CNN's medical analyst called Tucker Carlson a vaccine 'saboteur,' and challenged him to say if he has taken the jab
- Dr Jonathan Reiner challenged Fox News' Tucker Carlson to say if he's had a COVID-19 vaccine.
- Carlson has for weeks been questioning the safety of vaccines, citing misleading data.
- The CNN medical analyst described Carlson as a "saboteur."
CNN's medical analyst, Dr Jonathan Reiner, on Sunday criticized Tucker Carlson for his show's segments on COVID-19 vaccines and called on the Fox News host to reveal if he himself has taken one.
In an appearance on CNN's "New Day Sunday" Reiner was asked about Carlson's misleading attacks on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines by host Jim Acosta. As well as contributing to CNN, Reiner is a professor of medicine at George Washington University.
Acosta asked whether Carlson's rhetoric was "part of the problem", citing the segment of the US population which is reluctant to take the vaccines when offered them.
"Yeah, so I think he's really a saboteur," replied Reiner. "That's what I think of Tucker Carlson."
"Every night he has a million questions about this vaccine. Somehow, magically, he has no one on his show that can answer these questions - I'm willing to answer these questions," Reiner continued.
"I have two questions for Tucker Carlson," he continued. "Number one, you have been vaccinated? Number two, why won't you tell your audience whether you have been vaccinated? I am tired of his nonsense."
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Carlson had been vaccinated.
Carlson has for weeks been questioning the safety of vaccines. He often reports on cases of people who died after taking the vaccines in a way that critics say is inaccurate and misleading because of its implication the vaccines were to blame.
Insider in March reported that Carlson and other network hosts had defended or provided a platform for anti-vaccine misinformation. Some have suggested the stance is a bid to boost ratings, or score political points against the Biden administration and its vaccine rollout program.
Experts told The New York Times in a Saturday article that the US would likely not achieve so-called "herd immunity", in which at least 60% of the population are immunized against the virus, owing to the emergence of new variants and persistent reluctance by some to get vaccinated.