CNN interviews grieving daughter who says Tucker Carlson ‘played a role’ in dad’s vaccine hesitancy before Covid death
The daughter of a man who died with Covid-19 was interviewed by CNN after she said her dad was waiting for FDA approval before getting the vaccine due to "misinformation" from Tucker Carlson.
Katie Lane told CNN’s New Day that her father, Patrick Lane, was not an “anti-vaxxer” but he consumed media across the political spectrum and “misinformation” from one side, in particular, made him hesitant.
“So he was going to wait for FDA approval, but by the time that Pfizer had been approved, it was already too late,” Ms Lane said.
Ms Lane said there were “multiple reasons” why her father hadn’t gotten the vaccine, including “one of which was some of the media that he ingested.”
“He wasn’t by any means far-right. He was right in the middle, and he consumed media from both sides, and just some of the misinformation on one of those sides made him hesitant,” she added.
CNN anchor John Berman prompted Ms Lane to identify the “one media source in particular” that made her father vaccine-hesitant, referencing claims she had made in local media a week earlier.
“He watched some Tucker Carlson videos on YouTube, and some of those videos involved some misinformation about vaccines, and I believe that that played a role,” Ms Lane replied.
Ms Lane, 20, first made the claim in an interview with an NBC News affiliate in Washington, saying he was diagnosed with Covid-19 just days before the Pfizer vaccine was fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Despite being healthy and having no underlying conditions, Ms Lane told the broadcaster that her father began deteriorating quickly and died two weeks later. He was 45 years old.
“It honestly kind of felt like a sick joke,” Ms Lane said. “When he was placed on the ventilator, I was told there was still hope, but part of me knew that was the beginning of the end.”
Evan Lane, appearing with his sister on CNN, said their father was not anti-vaccine and wouldn’t have had issues with recommending people take the shot “now that Pfizer is FDA approved”.
Since appearing on CNN, the siblings’ claims against Carlson have been boosted by The Daily Beast, which said the Fox star has spent months questioning the efficacy and safety of the Covid vaccine, while also saying he is pro-vaccine.
Fox News did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
