Fox Station Suspends News Anchor Who Tweeted He Was ‘Annoyed’ at Obese People Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine

A news anchor for the Fox 5 station in Washington, D.C., has been suspended for tweeting that he’s “annoyed [that] obese people of all ages” are getting COVID-19 vaccines before all essential workers.

He eventually apologized (sort of) and deleted the tweet, but his apology got him in even more hot water.

via NYDN:

“When most stayed home, we went into work everyday last March, April, May and everyday since putting ourselves & loved ones at risk,” Blake McCoy tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.

“Vaccinate all essential workers,” he added. “Then obese.”

McCoy was seemingly referring to the fact that, as a television news anchor, he’s not yet qualified to receive a coronavirus vaccine shot in D.C.

Twitter users were quick to point out that his views were hurtful and insensitive, writing that he “straight up fat-shamed obese people for having priority access to the vaccine over his privileged and perfectly healthy self,” as Twitter user Will Smink wrote in a comment.

A spokesperson for the station, WTTG, told the Daily News that McCoy has been “suspended pending further review.”

McCoy, who’s one of the evening anchors of the network, later tweeted an apology, writing that he had tweeted “something insensitive and offensive.”

“I truly regret my words and want to apologize,” he wrote, adding that he had already deleted the tweet, and asking his Twitter followers to “accept my sincere apology.”

Several of them, however, did not receive his short statement as a heartfelt mea culpa, which many saw as a message written by the company’s “media relations department.”

“I think it would help these PR apologies if there were more specifics of what was done, why they feel bad about it enough to apologize and how they’ll better go about it in the future,” twitter user Donnie Downer summed it up.

When answering to a comment left by “a huge fan,” McCoy seemed to complicate his line of defense even further.

In a tweet that has since been deleted — but captured by many savvy social media users — McCoy responded to a Twitter user named Jonathan Adkins.

“Tweets like this only serve to divide people,” Adkins wrote. “I know that is not your intention.”

“You’re right,” McCoy responded. “I deleted because, frankly, who has the time to argue with strangers on the internet.”

“But many people I know have quietly cut the line through various ways in various states. Rules seen as inequitable or unjust erode confidence in system & drive urge to cheat it,” added the openly gay anchor.

According to LGBTQ Nation, during the early days of the pandemic McCoy broadcast from home.

Chris Weidner, a D.C.-based journalist tweeted that the “shameful anchor” should be fired “for his disgusting tweet regarding who should receive COVID vaccines. His apology rings hollow!”

“Blake, which comorbities are OK?,” Weidner, “a fellow DC gay man” wrote.

Despite being called out for his “fatphobia” on Twitter, McCoy recently shared a photograph on Instagram in which he stood in front of four large storefront gates in D.C.’s Blagden Alley-Naylor Court Historic District that spelled the word “love” in bright rainbow colors.

To caption the festive picture, McCoy used a famous RuPaul quote on self-acceptance: “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?,” he wrote.

There’s so much that we could say right here, but we’re having a good day and would rather not engage with the negativity.