Tucker Carlson’s Most Tragic Interview

If there were ever a time for Tucker Carlson to encourage even one person to consider getting vaccinated against Covid-19, Wednesday night was it.

Instead, the Fox News host stayed on brand and declined to do so.

Before I get to Carlson’s interview with the family of a man denied a heart transplant because he’s not vaccinated, let’s review his story.

D.J. Ferguson was diagnosed with arrhythmia four years ago and now needs a heart transplant. But he won’t be getting one for the foreseeable future. That’s because the 31-year-old Massachusetts father of two – soon to be three – refuses to get the Covid vaccine, which is required to receive the transplant. His family says he was due to receive a heart, but Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has removed him from the transplant list as a result of his unvaccinated status.

Still, he refuses to get vaccinated even though doing so would land him back on the list.

“It’s kind of against his basic principles — he doesn’t believe in it,” said his father, David.

“He’s not an anti-vaxxer,” his mother, Tracey, told ABC News, in what has become a familiar claim for many of those opposed to the Covid vaccine. “He has all of his vaccines, and he’s an informed patient who is concerned because of his current cardiac crisis.”

On Tuesday, Ferguson had seven-

hours of open-heart surgery to receive a mechanical heart pump, which should keep him alive for up to five years. But it comes with a cost.

“For the foreseeable future, he won’t be able to shower, he won’t be able to swim,” his father explained to ABC. “He won’t be able to have a life.”

For his part, Carlson has repeatedly cast doubt on the effectiveness of the vaccine, frequently with help from anti-vaxx bullshit geyser Alex Berenson, who on Tuesday told Carlson’s viewers the vaccines are “dangerous” and said people shouldn’t take them.

The next night, Carlson hosted Ferguson’s parents and partner, who is pregnant. It was Carlson’s most tragic interview yet. For one thing, Ferguson’s situation is sad enough, but the fact it is avoidable makes it much more so. For another, Carlson could have suggested that maybe – just maybe – Ferguson should reconsider his position.

But no. Instead, the most-watched cable news host essentially egged on the absent Ferguson by calling the hospital’s decision “a moral atrocity.”

Carlson prefaced his interview with the family by rehashing Ferguson’s story and declaring, “To be clear, there is no medical justification for this rule at all.”

But of course there is. As medical ethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan explained to CBS News, “The organs are scarce, we are not going to distribute them to someone who has a poor chance

of living when others who are vaccinated have a better chance post-surgery of surviving.”

As he’s done before, Carlson also noted that myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart muscle – is a potential side effect of the Covid vaccine. But this occurs extremely infrequently. According to one report, among 192.4 million vaccine recipients, just 1,626 cases of heart inflammation were observed. That’s one out every 118,330 vaccinations, with the highest rates coming among adolescent males. None of the cases were confirmed to be fatal.

Carlson didn’t mention any of this, of course. Moreover, he did not note that myocarditis is more likely to be a side effect of getting Covid than it is of the getting the Covid vaccine. And as has been made clear many times over, being vaccinated against Covid reduces the risk of severe symptoms and illness in the event one is infected.

It’s also worth pointing out that people who are vaccinated and boosted are five times less likely to get the highly contagious Omicron variant. This information seems relevant, particularly for people with serious medical conditions like D.J. Ferguson.

Ferguson’s parents provided Carlson with an update on their son’s ordeal, prompting the host to call it “horrifying,” and accurately so.

“Having that dangled over our head at the very last minute after he had been through all the testing,” said Ferguson’s partner, Heather. “After he received

his letter saying that he was accepted on the transplant list, it’s just so disheartening that they would hang that over his head and, you know, right at the last moment.”

“Has anyone come to your aid?” Carlson asked. “This is such a moral atrocity. Has anyone taken your side in this?”

“Not really, besides basically just the fundraising we’ve done for ourselves,” Heather replied.

“I’m so sad to hear this,” Carlson replied in a hushed tone. “I think everyone watching feels the same way. And we are definitely rooting for you.”

He bid them adieu and shrugged it off. “Well, that’s a heartbreaking story,” he said, before teasing his next segment on “some of the good things that are happening in the United States.”

Carlson did not follow up on his guest’s reference to a fundraiser, but it can be found here.

If he cared to do so, Carlson could have addressed Ferguson directly on air on said that, given his prognosis and the stakes involved – two children, a partner with a third on the way, and two seemingly very nice parents – he should think about putting aside his reservations about the vaccine.

Obviously, I have no idea if such an entreaty would have swayed Ferguson. But it’s just hard to fathom how someone in Tucker Carlson’s position on Wednesday couldn’t dare to suggest that getting the vaccine might be the best course

of action. It could have literally meant the difference between life and death for one person.

Maybe even more.

Watch above via Fox News.