NEWSJULY 10, 2020

Texas A&M student claims racist notes were placed on his car. Police say it looks like he did it.

The investigation has been closed.

NBC CONTRIBUTOR REPEATEDLY FEATURED ON THE NETWORK DURING HIS “BATTLE WITH COVID” REVEALS THAT HE NEVER ACTUALLY HAD THE VIRUS

by Kevin Ryan

Dr. Joseph Fair, a virologist and science contributor for MSNBC and NBC News, went on the networks nearly a dozen times this spring to document his near-fatal battle with COVID-19. He said he contracted COVID-19 on a plane, despite following all CDC recommendations. The shows presented it as a “warning” that young (Fair is 42 years old), healthy people risk severe illness and death from the disease.

What many of the shows didn’t mention was that all seven of Fair’s test results for COVID had come back negative. And the segments that did mention the negative test results presented them as a “cautionary tale” about “false negatives”.

Now, however, antibody tests on Fair are coming back negative as well, and he has tweeted that he didn’t have the virus after all.

Here’s a timeline of the doctor’s illness and press appearances -

• April 30: Dr. Fair took a flight to New Orleans where he says passengers were “packed in like sardines.”
• May 3: Fair says he started feeling symptoms.
• May 11: He says he couldn't breathe so he called an ambulance and admitted himself to the hospital.
• May 14: Dr. Fair appeared on the Today from a New Orleans hospital bed. He said he had contracted COVID through his eyes while on the plane, and said the “airlines aren’t social distancing. I should have gotten off the flight when I saw that.”
“I was a very healthy person. I exercise five to six days a week. If it can take even me down, it can take anybody down.”
Host Hoda Kotb pointed out that Fair had tested negative four different times, but said “clearly you have it.” The show’s other two hosts said it was “scary” that there could be so many “false negatives”, with cohost Savannah Guthrie calling it a “cautionary tale”. Fair also appeared on NBC Nightly News that day.
• May 15: In a tweet, Fair mentioned he’d had 4 negative Abbott tests, 1 negative Biofire tests, 1 negative in house PCR test, and one borderline CRISPR test. Despite this, he continued to make appearances as if he were a COVID patient.
• May 18: Fair appeared on a segment of “Deadline: White House” that was publicized as “Breaking News: NBC News Contributor Updates On His Battle With COVID-19.”
• June 14: he appeared on Meet the Press to discuss his recovery, saying “Those people that are young and think they're invincible or people that just don't think it's going to affect them that greatly even if they do get it, I can say that my own experience was the complete opposite.”
Neither he, nor host Chick Todd, told the audience that Fair had already had at least five negative coronavirus tests.
• June 17: On the Today show, he mentioned the negative tests, but said one was a “borderline positive” result. Note: the test reveals a positive or negative result, or a result which is too weak and inconclusive. There is no “borderline positive” result.
• July 7: Fair announces that antibody testing has concluded that he did not have COVID, and he now reveals his case was “undiagnosed”. “My undiagnosed/suspected COVID illness from nearly 2 months ago remains an undiagnosed mystery as a recent antibody test was negative. I had myriad COVID symptoms, was hospitalized in a COVID ward & treated for COVID-related co-morbidities, despite testing negative by nasal swab.”
• July 8: NBC reveals Dr. Fair tested negative for antibodies. “Weeks after he was hospitalized with what his doctors assumed was the coronavirus, NBC News contributor and virologist Dr. Joseph Fair, Ph.D., M.P.H., said his recent antibody test has come back negative.”

“When I got the antibody results, I was even more confused. What would have caused almost identical symptoms and outcomes during the same time as a pandemic causing those things?,” Fair told TODAY.

“Fair is surprised he didn't contract the virus at the hospital. ‘There were a lot of coronavirus-positive people in there,’ he said. ‘What is really shocking to me is that I didn't get the virus in there. As a virologist, that part blows my mind.’”

Yet, for several months, Fair’s story was presented as a 42-year-old runner, virologist, and epidemiologist in excellent health, with no underlying conditions, who contracted the disease through his eyes on a plane while practicing every safety recommendation made by the CDC, and who had seven false negative test results and almost lost his life.

NBC News still has an not corrected or retracted its stories on Fair.