Fox News Anchor Returns, Confirms He Was Hospitalized With COVID Pneumonia

Longtime Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto returned to the airwaves after a five-week absence he said was due to a battle with COVID-induced pneumonia.

“I’m back,” Cavuto declared Monday morning on his Fox Business Network show, which has featured a rotation of fill-in hosts while he was off-air for previously undisclosed reasons.

“I did get COVID again—but a far, far more serious strand, what doctors call ‘COVID pneumonia,’” he confirmed. “It landed me in intensive care for quite a while and it really was touch-and-go.” The affable host joked: “Some of you who’ve wanted to put me out of my misery darn near got what you wished for! So, sorry to disappoint you!”

The Year Neil Cavuto, Fox News’ Affable Trump Skeptic, Got Angry

The fully vaccinated Cavuto—who has long been open about surviving cancer, living with multiple sclerosis, and undergoing open-heart surgery in 2016— also took shots at the anti-vaxxers who might suggest the jab got him sick.

“The vaccine didn’t cause that. That grassy knoll theory has come up a lot. My very compromised immune system did... I’m among the vulnerable three percent or so of the population that cannot sustain the full benefits of a vaccine,” he explained. “But let me be clear, doctors say had I not been vaccinated at all, I wouldn’t be here.”

He continued of his battle against the deadly virus: “This was scary. How scary? I’m talking, ‘Ponderosa suddenly out of the prime rib in the middle of the buffet line scary!’ That’s how scary. No matter, I’m not here to debate vaccinations for you. Just offer an explanation for me. I owed you that.”

After first testing positive for the virus in Oct. 2021, Cavuto pleaded with the network’s viewers to get their vaccines: “Life is too short to be an ass,” he said at the time. “Stop the deaths. Stop the suffering. Please, get vaccinated.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.