute segment about the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial. It was the top topic for Fox News last week taking up 15% of the total airtime.
By the Numbers
Coming up…
This week I’ll be covering “Fox & Friends,” “The Five,” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”