Conspiracy theorists hit the jackpot on Tuesday when a hot mic at the White House overheard a conversation about coronavirus being a hoax, and the existence of a vaccine.
The exchange between Fox News’ John Roberts and New York Times photographer Doug Mills was recorded as camera crews set up before President Trump took to the podium.
In the footage, Roberts can be heard telling Mills: “You can take off the mask, the case fatality rate is 0.1 to 0.3 according to USC.”
“Is it really? That’s reassuring,” Mills replies. “Everybody here’s been vaccinated anyway.”
Without reacting, Roberts goes on to explain that a “USC and LA County public health study found that there may have been between 221,000 – 442,000 actually infected with Covid-19 in Los Angeles, rather than the 7,000 originally believed — which would strongly dilute the mortality rate.
Because you asked…..The @USC @lapublichealth study is real – but not yet peer-reviewed. The rest of the exchange was sardonic humor and sarcasm… There is NO vaccine. And it is NOT a hoax.
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) April 22, 2020
“That puts it right in line with the flu?” a third voice is heard commenting.
“So it was a hoax?” Mills asks, before chuckling as Roberts replies: “I don’t think it was a hoax…”
The recording was widely shared on social media, as conspiracy theorists jumped on one of two seemingly contradicting bits of information: that the virus was a hoax, and that a vaccine exists but is only available for those close to the President.
On Wednesday morning the Fox correspondent, who is married to ABC correspondent Kyra Phillips, was forced to take to Twitter to explain the joke.
“Because you asked…..The @USC @lapublichealth study is real – but not yet peer-reviewed,” he tweeted. “The rest of the exchange was sardonic humor and sarcasm… There is NO vaccine. And it is NOT a hoax.”
There have been more than 820,000 recorded cases in the US so far, and over 45,000 deaths.
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