Matthew McConaughey said he wouldn’t support a vaccine mandate for younger children and stated publicly that he hadn’t vaccinated his children. He’s reasoning was that he “quarantined harder” than his friends. When I hear crap like that, I can’t decide if I want to use my pillow to scream in or smack them on the head. The thing is, Matthew is an actor, and wants to be governor of a heavily populated state. Both of those things make people listen to him, whether they should or not. I don’t agree with his decision not to vaccinate his kids, but his reasoning is utter bullsh*t. There is no way to quantify how “hard” he’s quarantined or how it measures up to anyone else. But someone will hear this as a valid reason to ignore a recommendation by all the major health organizations because McConaughey said it was okay. At least one of those health organizations is officially telling Matty-Boy he’s doing harm. US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy responded to McConaughey’s nonsense by reminding him and the rest of the country that kids are dying from Covid.
US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy stressed Tuesday that parents need to recognize that “Covid is not harmless in our children” after actor Matthew McConaughey said his kids aren’t vaccinated and that he’s against mandating vaccines for children.
“Many kids have died. Sadly, hundreds of children — thousands — have been hospitalized, and as a dad of a child who has been hospitalized several years ago for another illness, I would never wish upon any parent they have a child that ends up in the hospital,” Murthy told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront.”
“And the vaccines have shown in these trials for children 5 through 11 they are more at 90% effective in protecting our kids from symptomatic infection, and they are remarkably safe as well.”
[From CNN via Hollywood Life]
Covid is not harmless in anyone. All of these people who want more information on the vaccine, what exactly would satisfy them? There are studies and research showing the vaccine is effective and safe. There is hard evidence that children are contracting, suffering and dying from Covid. What other information does anyone need and why are they willing to risk their child’s health over it? I have never found the value in taking a wait and see approach to a deadly virus.
I’m sorry I sound crispy but I’m angry. I appreciate Dr. Murthy coming out with this statement, but he shouldn’t have to. This was irresponsible of McConaughey, and I’m not even convinced he truly believes what he’s saying. I think he’s playing to a base he wants to vote for him. McConaughey said that he was “in a position” where he could “quarantine harder” and test a “heavy amount” for Covid but that not everyone could. That privilege will not inoculate his children against suffering if they contract Covid. Whatever information he needs to come around on this, he better find it quickly, because this virus doesn’t care what his position is.
Not all actors spew nonsense, fortunately:
My cousin would like to have a word with you. But he can’t. He died of polio.
You’re an actor, not a scientist. You’re pandering in a way that harms children and prevents them from having the safe return to school they deserve. https://t.co/EbgzCRhW08— Bradley Whitford (@BradleyWhitford) November 10, 2021
Photo credit: InStar Images
If he was really doing research on the issue he would know that children have died from COVID.
I agree. I’d be interested to hear what MM’s wife Camilla thinks of all his posturing
Josh Lyman!!! I’ve always loved Brad Whitford so much.
MM is a turd.
My SIL has had extreme COVID anxiety since the beginning of the pandemic – at an outside gathering in the summer (in that golden moment where we were allowed to have small outdoor gatherings), she kept her kids masked and they had to eat 20 feet away from the rest of us. Which was fine. Now every single adult in the immediate family is triple-jabbed and talking about a small Christmas lunch. And it turns out, she has “concerns” about the rare side effects and won’t be getting her kids vaxxed. The misinformation out there is staggering. WTAF.
Long time reader, first time commenter. I am so so sorry. I’m a Christian pastor (rejoicing in vaccines and modern medicine) and I see up close in families how this anti-vaxx sh** is tearing families apart. It breaks my heart. My mom (also a Christian pastor) just did a funeral for a man where he and his wife were vehemently anti-mask/vax. He died of Covid. And the adult kids, who are pro-vaccine/mask, are dealing with anger and grief, all rolled into a thousand other emotions. The wife stood alone at the funeral, because everyone is so angry (and worried about Covid!) I’m so sorry about your SIL and the way this hurts your whole family. Hopefully she will understand who are the people she should trust — and who to distrust.
Families will be suffering from the effects of this public “discourse “ for decades. Long after we get the virus under control, there will be aunts that have never met their siblings kids, elderly parents dying without having had contact with their own children in the years leading up to their death.
A visit to Colorado to see my husband’s immediate family caused a rift that I don’t think will heal. Among other things, seeing my beautiful nieces suffering from what is most likely long-term Covid of some kind (1 has lost hair and has a facial and upper body rash that is some immunological response to something) while they remain unvaccinated was hard to watch, and I won’t even get into the worst of the visit.
Thanks for your note. It reminds me that we are all I this together.
Great smackdown from Bradley Whitford.
Yes!
Also, someone should remind MM that even if kids don’t die when they get COVID, kids have developed myocarditis, weird inflammatory problems, respiratory problems and – bonus – long COVID!
If you love your children and they don’t have vaccine allergies, please get them vaccinated against COVID. Otherwise you’re leaving them at risk of a lifetime of chronic health issues, not just death.
YES! I have so many friends whose kids have had mild Covid. Couldn’t pull the kids out of sports! My dear friend died in her late 60s, from heart disease from having rheumatic fever as a child. She didn’t even remember having it as a kid. We have NO IDEA the long term effect of covid!
I know this is unpopular to say but this was only tested in a small number of kids and many of the side effects and adverse reactions we’ve seen in older teens and young adults and older adults apparently (?) did not ‘show up’ in the initial trials. I understand entirely the threat of Covid but concern about the vaccine can still exist and be legitimate. Each vaccine is not the same. There seems to be no nuance in how people look at this or remembrance of how the pharmaceutical companies have a history of hiding things and malfeasance. Covid is not going to make them angels straight away. A healthy skepticism is required. Not saying his ‘argument’ which I haven’t followed is a correct one but there are others that are. I understand people can’t hear this; it’s not diminishing the threat and reality of Covid but understanding there may be concerns that are legitimate. To say that no other views can be expressed goes against where we should be as a society.
