Newly hired Daily Wire commentator Candace Owens appeared on far-right conspiracy theory program The Alex Jones Show to make unfounded attacks on vaccines against COVID-19, comparing those who would get a vaccine to “slaves.”
Owens, who once said the issue with Hitler was that “he had dreams outside of Germany,” was recently hired by The Daily Wire, a conservative media outlet co-founded by Ben Shapiro that is known for dominating Facebook feeds. According to the other Daily Wire co-founder, Jeremy Boreing, Owens will host a show before a live studio audience for the outlet starting in March.
Owens offered a preview of the type of commentary she could provide for The Daily Wire during a December 1 appearance on The Alex Jones Show, in a portion of the broadcast that was guest-hosted by Infowars’ Paul Joseph Watson.
During her appearance, Owens attacked the prospect of a vaccine against COVID-19 with the confounding claim that a vaccine against the disease -- which has killed more than 270,000 Americans so far -- “makes no sense” because there is a “99% chance that you’re going to survive if you get COVID-19,” so “why the hell would you take a vaccine that has 94% effective and causes you to be sick?”
Owens was referring to vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna that each have around 95% effectiveness and are moving toward approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The available data indicates that both vaccines are safe, contrary to Owens’ unfounded claim that the vaccines cause sickness. Owens’ attacks on the vaccines come at a critical juncture when COVID-19 is spreading out of control in the United States and the best hope to end the pandemic is widespread vaccination, which would be hampered if many people reject the vaccine on the basis of false information.
Owens went on to compare vaccination to enslavement, saying, “What does every society in the world that has had slaves had in common? And the answer is that there was always more slaves than there were masters.” Owens’ point was apparently that people can band together to defeat COVID-19 vaccines the same way that a large group of slaves could free themselves from a smaller group of slave owners. “There is always going to be more of us than them. You know, if we say no, it’s a no.”
Watson is a longtime employee of Infowars and often fills in for the far-right conspiracy theory outlet’s founder, Alex Jones. He has promoted conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terror attacks and other calamities. Watson is also a bigot; he has claimed that people with African or Middle Eastern backgrounds are inherently less intelligent and more aggressive than people with other backgrounds.
