Neil Cavuto returns to Fox Business to say doctors told him only vaccination saved his life this time
Fox anchor Neil Cavuto returned to the air on Monday to say he died of a second bout with the coronavirus and to tell detractors, including those who sent death threats over his support for vaccines: "To disappoint you." Sorry for that."
More than 935,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 in the past two years. The seven-day average daily death rate is less than 2,000 - the vast majority unvaccinated.
Fox has strict vaccination requirements for employees. But hosts, including Tucker Carlson prominently, have spread misinformation about vaccines and misinformation about resistance to COVID-19 public health measures, including vaccination mandates.
Cavuto is immunocompromised, with multiple sclerosis and has survived heart surgery and cancer.
After his first positive Covid test, in October, he urged the audience: "My God, stop politics. Life is too short to be a donkey. Life is too short to be ignorant of the promise of something that will help people all over the world. Stop the deaths, stop the suffering, please get vaccinated.
Some spectators didn't stop the politics. Cavuto revealed that he received disturbing messages, including death threats.
On Fox Business on Monday, Cavuto said he had been hospitalized for weeks, but that Fox had not publicized his condition out of respect for his privacy.
His second Covid case, he said, was a "far more severe strand" because of his immune status. He was in "intensive care for quite some time".
"It was really touch and go," he said. "Some of you who want to get me out of the way of my misery got what you wanted. Sorry to disappoint you."
Cavuto also added: "Let me be clear: Doctors say that if I hadn't been vaccinated at all, I wouldn't be here.
"It was scary. How scary? I'm talking, 'Pondrosa is suddenly creepy out of prime rib in the middle of the buffet line. How scary is that.'
He also rejected the idea that the vaccine contributed to or contributed to his second Covid bout.
"No, the vaccine didn't do that," he said. "That 'bump of hay' theory has come up a lot. Because I've been diagnosed with cancer, and now have multiple sclerosis, I'm vulnerable in the 3% or so of the population that can't take full advantage of a vaccine."
In October, Cavuto described some of the threats he received for taking the shot and advocating for it.
He also said: "I can't stress this enough: It's not about the left or the right. It's not about who's conservative or liberal. Last time I checked, everyone was in their own right. Coming to terms with the persuasion...
"Take politically speaking points and toss them for now, I'm begging you. Toss them and think about what's good not only for you but for the people around you.
"I dare to say that those who have experienced it and see their loved ones who have been affected by it or have died from it are not doing justice to the wisdom of the mandate.
"They wanted them to be vaccinated, and they didn't."