Once again, The View co-host Meghan McCain has become Twitter’s Main Character of the Day™, and not for another one of her, um, “questionable hairstyles.” While discussing the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination rollout and recent comments made by White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, McCain complained about her inability to obtain a vaccine as someone with an immense platform and privilege.
“The fact that I, Meghan McCain, co-host of The View, I don’t know when or how I will be able to get a vaccine because the rollout for my age range and my health is so nebulous,” McCain said in her rant, before calling the vaccine rollout a “disaster” and lamenting the fact that next week it will be “a year since we left the studio and I have been so responsible, as many Americans have.” (Fun fact: Conservatives, like McCain, are among the least likely to wear masks during the ongoing pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center, in part because their fellow Republicans have politicized the pandemic, downplayed the severity of the virus, and questioned the legitimacy of scientists and infectious disease experts.)
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McCain, showing a clip of Dr. Fauci speaking to Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union, then tore into Dr. Fauci for refusing to make an on-the-spot vaccine-related recommendation. On CNN, Bash shared that both of her parents had received their second dose of the vaccine and are now fully vaccinated. She then asked Dr. Fauci if that means it’s okay for them to spend time with their grandchildren, who are not vaccinated.
“You know, I’m not going to make a recommendation now except to say these are things that we really do, every day, we look at that, we look at the data, we look at what’s evolving, about how many people are getting vaccinated, and there will be recommendations coming out,” Dr. Fauci replied. “I don’t want to be making a recommendation now on public TV — we want to sit down with the team and look at that.”
That didn’t sit well with McCain, who wanted a more concrete answer as to what she can expect when she does receive her vaccine and whether or not she’ll be able to have dinner with her family or spend mask-free time with older people. “It’s terribly inconsistent messaging,” she said, “and it continues to be inconsistent messaging.”
McCain did admit that it's mostly the Trump administration's fault the vaccination rate in the U.S. has been so low. “I understand, obviously, that president Trump can take much of the blame, but now we’re in the Biden administration and I, for one, would like something to look forward to and hope for,” she said. And at the onset of her long-winded rant, she made it a point to “respect the great tragedy and all the pain that has come from our handling of the coronavirus.” But the backlash was swift, especially to the fact that McCain called for the Biden administration to fire Dr. Fauci.
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“The producers of @TheView need to fire Meghan McCain NOW,” one Twitter user posted. “Her daily tantrums, total disregard for the opinions of others, and willful ignorance is exhausting.”
“Parents: make sure your children understand they’re not the center of the universe, so they don’t grow up to be Meghan McCain,” another tweeted.
Here’s a sampling of the responses to McCain, in case hate-reading is your pandemic coping mechanism of choice:
I hope someone is fanning and perhaps feeding individual grapes to Meghan McCain right now as co-host of The View.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) February 22, 2021
Meghan McCain has been wealthy her entire life. She’s actively opposed growing social safety net programs that would benefit low-income and disabled people, out of fear it might marginally impact her massive wealth.
— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) February 22, 2021
So of course she’s upset to not be first in line for a vaccine. https://t.co/1uiHFlC2Kx
Meghan McCain is the female version of Ben Shapiro for saying dumb shit just to get attention.
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) February 22, 2021
REMINDER: Meghan McCain is not essential.
— Cristela Alonzo (@cristela9) February 22, 2021
I think we’re all just sorry that this nightmare for our country has been so hard on Meghan McCain.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) February 15, 2021
While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted working women, McCain is not exactly one of them. Unlike the nearly 3 million women who were pushed out of the workforce due to historic job losses and an unequal division of labor inside the home — most of whom are Black women and other women of color — McCain still has a job. And that job does not require her to put herself, or her family, at risk of contracting a virus that has killed over 500,000 people to date. Millions of essential workers, 52% of whom are women, cannot say the same.
McCain even admitted that due to her age (36) and overall health, she is not high-risk, which means that, like many people, she has to wait an indeterminate amount of time to receive the vaccine. Instead of lamenting about the need to simply wait her turn, McCain could have spent her time and used her enormous platform to advocate for the increased vaccination of Black and Latinx communities, which are disproportionately impacted by the virus but the least likely to receive the vaccination. Out of the first 13 million Americans to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 60% were white.
But no, McCain chose to do what she has done consistently throughout her career instead: be self-serving. “I know what I’m saying is controversial, I really do,” she proclaimed. “But I’m not a phony and I’m not going to come on air and say something different than what I’m saying privately.”