Meghan McCain Speaks out After ‘The View’ Rival Joy Behar Steps Away From Show Amid Coronavirus Concerns

Meghan McCain is voicing her support for Joy Behar after she announced that she would taking time off from The View amid ongoing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. After Behar announced her upcoming absence Thursday, McCain took to Twitter to react, stating that she “deeply” respects Behar’s choice.

According to Behar, her decision to take a step back from daily tapings of the popular ABC talk show have to do with her being 77, meaning that she is among the most at-risk group of people, and came at the urging of her daughter. “I’m in a higher risk group because of my age, but I’m perfectly healthy,” she said at the top of Friday’s episode. “I don’t look my age, but I’m actually up there. The number makes me dizzy.”

At this time, Behar will be absent from the talk show next week and will decide at a later time when to return to the show. Behar appeared on Friday’s episode, which was pre-taped on Thursday and included the announcement.

Meanwhile, her co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Meghan McCain, and Sunny Hostin have not yet announced similar steps and will continue to appear on The View. Neither the co-hosts or any of staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.

As a precautionary measure, the talk show has chosen to take steps to limit the co-hosts’ exposure to other people. On Wednesday, it was revealed that The View had scrapped its studio audience, following in the footsteps of many other morning talk shows that have done the same, including Live with Kelly and Ryan and The Wendy Williams Show.

“It’s a historic day,” Goldberg said, according to PEOPLE. “The coronavirus situation is still developing and for the first time ever, as you can see, we made the decision not to have a studio audience.”

The cameras then panned to the dozens of empty chairs, which would typically be filled by fans.

“This is unprecedented, this has never happened on The View,” Goldberg added, explaining that even after the show returned in the weeks following the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks, the show returned with an audience.

The drastic measures come amid growing concerns over the novel coronavirus, which the World Health Organization officially classified as a pandemic on Wednesday. Worldwide, more than 120,000 people have contracted COVID-19, with over 1,000 confirmed cases in the United States.