By Philip Bump
National correspondent
Yesterday at 10:05 a.m. EST
Tucker Carlson and Alex Berenson approach the coronavirus pandemic from similar, though slightly different, angles. The Fox News host’s default position is that the government is wrong and untrustworthy, up to something, although it’s not always clear exactly what that’s supposed to be. Berenson, whose robust track record of misinformation has contributed to his being relegated to self-publishing his opinions at Substack, comes from the position that he alone is right, the sole bright light wending through a dark time. Together, they have formed a Jack-Spratian marriage of leading Fox News viewers astray.
In the past, this has meant Carlson doing his nodding-while-stunned routine while Berenson makes claims such as this: that face masks don’t slow the spread of the virus (they do). On Tuesday night, though, Berenson’s predilection for apocalyptic proclamations led to one of the most dishonest and dangerous segments in the history of Carlson’s show — which is a high, high bar to clear.
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The subject was vaccines, a response to the coronavirus pandemic that Berenson has for months sought to undercut. He was on Carlson’s program in November, in fact, claiming that evidence was waning that the vaccines prevented serious injury or death but, you know, even if they did, it’s still “your own personal choice” whether you want to die, struggling to breathe in a crowded intensive care unit, intubated, your family sobbing as they watch through a nearby window. Up to you.
Now, though, Berenson has taken it further.
“I have not said this to you before, because I’m pretty careful, and I’m pretty careful with the data,” Berenson claimed, falsely. “The mRNA covid vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market now. No one should get them. No one should get boosted. No one should get double-boosted. They are a dangerous and ineffective product at this point against omicron,” the most prevalent variant in the United States.
Myocarditis can be a side effect of coronavirus vaccines. But experts agree that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the rare and often mild risks. (John Farrell/The Washington Post)
I want to be careful here not to overstate the case. But Berenson’s career is now largely predicated on precisely this sort of denialism. It’s what powers his Substack subscriptions; it’s what gets him on Carlson’s show; it’s what landed him an interview with Joe Rogan. And when your profile and income are predicated on claiming that you alone are standing athwart a global conspiracy, there is a tendency to continue to amplify your assertions to keep the audience on the hook.
For the audience, the thrill is being part of the elite few who see behind the curtain. In an insightful Twitter thread, writer Julian Sanchez labeled this “cinematic epistemology,” a belief system rooted in the assumption that the world works the way action movies do. That, in other words, Berenson is the protagonist who will soon reveal that the heavy machinery of government has long been up to no good, deceiving the public. In reality, of course, Berenson and those like him are simply leveraging this impulse for attention and money.
Like, why is the government engaged in this conspiracy? What’s the value? The incentive system for Berenson and for Carlson is obvious and immediate. The putative incentive system for the government is murky to the point of pitch-blackness. It’s entirely “Bourne Identity”-level theorizing without the benefit of any actual exposition proving that some nefarious official at the CDC is watching his plan come to fruition.
I’ve probably gone further than I should have in not rebutting Berenson’s actual claims. So let’s.
First, he asserts that because of the structure of the omicron variant, the mRNA vaccines don’t work against it. This is untrue. Here, for example, is Pfizer’s analysis of the efficacy of its vaccine. If your response is well, of course they’d say that, I would ask you to consider the long-term implications for a corporation that lied about the utility of its medical product in so transparent a way that a guy with a blog could prove them wrong.
At another point, Berenson claimed that evidence from other countries showed that broad vaccination didn’t keep people out of the hospital.
“Just look at the chart of what’s happened in Israel in the last couple of weeks,” Berenson said. “This is a country that’s 90-percent-plus adult vaccinated, more than half adult boosted. These are the levels that the Democrats would love to achieve in the United States. It’s not just that it doesn’t make any difference. It seems to be making the situation worse.”
National correspondent
Yesterday at 10:05 a.m. EST
Tucker Carlson and Alex Berenson approach the coronavirus pandemic from similar, though slightly different, angles. The Fox News host’s default position is that the government is wrong and untrustworthy, up to something, although it’s not always clear exactly what that’s supposed to be. Berenson, whose robust track record of misinformation has contributed to his being relegated to self-publishing his opinions at Substack, comes from the position that he alone is right, the sole bright light wending through a dark time. Together, they have formed a Jack-Spratian marriage of leading Fox News viewers astray.
In the past, this has meant Carlson doing his nodding-while-stunned routine while Berenson makes claims such as this: that face masks don’t slow the spread of the virus (they do). On Tuesday night, though, Berenson’s predilection for apocalyptic proclamations led to one of the most dishonest and dangerous segments in the history of Carlson’s show — which is a high, high bar to clear.
Sign up for How To Read This Chart, a weekly data newsletter from Philip Bump
The subject was vaccines, a response to the coronavirus pandemic that Berenson has for months sought to undercut. He was on Carlson’s program in November, in fact, claiming that evidence was waning that the vaccines prevented serious injury or death but, you know, even if they did, it’s still “your own personal choice” whether you want to die, struggling to breathe in a crowded intensive care unit, intubated, your family sobbing as they watch through a nearby window. Up to you.
Now, though, Berenson has taken it further.
“I have not said this to you before, because I’m pretty careful, and I’m pretty careful with the data,” Berenson claimed, falsely. “The mRNA covid vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market now. No one should get them. No one should get boosted. No one should get double-boosted. They are a dangerous and ineffective product at this point against omicron,” the most prevalent variant in the United States.
Myocarditis can be a side effect of coronavirus vaccines. But experts agree that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the rare and often mild risks. (John Farrell/The Washington Post)
I want to be careful here not to overstate the case. But Berenson’s career is now largely predicated on precisely this sort of denialism. It’s what powers his Substack subscriptions; it’s what gets him on Carlson’s show; it’s what landed him an interview with Joe Rogan. And when your profile and income are predicated on claiming that you alone are standing athwart a global conspiracy, there is a tendency to continue to amplify your assertions to keep the audience on the hook.
For the audience, the thrill is being part of the elite few who see behind the curtain. In an insightful Twitter thread, writer Julian Sanchez labeled this “cinematic epistemology,” a belief system rooted in the assumption that the world works the way action movies do. That, in other words, Berenson is the protagonist who will soon reveal that the heavy machinery of government has long been up to no good, deceiving the public. In reality, of course, Berenson and those like him are simply leveraging this impulse for attention and money.
Like, why is the government engaged in this conspiracy? What’s the value? The incentive system for Berenson and for Carlson is obvious and immediate. The putative incentive system for the government is murky to the point of pitch-blackness. It’s entirely “Bourne Identity”-level theorizing without the benefit of any actual exposition proving that some nefarious official at the CDC is watching his plan come to fruition.
I’ve probably gone further than I should have in not rebutting Berenson’s actual claims. So let’s.
First, he asserts that because of the structure of the omicron variant, the mRNA vaccines don’t work against it. This is untrue. Here, for example, is Pfizer’s analysis of the efficacy of its vaccine. If your response is well, of course they’d say that, I would ask you to consider the long-term implications for a corporation that lied about the utility of its medical product in so transparent a way that a guy with a blog could prove them wrong.
At another point, Berenson claimed that evidence from other countries showed that broad vaccination didn’t keep people out of the hospital.
“Just look at the chart of what’s happened in Israel in the last couple of weeks,” Berenson said. “This is a country that’s 90-percent-plus adult vaccinated, more than half adult boosted. These are the levels that the Democrats would love to achieve in the United States. It’s not just that it doesn’t make any difference. It seems to be making the situation worse.”
