“I can’t say it enough,” Sean Hannity told his audience last night on Fox News Channel, where critics allege prime-time hosts haven’t said it enough. In an extraordinary appeal, Hannity urged his viewers to “please take COVID seriously,” and emphasized that “I believe in science, and I believe in the science of vaccination.”

This capped a day of FNC emphasis on the necessity of vaccination:

SEAN HANNITY: "Please take Covid seriously. I can't say it enough. Enough people have died. We don't need any more death. Research like crazy. Talk to your doctor… I believe in science. I believe in the science of vaccination." pic.twitter.com/tOi5ebpqSf

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 20, 2021

As the Daily Beast points out, Hannity wasn’t among the most skeptical of Fox hosts, but the enthusiastic call to take the disease seriously stood out as a pattern at FNC yesterday. Business Insider noticed the pattern as well:

Several Fox News hosts include Sean Hannity recanted their disinformation campaigns on COVID-19 vaccines on Monday as the network faces criticism for misinformation on the virus, safety measures, and vaccinations. …

The Hill reported that in two separate segments of Fox & Friends, hosts Steve Doocy and Bill Hemmer both spoke positively of vaccines.

“If you have the chance, get the shot, it will save your life,” Doocy said.

The switch in tone comes after The New York Times ran a story detailing statements made by Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham that were against expert public health advice on vaccines.

The comments from Doocy and Hemmer seemed intended to answer criticism of the network. Doocy in particular addressed the conspiracy-theory pushback against the vaccines, and even offered a bit of sympathy for the Biden administration’s frustration over “disinformation”:

“Well, here’s the thing. And one of the CDC officials said yesterday, look, the pandemic right now is really just with people who have not been vaccinated. Ninety-nine percent of the people who died have not been vaccinated. What they are trying to do is make sure that all of the people who have not been vaccinated get vaccinated,” Steve Doocy said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”

“Unfortunately, and this is one of the reasons apparently that Joe Biden and the administration came out last week, the administration very frustrated. They have not been able to get Facebook to get rid of some of the disinformation. The disinformation is online: The vaccine is killing lots and lots of people or it changes your DNA or there are little microchips. None of that is true.”

After co-host Ainsley Earhardt noted the recent concerted effort coming from the White House to fight the proliferation of vaccine misinformation, Doocy spoke directly to viewers, saying, “If you have the chance, get the shot, it will save your life.”

During a separate segment on Monday’s “Fox & Friends,” co-host and anchor Bill Hemmer asked Fox News medical contributor Marc Siegel: “The vaccine works, right? We haven’t budged on that, have we, doc?”

“The vaccine works extremely well even against the delta variant, preventing infection in 90 percent of cases,” Siegel responded.

Was this a concerted effort by Fox to defend itself against criticism? It seems unlikely that this was all coincidental, but almost as unlikely to have been a coordinated campaign either. Hannity has full editorial control over his show, and he’s wealthy enough to walk away rather than buckle under. The absence of such PSAs from the two prime-time hosts receiving the most criticism — Carlson and Ingraham — strongly suggests a lack of coordination. What seems most likely is that FNC execs have begun encouraging their hosts to emphasize their support for COVID-19 vaccinations on air where it exists, in hopes of blunting the impact of both the criticism and any negative influence on their audience.

The most surprising of these comments came from Doocy, in fact, rather than Hannity. While Hannity talked about conducting “research like crazy” as a sop to the vaccine-skeptical, Doocy called the idea that the vaccines are killing lots of people “disinformation.” That certainly sounds like a denunciation of the rhetoric coming from other FNC figures, even if Doocy may not have meant it to be.

Speaking of which, people are pointing at this exchange between Doocy and Brian Kilmeade in the same segment as evidence of a “feud.” Note, however, that Kilmeade doesn’t push back against the idea of vaccination, but of mandates on vaccination. Going without a COVID-19 vaccine is akin to “cliff diving,” Kilmeade warns after noting his own vaccinated status. If you break both your legs, don’t come running to him. Kilmeade isn’t “going to judge you” for that choice, but he’s not going to make concessions to protect the people who won’t protect themselves. The risk is now shifted entirely to the unvaccinated, as it should be in a nation with an abundance of vaccines, and those who have been vaccinated should live their lives normally.