Seth Meyers Shuts Down Fox News' COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation

With Fox News making headlines for its shifting stance on the COVID-19 vaccine — last night, Sean Hannity said he "believes in the science of the vaccine," despite downplaying its efficacy for months — Seth Meyers couldn't have picked a more timely topic for his "A Closer Look" segment on Monday night.

The Late Night host opened the bit with a brutal takedown of Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade, who insisted that it's not the government's "job to protect anybody" from a deadly virus. In a rare moment of disunity, co-host Peter Doocy disagreed and strongly urged viewers to get vaccinated, but Kilmeade ignored him and chose to double down. "If you didn't get a vaccination, that's your choice," said Kilmeade, after stating that he and his Fox News co-hosts had all been vaccinated. "If you want to go cliff-diving this weekend, you don't have to check with me. It seems a little dangerous. But I'm not going to judge you."

"Yeah, if the government was supposed to protect you, they'd have a department for it, like the Department of Defense of something," ripped Meyers, after playing an extended clip of the Fox & Friends tiff. "By the way, that's the most animated I've ever seen Brian Kilmeade. Usually, he just sits there like that teddy bear they always find in the wreckage after a house fire. Just sitting there, shell-shocked, with his unblinking black button eyes."

"Also, to address your cliff-diving analogy: unlike COVID, cliff-diving isn't contagious," continued the Late Night host. "And if it was contagious, I would never leave the house. Because I'm scared of catching COVID, but I'd be terrified of catching cliff-diving."

Meyers concluded by telling Kilmeade, and his fellow Fox News hosts, that they have "a moral responsibility to give people accurate information about life-saving vaccines," and "an opportunity to tell people" how to protect themselves. "Why wouldn't you take it?" he asked. "If there was a deadly rash or sharknados plaguing the country, would you tell people they're dangerous and to stay away? Or would you say, 'Look, go ahead and fight the sharknados with your bare hands, if you want. I'm not going to tell you what to do!'"

Late Night with Seth Meyers airs weeknights at 12:35 AM ET on NBC.

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.