Meghan McCain Blows Up Over Vaccine Misinformation: Stop 'Blaming Fox News!'

For the second day in a row, Meghan McCain went to bat for Fox News, which she insisted is not to blame for rising COVID-19 cases and lagging vaccination rates, despite hosts' documented efforts to downplay the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. McCain argued that because "one-third of hospital workers" in New York state are unvaccinated, saying that Republicans are the only vaccine-hesitant group is intellectually dishonest. "I just don't understand why this has to be so much about Fox News because it's not!" she said. "This is a problem for our country, and I'm petrified right now!"

Apart from getting in a dig at Dr. Fauci — "I'm sorry, Dr. Fauci, but if you can't get your hospital workers in New York in line, how are we supposed to do it in any other demographic in the country?" — McCain kept things relatively tame during The View's first segment. Things changed after the commercial break, however, when Joy Behar asked "what's provoking" Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy's recent about-face on the COVID-19 vaccine. "Are they getting some kind of stock in Pfizer?" asked Behar. "Are they afraid that after Joe Biden said that these outlets are killing people, that maybe they will be responsible in the future for lying to people every day?"

Behar's remarks pretty much checked all the "Things That Set Off Meghan McCain" boxes, so it was no surprise when the conservative buzzed in with a rebuttal. "This isn't political and it shouldn't be political. Again, it is not just Fox News," she said. "I think maybe I'm not being clear: 39% of the Bronx is unvaccinated, as compared to much higher rates in other boroughs. As I said, in New York [state], a third of hospital workers are not vaccinated. There's all these demographics and all these statistics about different portions of our population in different areas that go along lines of racially, socioeconomically."

"This isn't just simply a Republican problem. And again, I implore people on the left and the right, to stop making this political," continued McCain. "I implore the White House, I implore this show to be intellectually honest. Why are hospital workers not getting vaccinated? Why are Democrats, why are citizens of the Bronx not getting vaccinated?" McCain added that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents a district in the Bronx, so it's fair to ask the congresswoman what she's "not conveying, as well" about the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Please stop making this so political!" she said, her voice rising. "This is an American problem, it's a national problem, it's an international problem, and we're not going to get better if we just keep blaming Fox News!"

Rather than engage with her co-host, Whoopi Goldberg took a deep breath and announced that The View would be going to commercial. Queue the Whoopi memes!

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