Fox News host Sean Hannity says he was “pressured” to encourage his viewers to get the COVID-19 vaccine, even though he was uncomfortable doing so.
Hannity opened up about the experience during the Tuesday episode of his Hang Out podcast, where he and Dr. Drew Pinsky discussed the pandemic and their concerns about how it was handled.
“I was being pressured — pressured — to tell my audience to take the jab,” Hannity said. “And I’m like, ‘I’m not a doctor. I’m just not. I don’t know anything about your health, I don’t know anything about your preexisting conditions, your current condition, comorbidities you may have, and I don’t know anything about this shot.'”
Rather than simply telling viewers to get vaccinated, Hannity said he made a point of featuring a range of perspectives on his program.
“But I kept putting people with different views on, and I said, ‘Take it seriously, consult your doctor, make your own mind up,'” he said.
Pinsky backed Hannity’s approach, calling it the “right thing” to do. He also made clear that he believes the government went too far in forcing the vaccines on the American public.
“The mandates came along, you couldn’t move in the world without getting the shot, and that’s the egregious part,” Pinsky said.
Hannity did not say who pressured him to talk about the vaccines, nor did he specify when it happened.
He is not the first public figure to claim he was pushed to discuss COVID-19 in a particular way. In 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said senior officials in President Joe Biden’s administration “pressured” Facebook and Instagram “to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humor and satire.”
Back in 2021, The Guardian reported on remarks Hannity made about the virus and the vaccine on his show at the time.
“Just like we’ve been saying,” Hannity said then, “please take Covid seriously. I can’t say it enough. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more deaths.”
He urged viewers to research the issue, talk to their doctors and medical professionals they trust based on their own medical history and current condition, and make a decision with their doctor for their own safety.
“You also have a right to medical privacy, doctor-patient confidentiality is also important,” Hannity said at the time. “And it absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated. I believe in science, I believe in the science of vaccination.”
On Tuesday, Hannity voiced frustration with people who claimed that if you “take the jab,” you won’t get COVID or “impact others.” He said those claims have proven to be total “bullsh*t,” and Pinsky agreed.
Hannity added that the recent release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s COVID diary proves, in his view, that the American medical establishment knew years ago that those claims were bogus.
Pinsky called it “unbelievable” that some pregnant women and young children are still choosing to get the vaccine, arguing that it does not make much sense from a risk-reward standpoint.
Experts have declared COVID-19 vaccines safe for the general public, including pregnant women.
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