Laura Ingraham appeared unable to contain her delight at news that Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley had tested positive for Covid-19.
The Fox News host clapped her handsas she shared the general’s diagnosis with viewers during a recurring segment called Postively Boosted with Raymond Arroyo that highlights Covid cases among vaxxed and boosted people.
“All right, the triple vaxxed Joint Chief[s] chairman Mark Milley – our favourite, Mark Milley! – tested positive for Covid yesterday,” Ingraham said on Monday.
Vaccinated people are significantly less likely to be hospitalised or die from Covid, which the Fox host failed to point out during her show.
Later in the segment Ingraham added: “We certainly hope they are all healthy and fine.”
However, the clip sparked outrage for appearing to celebrate the United States’ highest raking soldier contracting a disease that has killed more than 800,000 Americans.
The View co-host Joy Behar said it was a revealing insight into Ingraham and her viewers’ attitudes towards vaccines.
“People say ‘Oh, I’m triple vaxxed,’ and then they get it anyway. This, they think, is so interesting and so fabulous a notion,” she said.
“The fact is, you can still get it — people need to understand this — but if you don’t have a vaccine, you will probably end up in the hospital. Maybe dead,” she said.
“You can clap because he didn’t die, not because he got the virus.”
Whoopi Goldberg then said it was “vindictive behaviour” and promoted false information about the vaccines.
“The people who are not vaccinated who are sick, a lot of them are dying.”
Ingraham has previously accused General Milley of spreading “far-left Marxist racist ideology” in the US military. She herself has been accused of encouraging former President Donald Trump to believe that the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine was an effective treatment against Covid, something the COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel recommends against.
During Monday’s Positively Boosted segment, Ingraham went on to cheerfully discuss positive Covid cases of Marine Corps commandant General David Berger and the Vatican City’s secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
At the end of the segment, Mr Arroyo said: “We wish them all the best.”
Ingraham said she hoped they’re healthy, “but stop pushing your vaccine mandates on us”.
