The Lies That Killed: How Fox News and Right-Wing Leaders Betrayed America During the Pandemic
They trusted their television screens more than they trusted their doctors. In the end, it was the disembodied voices of broadcasters—not medical experts—that influenced the choices of life or death for many.
In the spring of 2020, when the world fell into an eerie hush and nations shuttered their doors against an invisible enemy, another contagion, far more insidious, crept into American homes. It wasn’t airborne in the traditional sense. Instead, it traveled through the cables of television sets, radiated from radio waves, and surged through digital platforms. Its source was not a virus but an industry fueled by profit, politics, and the manipulation of public fear. At its helm was Fox News.
The COVID-19 pandemic, with all its terrifying uncertainty, became the perfect stage for the grand illusion orchestrated by a network that had, for decades, skillfully blurred the lines between entertainment and journalism. Through their screens, millions of conservative Americans—many elderly and isolated—watched as the global pandemic became a sideshow to a far more captivating drama: the fight to maintain their way of life, their personal freedoms, and, most importantly, their trust in a network that had, for years, become synonymous with their identity.
Fox News’ role in American conservatism is not new. Since its launch in 1996, the network has historically aligned itself with conservative viewpoints and has played a prominent role in shaping the media landscape for conservative audiences. However, as the pandemic raged across the country, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, some observers noted a shift in the network’s coverage that raised concerns about public health implications. The need to keep viewers glued to their screens, to sell advertising, and to maintain political influence appeared to outweigh adherence to established public health guidance.
What unfolded over the next two years raised significant concerns about public health communication, as various narratives emerged that seemed to prey on cognitive biases, exploit cultural divisions, and, ultimately, contributed to public health challenges.
A Network Built on Fear and Distrust
The seeds of Fox News’ pandemic disinformation campaign were sown long before the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Wuhan. Decades earlier, with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, a floodgate opened for partisan media to shape public opinion with little regard for balance or fact-checking. For Fox News, this was an opportunity to tap into a conservative audience that felt alienated by mainstream media. The network didn’t simply report the news; it curated a worldview—one in which its viewers, predominantly older, white, and Christian, were under siege by liberal elites, secularism, and an ever-expanding government.
By the time the pandemic arrived, Fox News had already mastered the art of shaping reality for its viewers. It wasn’t just a television network; it was an ideological fortress, and within its walls, truth became malleable. Science, once revered as a beacon of objectivity, was increasingly viewed by some as a tool of control wielded by an oppressive government. When the virus first appeared on American soil, the network’s hosts—most notably Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson—were quick to downplay its severity. The pandemic, they insisted, was just another liberal hoax designed to undermine President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
The early days of Fox’s pandemic coverage reflected a strong skepticism toward public health measures. Mask mandates? A violation of personal liberty. Vaccines? An unproven experiment. The virus? Exaggerated by the left to seize control. Carlson, in particular, became adept at presenting narratives that may have contributed to fear, painting an ominous picture of a world where government mandates stripped citizens of their freedoms, all while corporate elites and tech moguls grew richer.
What was more concerning was how these narratives played directly into the psychological vulnerabilities of Fox’s viewers. Elderly, economically anxious, and deeply religious, this demographic was already predisposed to distrust institutions. Fox News didn’t just exploit this distrust; it appeared to weaponize it. In homes across America, the television screen became a portal to an alternate reality—one where the pandemic wasn’t a global catastrophe but a political game, and where the real enemy wasn’t a virus but the doctors, scientists, and politicians trying to save lives.
Cognitive Bias and the Funhouse of Misinformation
“You can’t trust them, but you can trust us.” It was a message Fox had perfected over the years, repeated so often that it became a mantra for its viewers. This psychological conditioning relied heavily on cognitive biases like confirmation bias and the illusory truth effect, where repeated exposure to the same false information eventually made it feel true, regardless of the evidence.
Fox News knew its audience well—older Americans, many living in rural or suburban areas, already skeptical of mainstream media and deeply invested in a particular version of American identity. For these viewers, the pandemic wasn’t just a health crisis; it was an existential threat to their way of life. Fox’s hosts capitalized on this fear, offering their audience a sense of familiarity through narratives that downplayed the severity of the situation.
