Coronavirus: Fox News hosts start social distancing despite repeatedly downplaying fears

The approach is a big shift from the jokes that were made on Friday

Fox News hosts are social distancing despite repeated attempts to downplay or mock events surrounding Covid-19.

On air on Tuesday morning, the hosts of Fox and Friends, Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade confirmed they were social distancing, with the camera showing each in a separate area of the studio presenting the show.

“Usually we sit 18 inches apart, but this morning Ainsley is in what we refer to as the fishbowl area, Brian is there at the big plastic desk and I’m here on the curvy couch all by myself. We are doing exactly the same thing people all across America are trying to do and that is stay away from each other,” said Mr Doocy.

The announcement comes days after prominent hosts Jillian Mele, Rob Schmitt, Kurt Knutsson and Todd Piro mocked reactions to coronavirus.

At the beginning of their show on Friday they made fun of social distancing by touching elbows, with Ms Mele jokingly asking “did you wipe down your phone Todd?”

On their show on Tuesday, Ms Mele and Mr Schmitt practised social distancing with Ms Mele at the desk and Mr Schmitt standing up by the big screen, in a big shift from their position at the end of last week.

On Friday Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that social distancing was likely to be encouraged more strongly as the pandemic continued.

“If we continue to get cases like this, particularly at the community level, there will be what we call ‘mitigation,’ where we have to essentially do social distancing, keep people out of crowded places, take a look at seriousness, do you really need to travel, and I think it’s particularly important among the most vulnerable,” said Dr Fauci.

Fox Business anchor and host of Trish Regan Primetime, Trish Regan was widely criticised for her remarks last week, where she claimed the reaction to coronavirus was an attempt to impeach the president.

Her show has now been put on hiatus, with Fox Business explaining in a statement that the decision was based on wanting long form programming during primetime.

In the US 4,461 cases of the disease and 85 deaths have been recorded so far.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended a two-week ban on gatherings of more than 50 people as part of the battle to contain the spread of the contagion.