CNN’s John King says he has MS, grateful for vaccinations

NEW YORK, Oct 20, (AP): CNN’s John King revealed during an onair discussion of COVID-19 vaccine mandates on Tuesday that he has multiple sclerosis.

“I’m going to share a secret I’ve never spoken before,” King said while leading a panel discussion on his “Inside Politics” show. “I’m immunocompromised. I have multiple sclerosis. So, I’m grateful you’re all vaccinated.”

King and his guests were talking about mandates in the context of the death of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died Monday of COVID complications despite being vaccinated because he had cancer that compromised his immune system.

CNN mandates that all of its employees who come to work in an office or are out in the field with other people be vaccinated, and fired three employees this summer when they came to work unvaccinated.

King, 58, said his 10-year-old son can’t be vaccinated yet, and he’s concerned about bringing the virus home to him.

“I don’t like the government telling me what to do,” King said. “I don’t like my boss telling me what to do. In this case, it’s important.”

King has worked as a political reporter, White House correspondent and national correspondent for CNN after joining the network from The Associated Press in 1997.

Fox News Channel anchor Neil Cavuto tested positive for COVID-19, which he said was surprising but made him grateful that he was vaccinated.

Cavuto, who learned of the test results after Monday’s episode of “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” wasn’t on the air Tuesday.

“While I’m somewhat stunned by this news, doctors tell me I’m lucky as well. Had I not been vaccinated, and with all my medical issues, this would be a far more dire situation,” Cavuto said in a statement released by Fox News.

“It’s not, because I did and I’m surviving this because I did. I hope anyone and everyone gets that message loud and clear. Get vaccinated, for yourself and everyone around you,” the journalist said.

Cavuto, who had open-heart surgery in 2016 and was treated for cancer in the 1980s, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1997.

Also Tuesday, CNN’s John King revealed on his “Inside Politics” show that he has multiple sclerosis, which makes him immunocompromised. “So, I’m grateful you’re all vaccinated,” he said during a panel discussion. CNN mandates that all of its employees who work in an office or in the field with other people be vaccinated.

Fox News employees are required to let the company know their vaccination status and, if they haven’t been vaccinated, to be tested regularly for COVID-19.

Cavuto also anchors Fox News Channel’s “Cavuto Live” on Saturdays and Fox Business Network’s weekday show “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.”

Also:

NEW YORK: Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates dozens of TV stations across the US, said Monday that some of its servers and work stations were encrypted with ransomware and that data was stolen from its network.

The company said it started investigating Saturday and on Sunday it found that some of its office and operational networks were disrupted. The broadcast group did not immediately say how many TV stations were directly affected.

The Hunt Valley, Maryland-based company either owns or operates 21 regional sports network and owns, operates or provides services to 185 television stations in 86 markets.

In Toledo, Ohio, WNWO appeared to be off the air Monday afternoon. The station posted on Facebook that “our operations are currently limited. We will provide further updates as they become available.”

On WJLA, a Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate in Washington, anchors opened their 4 p.m. newscast by telling viewers the station was under cyberattack and its computers and video servers were down. Nashville, Tennessee’s WZTV put out a notice on its website Monday about “serious technical issues” at the TV station affecting its ability to stream content.

“We are also currently unable to access our email and your phone calls to the station,” it said.

Sinclair said it’s taken measures to contain the breach and that its investigation is ongoing. However, it said that the data breach has caused — and may continue to cause — disruption to parts of its business, including aspects of local advertisements by local broadcast stations. The company said it is working to restore operations.

Sinclair said it can’t determine whether or not the data breach will have a material impact on its business, operations or financial results.

Ransomware attacks, in which cyber criminals encrypt an organization’s data and then demand payment to unscramble it, are a growing scourge in the United States. The Biden administration has pledged to disrupt and prosecute criminal networks like the one that attacked a major US pipeline company in May. The attack on Colonial Pipeline, which led to gas shortages along the East Coast, was attributed to a Russia-based gang of cybercriminals.

Ransomware payments reached more than $400 million globally in 2020 and topped $81 million in the first quarter of 2021, according to the US government.