Meghan McCain has leaned fully into COVID vaccine skepticism.
McCain touted a new partnership with a doctor selling a COVID vaccine “detox” pill that’s spawned accusations of a “grift” in an X post, claiming the drug offered “hope” for people who “regret taking” mRNA-based shots.
“Concerning data continues to emerge regarding mRNA vaccines and their unforeseen health impacts,” McCain wrote on X. “They did not deliver what was promised by government + health officials. I have friends who suffered —heart and menstruation issues & more. It’s time to pull them off the market NOW.”
The about-face came years after McCain, a former co-host of The View who now hosts a podcast, repeatedly expressed gratitude for the vaccine and promoted it during the Biden administration.
McCain said she was “thrilled” to promote the “Ultimate Spike Detox” with The Wellness Company’s Dr. Peter McCollough. She offered an eponymous discount code, “MCCAIN,” for people to get 10 percent off. “If you regret taking the shot, there’s hope,” she wrote.
A representative for McCain said McCain did not have an immediate comment but may address it on her podcast, Citizen McCain.
McCain’s decision to promote McCollough, whose board certification with the American Board of Internal Medicine was revoked for allegedly spreading COVID-19 misinformation, angered some political pundits online in light of her past defense of the science behind the vaccines, which became widely available in early 2021.
Some questioned whether McCain truly needed the money provided by the sponsorship and accused her of a blatant “grift.”
“Big moments in health care policy from the McCain family,” CNN reporter Edward-Issac Dovare wrote on X, referencing her late father John McCain’s pivotal vote in 2017 in the Senate to prevent the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. “2017: John McCain is the deciding vote to stop Obamacare repeal. 2025: Meghan McCain becomes paid spokesperson for unscientific Covid vaccine reversal pills created by doctor who lost credentials.”
McCain’s new endeavor contradicts many of her past statements about the vaccine.
She first expressed effusive support for the vaccines in March 2021.
“Personally, I am happy to get a vaccine live on the show,” McCain said on The View. “I do trust science, I trust doctors. Quite frankly, I’d let them put an iPod Nano between my shoulder blades if it means I can get drunk at Caesars Palace again. So I’ll do what anybody wants. I do trust the doctors.”
She later complained to her View co-hosts in July 2021 that the Biden administration rejected her attempt to help them promote the vaccine alongside influencers like pop star Olivia Rodrigo. She said she didn’t think the administration was effectively reaching Republicans, something she thought she could help them with.
“There’s lots of different demographics that are vaccine hesitant for a lot of reasons, and we need to be reaching out to people in lots of different ways,” McCain said. “I’m going to say it again, I don’t think the White House is doing a good job reaching out to Republicans. I don’t. I’ve offered my help. They haven’t accepted it. They don’t care.”
She even got into a Twitter spat with rapper Nicki Minaj after the artist expressed some hesitation in getting the shot, asking her to speak to former President Biden’s COVID czar, Dr. Ashish Jha, after Minaj told her to “eat s--t.”
“You have an enormous platform and have just spread unimaginable vaccine hesitancy to your fans,” she wrote in Sept. 2021. “Not only is it deeply irresponsible, it is very sad. I hope you talk to doctors and scientists like @ashishkjha like I did eventually. People are still dying from covid.”
McCain also wrote a Daily Mail column in early 2022 and revealed she tested positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated, expressing gratitude for the vaccine mitigating the virus’ symptoms while worrying about “the unknown long-term side effects that I may experience” from the infection.
The “detox” partnership is the latest in a series of McCain’s reversals. She announced in February a new partnership with former ABC News political director Mark Halperin’s 2Way network despite years of flaming him alongside other men accused of sexual misconduct. She said she believed in “giving people the presumption of grace and forgiveness as I would like it in return.”
