Several Fox News hosts mocked a recent New York Times op-ed detailing possible precautions families could take as they gathered for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany — along with co-host Emily Compagno and Julie Banderas — ridiculed suggestions such as keeping young children away from older adults during meals and asking children to eat fast and wear a mask in the house before and after eating.
McEnany read a section of the article aloud during the broadcast, noting that it was formatted as a series of reader questions followed by answers from “experts.”
The first question she read was from a reader who was concerned about hosting a gathering where not all of the kids present would be fully vaccinated — although the adults were and some of the kids had been given their first doses prior to the meal.
The answer, according to Virginia Tech engineering professor Linsey Marr:
As the kids will not be fully vaccinated until two weeks after their second shot, I think some care is warranted, especially because some attendees are 65 and older and thus at greater risk of more serious breakthrough infections. You could have the kids wear masks, eat quickly and stay away from the older adults when eating.
Banderas’ reaction was immediate. “Oh, my God,” she said.
“This is pure idiocy,” McEnany agreed. “Make the kids eat quick.”
“First of all my kids don’t eat quickly,” Banderas added, saying that it would never work to try that in her home. “We are there for hours and I will make them sit and I will wait until their plates are empty … I guess I’m going to infect my family members with Covid because I’m not making my kids eat quickly.”
“When you slave over all that food you don’t want your kids sloughing it down, you want your kids to take their bite slowly and enjoyed. The hard labor that my mother will be putting in towards our Thanksgiving feast since I don’t cook, I wouldn’t do that to my mom,” Banderas said.
“I thought it was parody,” McEnany continued, noting that the subtitle for that particular questions was, ‘Help, the kids are coming inside.’ I mean, amazing.”
“You can’t make this up. Truth is stranger than fiction nowadays. A New York Times headline is the same as The Onion headlines, you can’t tell them apart,” Compagno added, arguing that the real tragedy was that instead of focusing on family and giving thanks, people were resorting to writing to newspapers for advice on what they could do to keep their families safe and healthy.
“Why isn’t the government answering the question? I thought Dr. Fauci had all the answers,” she said.
Guest co-host and former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said he was actually in favor of anything that could speed up the Thanksgiving meal — although his reasoning had nothing to do with concern over the possible spread of COVID-19.
“I hate to be a contrarian, but I am all for whatever gets the meal over the quickest so I want everybody to eat and not have to – I have three sisters, and whoever said God doesn’t give you more than you can handle doesn’t have three sisters,” Gowdy said, prompting laughs from the others. “I don’t want people fighting. They can go watch Leonardo DiCaprio with my wife and I’ll go watch Dak Prescott, but let’s get it over with as quickly as possible.”