Biden jokes that Fox News had 'an altar call' on COVID-19 vaccine coverage: 'I'm not being a wise guy'

• President Joe Biden poked fun at Fox News during a CNN town hall Wednesday night.
• Biden said the network had "an altar call" in its turnaround on vaccine coverage this week.
• But two of Fox's most viewed hosts, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, have remained anti-vaccine.

President Joe Biden joked about the notable shift in Fox News' coverage touting the COVID-19 vaccine this week.

"One of those other networks is not a big fan of mine, uh, one you talk about a lot, but if you notice, as they say in the southern part of my state, they've had an altar call, some of those guys," Biden said of Fox at a CNN town hall event Wednesday night. "All of a sudden they're out there saying, 'Let's get vaccinated. Let's get vaccinated.'"

"The very people who before this were saying - so that, but that - I shouldn't make fun of it," the president continued. "That's good. It's good. It's good. We just have to keep telling the truth."

-Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 22, 2021

Biden officials have reportedly been hesitant to take on Fox News directly when it comes to vaccines, citing concerns over any criticism being used to further erode trust in the administration's push to expand immunization, according to Politico.

Opinion host Sean Hannity's Monday night monologue imploring his viewers to get vaccinated typified the sea change at the network, but high-profile holdouts remain.

Primetime hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham - who draw Fox's peak viewership alongside Hannity - have continued to double down misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding the inoculations.

While Carlson and Ingraham often target those promoting the vaccine as being deceptive and nefarious, they have also featured guests promoting blatant falsehoods about the efficacy and safety of the shots.

Alex Berenson, a COVID-19 skeptic whose claims on vaccines and the severity of the coronavirus have been thoroughly debunked, is a frequent guest on both Carlson and Ingraham's shows. He appeared on "The Ingraham Angle" on Monday night after the network heavily promoted the vaccine throughout the day.

At a corporate level, Fox has taken the virus and vaccination quite seriously.

Fox Corp. has a return to work policy involving the kind of vaccine passport system that Carlson and Ingraham have railed against as a violation of civil liberties.