- Whoopi Goldberg outlined “declining trust in childhood vaccines” at the Hot Topics table.
- The View moderator then polled the studio audience on their own vaccination status.
- “If you’re not, don’t come back,” Joy Behar joked afterward.
The View transformed from a talk show to a temporary health checkup Tuesday morning, as moderator Whoopi Goldberg gave the in-studio audience an impromptu poll about their vaccination status live on the air.
Upon returning from a commercial break, the EGOT-winning Ghost and Sister Act star brought up a Hot Topics chat about the rise in vaccination skepticism among the American public.
“This is so crazy, but as cold and flu season arrive, a new Washington Post poll found that one in six American parents are rejecting vaccine recommendations,” the 69-year-old told the audience. “The majority of parents still support immunizations, but there’s been a declining trust in childhood vaccines since the pandemic. When did people stop trusting their pediatricians? That’s the person who has your baby!”
ABC
She then paused the discussion to look out toward the show’s studio crowd on the set of the Manhattan-based program.
“Can I just ask one question? Everybody who’s been vaccinated in this audience, just put your hand up?” Goldberg said, with the camera showing cohosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin also raising their hands before the show cut to a shot of the audience mostly raising their arms.
Still, in one shot, a woman could be seen sitting with both arms crossed.
“And you’re all still alive. Okay. I’m just checking,” Goldberg said after the poll, with Joy Behar telling the audience, “If you’re not, don’t come back,” while Hostin transitioned into a new point.
“I think it’s terrifying,” the legal expert said. “There’s this notion out there that I don’t have to get vaccinated because everyone else is vaccinated, and there will be this herd immunity.”
She then cited that 95 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated in order to achieve effective herd immunity. “At this point, there are only 92 percent of kids immunized against measles, mumps, rubella, polio,” she continued.
Jeff Lipsky/ABC
“Do you know how many children can become severely ill or perhaps — God forbid — die? And we know now that global immunization efforts have saved an estimated 154 million lives. That’s six lives every minute,” Hostin said. “95 percent of those lives are children. As a parent myself, I had both of my kids vaccinated…. but I do wonder why a parent would make the choice not to protect their child?”
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Elsewhere in the episode, Goldberg gave the studio audience another shock when she broke news to them that actor Robert Redford died earlier that day. The crowd screamed in shock when Goldberg revealed the development to them live on the air, with Entertainment Weekly later learning that the audience hadn’t been able to read the news before the telecast because their phones were put away for a pre-taped segment that filmed ahead of the live show.
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.
