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Is Tucker Carlson vaccinated? Karl Diedrich Bader tells Fox News host to confirm it on air

The Fox News host has downplayed the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, which has raised alarms as his is the most watched cable news show in the US

Tucker Carlson has used his Fox News platform repeatedly to raise doubts about coronavirus vaccines that people are now wondering if he himself has been secretly jabbed. #HeyTucker began trending on Sunday, July 17, after actor Karl Diedrich Bader directly urged him to “say on air that you have taken it?” and also asked him to convince his mother-in-law to take the jab.

The 54-year-old tweeted, “Hey @TuckerCarlson My mother-in-law watches your show every night & she is hesitant (understatement) to take the vaccine Could you please say on air that you have taken it? I believe it would change her mind I think this could save her life Her name is June if you want to say hi.”

Throughout June and also in July, the Fox News host has downplayed the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines while insisting on two controversial claims, which have since been retracted.

One of the claims was that face masks threaten kids’ lives; the second claimed a drug used for parasitic worms could potentially treat the deadly disease. On his July 1 episode, the 52-year-old referred to the study ‘Experimental Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Content in Inhaled Air With or Without Face Masks in Healthy Children’ by a group of Polish and German doctors in Germany. He had said, “That study confirms that masking children wasn’t simply unnecessary and probably counterproductive. Masking children was legitimately dangerous for the children.”

The study has since been retracted.

On the other hand, throughout June, Carlson promoted the use of ivermectin as a tool to treat Covid-19 - something the Food and Drug Administration has warned against, saying it's not an antiviral. The drug’s rise among right-wing figures, including Carlson, was supported by a November 2020 study conducted by Ahmed Elgazzar at Benha University in Egypt and published through Research Square. However, that preprint study, which hasn’t been peer reviewed, was retracted by Research Square over “ethical concerns.”

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Now it seems people are in no mood to accept his unfounded claims against the vaccines. Many also speculated that Carlson had already gotten the doses, but was not confirming it to the world. A user tweeted, “#HeyTucker #HeyTucker I bet you make your mama really proud. You are literally radicalizing your sheep followers. Was that always your dream? You’re a loser and on the wrong side of history. @TuckerCarlson Yell lies all you want, Karma is waiting on you. #HeyTucker.” The second one said, “#HeyTucker Did you know that some people are asking why you spend so much time every night trying to convince others not to take the vaccine that you were so happy to take the moment it was available to you?”

A tweet read, “#HeyTucker If you can ignore a direct request like this from a legend like @bader_diedrich Then buddy, you truly have some bizarre priorities in life. You may have a stake in frozen food and once wore a bow-tie, but you will never be a quantum fraction of the human he is.” “#HeyTucker - since you were vaccinated can you please tell all the nice folks that watch your show that it is ok if they get vaccinated,” another tweet mentioned. “#HeyTucker the biggest issue facing our country is lying, thieving, opportunistic, morally challenged scumbags, that think it's ok to spread lies for personal gains. That would be you. How many people have to die before you have enough money?” a person added.

Meanwhile, reports have said that vaccination rates among young Americans are falling as conservatives and right-wing media continue to push against it. The Daily Beast reported that President Joe Biden’s government is facing issues in achieving its goal of vaccinating at least 70 percent of the population because of the misinformation spread by public figures, especially those on the right.