Meghan McCain complains that she, ‘co-host of The View,’ can’t get COVID-19 vaccine

Meghan McCain, like many other Americans, doesn’t know when she’ll be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

McCain took her complaints to live television and later found her name trending on Twitter again as social media users took her to task for what they characterized as an entitled mindset.

On “The View” Monday morning, McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said she was “frustrated” with “inconsistent messaging” about the vaccine and called on President Joe Biden to replace Dr. Anthony Fauci with someone who “does understand science.”

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“The fact that I, Meghan McCain, co-host of ‘The View,’ don’t know when or how I will be able to get a vaccine because the rollout for my age range and my health is so nebulous, I have no idea when and how I get it,” she said.

McCain’s frustrations followed a clip she played from CNN’s “State of the Union” where Fauci, who is an immunologist serving as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, did not make a recommendation or give concrete advice on whether or not vaccinated grandparents could visit in close quarters with their unvaccinated grandchildren.

“I have been very responsible in many different ways as so many American have been,” McCain said. “And the fact that Dr. Fauci is going on CNN and he can’t tell me that if I get the vaccine, if I’ll be able to have dinner with my family.”

On social media, users called McCain’s outburst “entitled” and made callbacks to a 2019 “Saturday Night Live” sketch that dubbed McCain the “princess of Arizona.” Another user called McCain “white privilege personified” while others reversed McCain’s message and called for her firing from the show. 

“She should just tell COVID she’s John McCain’s daughter,” cracked a third Twitter user.

McCain said she does not mean to “downplay” the almost half a million dead and will be responsible by waiting for her turn to be vaccinated.

“But this rollout has been a disaster,” she said on the show.

McCain declined to provide additional comment to The Arizona Republic.

On Twitter, McCain wrote that “many of you can keep worshiping at the alter” of Fauci.

“I’m not a phony – i will not go on tv and lie saying one thing privately and another on air,” she tweeted. “This is my opinion. We need someone else in charge of coronavirus messaging and leadership.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 64 million doses of the vaccine have been administered across the country and about 1.5 million have been administered in Arizona.

Shortly after taking office earlier this year, President Biden promised to administer 100 million vaccines by his 100th day in office which falls on April 30.

Vaccines being administered in the U.S. were developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were given emergency approval by federal regulators and both require two doses. Rollout has been different in each state – some prioritizing health care workers while others administered the vaccine to teachers, essential service workers or those in high-risk populations.

McCain pointed to Israel, which has already vaccinated almost half of its population, and a billboard she saw online that said “get a shot take a shot.” She questioned how doctors abroad say it is safe to interact after being vaccinated while doctors in the U.S. have not.

“Is the science in Israel different than the science here in the United States of America?” she said.

At the end of 2020, Fauci and other health experts said at least 70% of a population must be vaccinated before it can reach herd immunity, which occurs when enough people become resistant to a disease, making its spread unlikely.

“I understand President Trump can take much of the blame, but we’re in the Biden administration and I, for one, would like something to look forward to and to hope for,” McCain said. “So, I’m over Dr. Fauci,” she said, calling for his removal and a replacement who “does understand science” and could “be more like these other places that are doing this successfully.”

Like most episodes of “The View,” McCain’s co-host Whoopi Goldberg attempted to debate, pointing out that Israel is a much smaller country than the U.S. and had a different masking and vaccine rollout plan. As McCain said she knew what she was saying was controversial, Goldberg quickly cut to commercial.

Contact the reporter at piper.hansen@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Meghan McCain complains that she, ‘co-host of The View,’ can’t get COVID-19 vaccine