Taking his criticism of vaccine mandates to a whole new level on Thursday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson seemingly advocated for unvaccinated people to obtain fake vaccination cards, claiming it’s “not a serious crime” but instead an “act of desperation” for law-abiding Americans who’ve been “forced into a corner.”
Earlier this week, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. announced that 15 people are now facing charges over a conspiracy to forge COVID-19 vaccine cards and fraudulently enter unvaccinated people into New York’s vaccination database. Thirteen of the people charged for buying the bogus cards are “believed to work in frontline and essential-employee settings, including hospitals and nursing homes,” according to the DA’s office.
The scheme involved a forger who allegedly advertised the sale of fake cards on her Instagram account for $200 apiece. For another $250, a Long Island nurse would then allegedly enter the buyer’s name into the New York State Immunization Information System. According to Vance’s office, roughly 250 of these cards were sold in an effort to avoid New York’s vaccination mandates.
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Carlson, Fox News’ loudest vaccine skeptic who has regularly railed against mandates, groused on Thursday night that “these arrests will be used to justify digital health passports for the entire American population.” (Notably, Carlson’s own employer has required all staffers to reveal their vaccination status and has a vaccine passport system in place for employees.)
Noting that Vance’s office has called on social media companies to “take action to prevent the fraud” from happening on their platforms, Carlson took issue with Vance calling the making and selling of forged cards a “serious crime.”
The Fox host then overtly defended those who sought out and purchased the forged cards in order to bypass vaccine mandates during a pandemic.
“Except that’s a lie. Buying a fake vaccination card is not a, quote, ‘serious crime,’” Carlson seethed. “It’s not even close to a serious crime. Buying a fake vaccination card is an act of desperation by decent, law-abiding Americans who have been forced into a corner by tyrants. ”
The Fox star, who’s told viewers to call the cops on parents of mask-wearing kids, added: “You know what’s a serious crime? Forcing Americans to take drugs they don’t need or want. That’s a very serious crime. And let’s hope, in the end, someone is punished for it, severely.”
Carlson also expressed sympathy for health-care workers who have refused to get vaccinated and have instead sought fake cards in order to keep working in hospitals that require immunization. “In good conscience, they’ve risked their careers to preserve their right to bodily autonomy and now they’re in jail for that,” he said just minutes after passionately backing Texas’ new abortion ban.
