Mentions of Covid-19 across television news have dropped sharply since the days before the storming of the capitol, from a little more than 10% of total daily airtime to just over 2% across CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.
Interestingly, throughout the pandemic MSNBC has always mentioned it considerably less than CNN. In the early days of the outbreak, Fox News mentioned it as often as CNN and briefly covered it more than CNN, but beginning at the end of April there is a stark drop in mentions – a trend which has held through the pandemic. Only at the end of December did it increase its coverage to MSNBC's levels, while since a few days before the capitol storming all three channels have devoted roughly equal airtime to the pandemic.