Gayle King And Vlad Duthiers Test Positive For Covid; King Does ‘CBS Mornings’ From Mobile Van

Gayle King and Vlad Duthiers tested positive for Covid, forcing CBS Mornings to take a series of steps as a precaution.

At 7:30 AM, co-anchor Tony Dokoupil went to King, who was appearing from inside a van outside the studio.

“I never expected to be sitting in a van,” she said. “I came, ready to go to work. There was an exposure. I have had a test, and now we are waiting for the results of my test. So rather than take a chance and hurt anyone else, or somebody else would be affected, I am down in my van. Rather than isolating in her office, King said that she wanted to appear on the show to present her interview with the parents of Bakari Henderson. She said that she was “stunned” by the positive test, given that she has routinely tested negative.

Dokoupil later said that that King and Duthiers had tested positive. Duthiers had been filling in for Nate Burleson but left the broadcast.

King said that she had since had multiple negative tests, and planned to go on vacation to Los Angeles on Friday.

“That primal screen from the fourth floor was me, because I have been so freaking careful. I just couldn’t believe it,” King said. She said that Shawna Thomas, the show’s executive producer, “had to literally pick me up off the floor and just guide to the office, because I had a positive PCR, a negative antigen, then we have since taken multiple, they all have been negative. Everybody on my team is negative. I don’t even know how to explain this. I just got off the phone with my doctor. She said, ‘Gayle, you’re fine. Just put on your mask and carry on. But it is very very jarring, I have to say, the say before my vacation.”

Plans are for Duthiers to return to the show on Friday. He also tested negative after the positive test.

“Had a bit of a scare this morning when one of my routine PCR tests came up positive for covid-19. Took two more PCR tests to be sure and they both came up negative,” Duthiers later wrote on Twitter.

Dokoupil broadcast from the studio along with Dana Jacobson, and they had tested negative.

The scramble by CBS Mornings to take precautions reflected the reality of live TV during Covid, a personalities on a number of shows are frequently tested. In September, Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin left the set of The View after being informed that they tested positive. That forced the show to cancel an in-studio appearance by Vice President Kamala Harris, who instead appeared remotely from another location in the building. Navarro and Hostin tested negative in the days following.

It’s been a different kind of morning: Earlier today, @GayleKing and @vladduthiersCBS  tested positive for COVID at our Times Square studio — since then, there have been multiple negative tests. We will have more updates tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/yigDnzKZqF

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) February 10, 2022

FIRST ON #CBSMornings: The parents of Bakari Henderson, a Black American beaten to death in Greece in 2017, say that they are still fighting for justice, ahead of their return for a retrial.

“It’s very hard to imagine that people would have that much hate,” they tell @GayleKing. pic.twitter.com/NOfrdTVVwh

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) February 10, 2022