Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
- Earlier this month, Cavuto revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19.
- The Fox News host, who has preexisting conditions, credited the vaccine with saving his life.
- Fox News requires employees to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing.
Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto received hate mail – and a seeming death threat – after urging his viewers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
In a Tuesday afternoon segment on his show, "Your World," Cavuto discussed an email he received from one viewer who commented that he had appeared to lose weight.
"But I'm not happy with less of you," the email stated. "I want 'none' of you. I want you gone. Dead. Caput. Fini. Get it? Now, take your two-bit advice, deep-six it, and you!"
Cavuto, who is currently broadcasting from his home, took the message in stride. "Wow, is he trying out for 'The Sopranos' prequel?" he joked.
It's not the anchor's first brush with online acrimony. In May, he likewise discussed hate mail he had received while on hiatus. "Damn, you're still alive?" one viewer wrote.
A spokesperson for Fox did not immediately provide comment on whether the latest threats, given the intensity of the debate over vaccines, have prompted additional security measures.
-Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) October 26, 2021
The message was one of several that, at the very least, mocked Cavuto for encouraging vaccination after he reported earlier this month that he had tested positive for COVID-19. At the time, the anchor, who has overcome multiple sclerosis, cancer, and heart disease, credited the vaccine with saving his life.
"While I'm somewhat stunned by this news, doctors tell me I'm lucky as well," Cavuto, who has been with the network for 25 years, said in a statement released by his employer. "Had I not been vaccinated, and with all my medical issues, this would be a far more dire situation."
Parent company Fox Corporation requires all on-site employees to either be vaccinated or undergo regular testing for COVID-19. Nonetheless, other Fox News personalities have used their platforms to discourage vaccination, promoting misinformation about the vaccines and railing against state and corporate mandates.
Primetime hosts such as Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have still aired segments targeted against vaccine mandates and public health experts, as well as inviting thoroughly discredited anti-vax guests such as Alex Berenson onto their programs.
Carlson baselessly claimed in September that the US military was purging 'sincere Christians' and 'men with high testosterone levels' by requiring vaccines within the ranks - with COVID shots being just one of 18 immunizations service members are required to receive.
Fox News has undergone a conflicted evolution in its vaccine coverage, with the likes of Carlson and Ingraham sowing distrust in primetime after hosts like Cavuto promote the shots during the day.
In his return on-air Sunday during an appearance on Fox News' "MediaBuzz" with Howard Kurtz, Cavuto said he is not interested in framing vaccines in political terms.
"I have no the time for that," Cavuto said. "Life is too short to be an ass. Life is way too short to be ignorant of the promise of something that is helping people worldwide. Stop the deaths. Stop the suffering. Please, get vaccinated. Please."