Night after night, viewers were told that masks didn’t work, that vaccines were dangerous, and that the government was overreaching. As the death toll climbed, so too did the network’s ratings. Hannity’s dismissal of the pandemic as “hysteria,” Ingraham’s promotion of unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine, and Carlson’s skepticism toward vaccines became nightly staples, reinforcing the narrative that the pandemic wasn’t to be taken seriously.
The consequences were concerning. Research has indicated a correlation between higher viewership of Fox News and lower vaccination rates, as well as higher COVID-19 mortality rates in certain regions, suggesting that media consumption may have influenced public health behaviors. Counties with higher rates of Fox News viewership reported lower vaccination rates and increased COVID-19 death tolls. A study published in the American Journal of Political Science found that exposure to Fox News was associated with a significant drop in adherence to public health guidelines.
The Political Puppet Masters
Behind the scenes, the disinformation campaign was not purely the result of ratings-driven greed. There was a political calculus at play. The pandemic provided an unprecedented opportunity for right-wing politicians to rally their base around themes of personal liberty and government overreach. Figures like Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seized the moment, using the pandemic not as a time for national unity but as a stage for political grandstanding.
Trump’s handling of the pandemic became a case study in self-interest and deflection. Early on, the president recognized that the severity of the virus could undermine his re-election campaign, so he downplayed its danger, mocked mask-wearers, and promoted unproven treatments. He found a powerful ally in Fox News, which echoed his every claim, creating a feedback loop that reinforced the narratives circulating in conservative circles. When public health officials, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, challenged Trump’s rhetoric, they were swiftly labeled as enemies of freedom, and their credibility was attacked by both the administration and Fox’s prime-time hosts.
Governor DeSantis, eager to position himself as Trump’s heir, took the anti-science baton and ran with it. Under his leadership, Florida became a beacon of resistance to public health mandates, with DeSantis frequently appearing on Fox News to tout his state’s laissez-faire approach. Even as Florida’s hospitals filled to capacity and morgues overflowed, DeSantis doubled down, dismissing mask mandates and championing his state’s economy over human life.
Some analysts suggest that the relationship between Fox News and these political figures demonstrated a symbiotic dynamic, with both parties benefiting from the narratives being promoted.
Russia, Fox News, and Pandemic Misinformation
Amid the domestic disinformation campaign, foreign actors—most notably Russia—saw an opportunity to exploit America’s vulnerabilities. Russian operatives, adept at sowing discord through disinformation, found in Fox News a powerful amplifier of their narratives. State-controlled media outlets like RT and Sputnik echoed Fox’s messaging, reinforcing the idea that the U.S. government was overstepping its bounds and that the pandemic was being used as a political weapon.
Russian interference wasn’t just limited to election meddling. Reports from U.S. intelligence agencies and independent researchers have indicated that Russian operatives exploited social media platforms to disseminate anti-vaccine messages during the pandemic, contributing to the spread of disinformation. Troll farms and bot accounts flooded social media with anti-vaccine propaganda, amplifying the same talking points heard on Fox News.
The Cost of Misinformation
By the end of 2021, nearly 800,000 Americans had died from COVID-19. Many of these deaths were preventable, particularly as vaccines became widely available. However, the damage had been done. A significant portion of the population had been influenced by a media ecosystem that prioritized profit and politics over public health.
For those who lost loved ones to the virus, the betrayal was palpable. “My dad believed them,” one woman told reporters after her father succumbed to COVID-19. “He watched Fox News every day, and he refused the vaccine because he thought it was dangerous. Now he’s gone, and I’m left wondering how many other people are suffering because of those lies.”
The pandemic was not just a biological crisis; it was a moral reckoning. Fox News, along with the politicians and foreign actors who fueled its disinformation machine, had profound impacts on public health. Their viewers, the very people they claimed to champion, were left to pay the ultimate price.
A Reckoning for Fox News?
As the dust of the pandemic began to settle, questions arose about accountability. Should Fox News be held responsible for the lives lost? Could lawsuits, such as the defamation cases brought by Dominion Voting Systems in the wake of the 2020 election, pave the way for broader legal challenges to media disinformation?
The answers remain unclear. What is certain, however, is that the pandemic exposed a dark truth about the American media landscape: in the pursuit of power and profit, the line between fact and fiction, between news and propaganda, had all but disappeared.
