Dr. Phil’s Abrupt COVID Tirade Rankles View Hosts — Watch

Dr. Phil McGraw appeared on The View Monday as part of the press tour for his upcoming book and primetime show, but a sudden segue into the topic of COVID and its effects on school children caught the hosts entirely by surprise.

The puzzling exchange began after Sara Haines asked the TV personality a question about how social media has caused parents to adapt to make sure they’re “the best voice” in children’s ears. McGraw discussed how after the adoption of smartphones, there was a huge spike in the levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness reported among children but, “Then COVID hits 10 years later and the same agencies that knew that are the agencies that shut down the schools for two years. Who does that?” he asked.

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Phil continued, stating that the shutting down of schools prevented mandated reporters from being able to see children who were being abused at home.

Sunny Hostin then chimed in, “There was also a pandemic going on and they were trying to save people’s lives.” Whoopi Goldberg added, “Remember, we know a lot of folks who died during this.”

“Not school children,” McGraw responded. Whoopi fired back: “Maybe because we kept them out of places [so] that they could be safe because no one wanted to believe that we had an issue.”

When Ana Navarro asked if McGraw was saying that no school children died of COVID, he replied that kids were “the [least] vulnerable group,” and that they suffered more from “the mismanagement of COVID than they will from the exposure to COVID.”

The conversation ended there, as the segment’s allotted time had expired.

This wasn’t the first time McGraw has spoken out on the topic. In 2020, he came under fire for likening deaths from COVID-19 to that of car accidents or smoking.

Watch the exchange between McGraw and The View hosts embedded above.

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