Fox News Injects Known Toxins Into Vaccination Discussion

Now that at least a part of the Wingnut Wing of the Republican Party has decided there's a debate about basic medical facts, like whether vaccines or even hand-washing should be mandatory, it stands to reason that Fox News wants in on the fun as well.

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On Outnumbered Monday, most of the hosts came down on the side of making vaccines voluntary, because "freedom." Former veejay idiot Kennedy Montgomery identified liberals as patient zero of the anti-vaccine movement, but quickly blamed "Big Government" as actually worse.

"The only thing I despise more than irrational progressives who don't vaccinate their children are government bureaucrats who tend to overblow these public health crises," she said, suggesting that maybe, who knows, over 100 new measles infections in January was no big whoop. Or maybe it was. Mostly, Kennedy enjoys being angry, although she seemed a bit ambivalent about whether vaccines should be mandatory:

"Sure, it may be a parent's choice whether or not they vaccinate a child," she said. "The problem is, when you get my child sick, it's not just your problem or your choice."

So it's your choice. But it's not, either. Thanks for the clarity! We'll put Kennedy down in the "kind of OK with mandatory vaccines, though they wouldn't be necessary if progressives didn't make life worse" camp.

Co-host Harris Faulkner was more noncommittal, explaining, "I refuse to judge on either side ... Because how you choose to love, how I choose to love, we all love our kids. Our choices are different.” Some of us love our kids by keeping them safe from disease with a proven medical technique. Others love our kids with wishful thinking and pseudoscience. It's all good.

And then there's Andrea Tantaros, who apparently read something on the internet so she knows it's true (it isn't):

“There is a lot of controversy especially with those vaccinations when it comes to newborn babies,” Tantaros opined. “And not just about measles. I know, personally, I had a brother who was autistic, and there is a belief among many that it’s not the actual vaccinations that cause autism, it’s the proximity of the vaccinations, that their teeny-tiny little immune systems can’t handle those vaccinations so soon after the other.”

“So, I am sensitive to every parent’s concern,” she added. “I do think it’s a public health issue. I am sensitive though also to the people -- maybe for religious reasons or other reasons -- who have these beliefs. And I wouldn’t want to trample on them.”

Remember, this is the same network that last fall was demanding, in the name of public safety, that we fire the head of the CDC, imprison perfectly healthy nurses, and stop all flights from Africa because of Ebola, which is really hard to transmit. Protecting the community from measles, which is far more infectious, is just a matter of individual choice, though.

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 Sean Hannity, on the other hand, at least believes in medical science and vaccinated his kids. But maybe he shouldn't have, because now that hater of freedom Barack Obama says people should vaccinate their kids:

Hannity said he agreed with Chris Christie that vaccinations should be a choice, even though by the time his show aired, Chris Christie officially had never said any such thing, according to Chris Christie's office.

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Hannity brought a couple of actual doctors on his show to discuss just how much Obama hates parents; one went off on a tangent about combining all the shots into just a few easy immunizations, and the other said shut up, the issue is that 13,000 people have refused to vaccinate their kids against "the most infectious virus known to man." Second Fox Doctor then sort of undermined himself, saying that vaccines shouldn't be mandatory for all kids, but maybe "only" for kids who attend public schools. First doctor then went off on some wacky bullshit about how some people got measles because they ate too much junk food, so you know you're listening to an expert. At least both doctors said there's no link between vaccines and autism. Finally, Hannity got to the most important thing for Fox viewers: "I'm not trusting President Obama to tell me whether to vaccinate my kids!" Second doctor started talking about how the measles vaccine has cut infections by 75 percent worldwide, but Hannity was done, and it was time for a commercial.

Finally, wonder of wonders, there's Megyn Kelly, who seems to be bucking to get fired from Fox with her strange insistence on saying reasonable things, like taking Bill Donohue to task for saying the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were asking to be murdered and trolling Mike Huckabee about just how much the womenfolk cuss and spit and scratch themselves.

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Kelly and Bill "Who Put da Moon there?" O'Reilly, who's sometimes no friend of science, were in agreement that schools have every right to demand that all children be vaccinated. Kelly even went a step further, saying that mandating vaccinations for public health is a legitimate function of Big Government:

This is going to be a big issue for politicians going forward, because it’s about Big Brother, but on the other hand, some things do require some involvement of Big Brother.

Pretty bold stuff there, Megyn! You're one wild pro-science lady, there.