Wednesday on FNC’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson reacted to what he suggested was irrational behavior from vaccinated Americans regarding adherence to pre-vaccine COVID-19 protocol and the media backlash aimed at those who are skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccinations that are being administered throughout the country.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Two days ago, a group of people in Santa Ana, California gathered to protest Orange County’s new vaccine passport program. Politicians in Orange County are building a digital database of residents who have been vaccinated against COVID.
Not surprisingly, some citizens fear that information could be used going forward to violate their privacy, or limit their constitutional rights.
No matter where you are on vaccine passports, those are obviously valid concerns. They’re not crazy. If authorities in Orange County had decided to start a database of everyone who has been infected with HIV, or every woman who’s had an abortion, civil libertarians and others would of course, ask vigorous questions about why they were doing that and what they were going to do with the information.
But with COVID, there are no questions allowed. So Orange County’s Board of Supervisors just ignored Tuesday’s protest. One of the supervisors, a Democrat called Katrina Foley, dismissed the protesters with undisguised contempt. Quote: “They don’t believe in vaccines,” she snorted. And you hear that a lot. “They’re anti-vaxxers. They don’t believe in vaccines.”
But pause for a second and think about it. That’s a pretty strange way to talk about science. Science never asks us to believe in anything, just the opposite. Science is a never ending attack, unsettled belief on faith, and what we imagine we know and what we assume.
Science doesn’t tell us what’s true. Science shows us what’s true. It demands proof, not faith.
So the next time you hear some smug mask wearer harrumphing about how the mouth breathers out there in Middle America don’t quote, “believe in the vaccines,” you can be certain you are in the presence of someone who has no idea what science is. You will know you are talking to a moron.
But since we’re on this subject, there do appear to be millions of people out there who don’t believe the COVID vaccine actually works. Who are these people? Pollsters tend to miss them. If you asked a hundred Americans, do you think the COVID vaccine is effective? About 99 of them would say of course, yes, it’s effective. And they’d say that because they know what they’re supposed to say, they watch “The Today Show.” They don’t want to be punished for having the wrong opinions. They don’t want to get fired or ostracized.
But let’s say you phrase the same question more cleverly, in a less direct way. What would the results be then? Well, pollsters at the Morning Consult just did that. Here’s what they found. Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID are more afraid of going outside than Americans who have not been vaccinated, much more afraid.
Only a quarter of vaccinated adults say they would be willing to travel to a work conference or enter a gym, only 24% of them would take the bus. Less than half would be willing to rent a car, alone. Only 34% would go to a party, just 17% of them would dare to take a cruise and so on. The numbers are amazing.
These people are absolutely terrified of getting COVID. Yet, once again, they have all been vaccinated.
So clearly, many vaccinated Americans, most of them, according to this poll, don’t really believe in the COVID vaccine. What does that tell us? Among other things, it tells us that we have long ago left the realm of science and are instead in a state of mass hysteria and mass manipulation.
Many Americans are too scared to think clearly. If you’ve had the vaccine, which you say you believe is effective, but you’re too afraid to rent a car for fear of getting COVID, you’re not thinking clearly.
If you’ve had the vaccine and say, again, you believe the vaccine works and you’re still wearing a mask, you are not thinking clearly. And you’re not thinking clearly because you’re too afraid. And you’re afraid because you’ve been told for more than a year that you are required to be terrified.
The arrival of vaccine has not calmed you at all. Instead, demagogues have instructed you to channel your fear into hate and turn it on anyone who disobeys their orders.
The result is: vaccinated Americans in masks cannot be happy or feel safe or feel any relief at all, until every other person in the country joins them in getting the shot and covering their faces. That’s not rational. That’s not science. It’s something much darker than that.
What began as a public health measure has become instead an instrument of social control.
We saw all of this on stark display just last night when we interviewed Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Johnson has already recovered from COVID like tens of millions of Americans, maybe over a hundred million.
Ron Johnson has had the COVID virus and survived. Johnson is not opposed to vaccines. He has had many vaccines in the past, he told us last night, he’d be happy to have many more vaccines in the future. He is for vaccines.
But in this specific case, Ron Johnson consulted with his physician who tested him for the antibodies to the virus. And like so many people who have already had COVID and recovered, Ron Johnson has greater natural protection from the virus than any vaccine could give him. So there is no medical reason for him to get the COVID vaccine.
People should not take medicines they don’t need.
Ron Johnson has decided for these reasons against getting the shot. Now, that is not a crazy position. In fact, it’s an entirely rational position, given what we know. In Ron Johnson’s case, it’s a much more rational position than getting a vaccine than taking medicine he doesn’t need that would be reckless and crazy, it would not be science.
So this is rational, and probably because it is rational and because Ron Johnson explained his position so clearly, and so calmly and with such reference to actual science, the forces of lunacy decided that they must destroy Ron Johnson before others could hear what he was saying.
So here’s how MSNBC responded to him last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: This is Senator Ron Johnson on FOX News tonight.
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): People ought to respect other people’s freedom and liberty and their ability to choose whether or not to get vaccinated or not. I am concerned now about them trying to push it onto children. Let’s face it, they aren’t in a position of informed consent. We do need to recognize that this is not a fully approved vaccine.
WILLIAMS: So Doctor, I know, a really smart, educated substantial people who believe him to be a witting or unwitting asset of Russia, who would sound a lot like that in American society.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: An asset of Russia. If you choose not to get the vaccine, even on the advice of your physician, taking medical advice from a practicing doctor, then you are working for Vladimir Putin. You’re a traitor. You’re doing the bidding of a foreign power, you’ve committed treason.
Now we should point out those words did not come from Joe Scarborough or that angry race lady who appears in the afternoons on MSNBC. No, that was Mr. Brian Williams himself, America’s last living anchorman, the voice of reason, the man who calms you with the truth. Unfortunately, he too, has gone insane, as have so many.
Here’s some guy on CNN calling for people who haven’t been vaccinated to be arrested if they try to enter public buildings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Is that my concern anymore that someone who has chosen to be unvaccinated is making a bad choice and question two is, maybe there should be laws that allow them to be kept out of the building.
XAVIER BECERRA, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Well, you’ve hit right on the point, John.
How do we get to a point where we get everyone to be as safe as possible?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “Maybe there should be laws that allow them to be kept out of the building,” says the Dumbo on TV. They’ll say anything. What’s amazing is the response from Joe Biden’s Cabinet Secretary. Oh, good point. Oh, good point, Dumbo. ‘ You’d like to think that we will look back on all of this, and we’re saving the tape for this eventuality and laugh someday, but we’re starting to wonder if that day will ever come. Maybe the fear will never go away. Maybe it’s too useful. Maybe anyone who ask questions will be called an agent of Russia, or China or Syria or whatever.
Who knows where this is going?
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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