‘The View’ Co-Host Absent After Testing Positive for COVID-19

Alyssa Farah Griffin is absent from her spot on The View for the second time in two weeks after contracting COVID again. Whoopi Goldberg revealed that Griffin would sit out the March 30 episode at the top of the live broadcast. “Hello, hello, and welcome to The View,” Goldberg said into the camera. “Unfortunately, Alyssa is not with us again because she’s got COVID.” She continued, cautioning the crowd and viewers that it’s still a serious problem. “We keep telling people, it’s not gone. It’s still out there, so do pay attention, because it pops up and wants to give you kisses.”

Farah Griffin isn’t the first co-host on the daytime talk show to contract the virus. In November 2022, Goldberg missed several episodes after contracting COVID. She also got COVID at the top of the year in January 2022. Her diagnosis “was a shock, because I’m triple vaxxed, I haven’t been anywhere, I haven’t done anything,” as ABC reported her saying at the time. “It’s one of those things where you think, I’ve done everything I was supposed to do… Yeah, it doesn’t stop Omicron.”

Farah Griffin officially joined The View in August 2022 alongside Ana Navarro to fill the show’s conservative seat, which was vacated by Meghan McCain. Joy Behar, Goldberg, Sara Haines, and Sunny Hostin remain on the panel.

Farah Griffin says Goldberg, the show’s moderator, gave her the best and most light advice. “She jokes with me,  reminding me, ‘Don’t read the comments. Turn it off. Do not listen to the haters,’” she said. “And it’s really meant a lot to me. I hear Whoopi in my head when I start doom-scrolling and I’m like, “Why am I doing this?” I don’t need those people’s opinion.”