Fox News host Harris Faulkner is getting called out on Twitter for uttering a “blatant” falsehood about the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic as she criticized the protective measures that were in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Faulkner, who is getting a tryout in former host Tucker Carlson’s old primetime slot, claimed schools didn’t close in 1918.
School closures were not only common in 1918, studies have found they were effective in reducing the excess death rate from Spanish flu ― and so many people responded that a “community note” correcting the misinformation was appended.
“We didn’t even have penicillin back then,” Faulkner also said, despite the fact that penicillin isn’t used for flu as antibiotics do not work against viruses. “We did sacrifice. We suffered. But then we pressed on.”
That “sacrifice” included 50 million dead globally including 675,000 in the United States, according to the CDC.
Twitter users called out Faulkner for the misinformation: