Fox & Friends hosts feud over New York's indoor vaccine mandate as Brian Kilmeade compares it to Taliban rule

The hosts of Fox News' morning show, "Fox & Friends," have for months been at odds over COVID-19 vaccinations. Those tensions flared again on Wednesday morning, when host Brian Kilmeade angrily condemned New York City's new vaccine mandate for indoor venues.

Kilmeade argued the government shouldn't be permitted to make "your medical decisions," while co-host Steve Doocy insisted the mandate would help solve the public health crisis exacerbated by the highly-contagious delta variant. 

"Guess what they're doing in this terribly run city? They're deciding you can't go to plays, you can't go to movies, you can't go to bars, you can't go to restaurants, can't go to gyms — can't go to anything, unless you have your vaccination card," Kilmeade said, adding that it "takes a dollar to make a knockoff card."

The vaccine is available for free nationwide, and patrons can present Big Apple restaurants with a photograph of their card along with other alternatives, such as the Excelsior App. One dose is enough to be admitted under the new policy that took effect Tuesday.

Kilmeade went on, "What if you have the antibodies and you can't get the vaccination? You have to shelter in place now like an American in Afghanistan?"

Doocy interjected to say that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio "could be right" that the new mandates will "convince people to go ahead and get the vaccine so that they can go into these places."

"So what? People are making their own decisions," Kilmeade replied. "You shouldn't get the mayor making your medical decisions." 

Doocy then pointed out that the pandemic is a public health crisis and to private restaurant owners who've independently decided to mandate vaccinations for their employees and customers. 

"Well, if you talk to [de Blasio], he would say it's a public health crisis," he said. 

The third host, Ainsley Earhardt, falsely claimed that unvaccinated people hospitalized with COVID-19 will "basically" get vaccinated when they're given monoclonal antibody treatments in the hospital. 

De Blasio on Tuesday said he's convinced that mandating vaccinations in this way will "motivate a lot of people to get vaccinated." 

Kilmeade also falsely claimed that people don't need a vaccine if they have antibodies from a past COVID-19 infection. Medical professionals and infectious disease experts recommend that those who've already had the virus get vaccinated because the vaccines offer a far higher level of protection from reinfection. The Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that unvaccinated people who've been infected with COVID-19 in the past are almost two and half times more likely than vaccinated people to contract COVID-19 again. 

Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.

The hosts then aired a pre-recorded interview with a white Brooklyn restaurant manager who compared barring the unvaccinated from indoor venues to racial segregation and discrimination against Black Americans prior to the civil rights movement. 

All three "Fox & Friends" hosts have publicly said they've vaccinated, but disagreements over how the vaccines are promoted have persisted.

Despite the network's topsy turvy efforts at promoting the vaccine and even using their own internal vaccine passport system, Kilmeade has echoed many of the same grievances against pro-vaccine messengers as the network's primetime lineup, none of whom have said whether they got the vaccine. 

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