The “Fox & Friends” cohost Brian Kilmeade went on a rant Monday in which he blamed President Joe Biden for not getting more Black people vaccinated.
“Why doesn’t the president call out African Americans who put him in office and yell at them to get the shot?” Kilmeade said, referring to the 43% vaccination rate among Black people nationwide, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The vaccination rate among white Americans is a little higher, with a 52% vaccination rate that’s far below levels recommended by public-health officials, according to data published by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Before Kilmeade grew visibly frustrated on air, the segment began with Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who’s also a former White House physician, talking about how he got the vaccine only because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would not let him go on foreign trips without it.
Kilmeade said only doctors should be talking about the benefits of the vaccine before asking why Biden wasn’t doing more to promote the shots, specifically for Black voters.
“Just to follow up on that, Dr. Ronny Jackson, usually, people go to doctors for their personal medical – for example, now there’s going to be a shot available for kids 5 and up,” Kilmeade said, emphasizing each use of the word “doctor.”
“I don’t want a politician telling me what to do with a 5-year-old,” he added. “That should be parent and pediatrician. I’m sure you agree with that.”
COVID-19 vaccines are not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration under an emergency authorization for children under the age of 12.
Black and Latino Americans have had lower vaccination rates than the general population since the beginning of the vaccine rollout. Insider’s Hilary Brueck, Shelby Livingston, and Allana Akhtar reported a major issue beyond hesitancy – which, for some, stems from the Tuskegee experiment and other campaigns that have harmed Black Americans over the years – came down to access, particularly when owning a car and taking time off from work are the only viable ways to get the shot.
Vaccine mandates have been a contentious issue among the “Fox & Friends” hosts. Kilmeade recently compared New York’s vaccine mandate to being under Taliban rule.
Conservative men are still among the most likely Americans to refuse the shots, and Fox viewers are more likely than the general population to say the same, according to polling from Pew Research and the Public Religion Research Institute.
*story by Business Insider