Sorry but there are situations where society gets to decide for the individual. The good for society has outweighed individual risk on vaccines since we were scraping smallpox pus off of cows. I don’t care what anyone’s argument is. Get vaxxed or get the hell out of society.
I’m just gonna let this 27 second clip of Mr. Spock speak for me….
https://youtu.be/Xa6c3OTr6yA
Yeah, my neighbor has a 5-year-old with some heart issues and she’s not getting him vaccinated right away. Her two other children are vaccinated, but she wants to wait on her youngest. Can’t blame her, she’s trying to make the best decision for her child.
What does her medical doctor recommend? I can blame her if she is going against sound medical advice.
“It’s only been tested in a small number of children” and “they rushed this study” are both pieces of misinformation, popular anti-vax/anti-science “talking points,” and you should be ashamed for spreading it.
Thank you.
Thank you!
Yep. A prime example of mis/disinformation out in the wild.
@CFY: Thank you! You said it perfectly and I’m going to steal your words for future use.
Well-said.
Did you even bother to go to the CDC’s website before spewing your ‘unpopular’ lies? Go away.
Did you get this info from Joe Rogan, per chance?
Vaccine disinformation is reckless and dangerous.
“Healthy skepticism”? With all due respect, go f**k yourself. The only reason we aren’t seeing horrific images of kids’ dead bodies overwhelming morgues and being stored in ice trucks is the fact that the majority of the country has gotten vaccinated and slowed the spread of the virus. You can only afford your skepticism because the rest of us vaccinated our kids and ourselves, and put the well-being of the society above our own fears in this once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe. At this point, I have zero patience for anyone who hats vaccine hesitant.
So ironic that those who profess their scepticism about the vaccine are so gullible about the lies of con man trump and his henchmen. Hook, line and sinker.
Skepticism and nuance do not replace science.
Fortunately for you (and anyone else practicing “skepticism”) there’s info for you right here: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/planning/children.html
Other views? The views of an actor should be held as equal to those of trained experts? That’s absurd, sorry.
No one needs to know what misinformed people “think” about a vaccine. They need to know what doctors and epidemiologists think.
Healthy skepticism?? Regarding COVID isn’t this the most ridiculous oxymoron ever in the history of oxymorons! My skepticism ended when I saw global numbers skyrocket. When I saw New York’s ERs swell. When I saw healthcare workers commit suicide. When I heard every single moronic statement emerge from the White House (Clorox people). When I saw our world try to be proactive by asking everyone to stay the f@ck home. When I saw an uprising of QAnon f@ckers and right wing health terrorists fight against precautions. When I saw people killed because they asked a patron to wear a f@cking mask! When I saw adults attack a child because he dared speak about mask importance after losing his grandfather. When I saw my five month old grandson hospitalized because he most likely got COVID from his right wing nut job great grandfather who ultimately lost his life two weeks after testing positive. He cried on his death bed apologizing to his sons for being dangerous, ridiculous, arrogant and WRONG.
@Tinnie – as a clinical research professional, I can assure you that a sample size of 2268 w/a 2:1 randomization scheme is most certainly not a “small number of kids” For every drug/biologic, when we go from thousands to tens of millions exposed, we will see some adverse events that occur at such a low rate that they don’t show up until you have millions exposed. That’s not a sign that the product is inherently less safe than thought based on clinical trials, that’s a sign that the risk of those AEs is really low. I can also assure you that the amount of exposure in the covid vax clinical trials for even the EUA submission is significantly higher than not only most other vaccines/biologics, but also higher than most drugs when they submit for full approval
As for McConaughy quarantining so much harder than his friends, in making this case, he actually makes the case for vaccine mandates. The general public does not have the same ability to sequester and protect their families/children that super rich asshole celebrities do
Thank you!
@pottymouth pup Ty!
Considering how many sites that had never conducted a research study ever participated and the travel restrictions in place that hindered some monitoring (both subjects reporting for follow ups and study monitors), the risk register (where Pfizer had to log all of these identified risks) must’ve been pretty lengthy. I STILL vaccinated my entire family and my 9 yr old is getting the 1st dose on 11/15.
No way am I going to sit in an ICU unit and watch helplessly as my child suffers.
COVID gets into a person’s respiratory system and gets to work replicating itself and spreading to major organs in the body.
When it manufactures enough of itself, it’s goal is to get itself from that host to infect another body and start the process all over again. To do that, the virus has to travel out of the mouth and nose of the host.
Ppl act like COVID is Skynet, like it has achieved sentience. COVID doesn’t have a brain and it hasn’t read that eyeopening amazing anti vax article on FaceBook – it just wants to get into your body via mucous membranes, etc. and start making more of itself.
I seriously think MM suffers from the effects of long-term MJ use.
Another physician with a graduate degreee in health research and Dr. Pottymouth is absolutely right. There is a reason every physician I know who could enrolled their kids in the trial and entire FB feed is doctor moms with their kids’ sleeves rolled up to boast their bandaids. It’s incredibly well studied and very safe.
@Tinnie then ask a real doctor specific questions instead of spewing false shit and unwarranted skepticism! In no way shape or form do we need to hear from anyone other than epidemiologists, medical doctors, and public health specialists with years of experience under their belts. You know nothing. What you and others are doing is purposefully sowing mistrust so you don’t feel so alone in your uneducated decision. But guess what your actions are literally killing people, so you don’t get to have a pass where we all sweetly tell you your concerns are valid. You, McConaughey, Quaaron, and all the other covidiots have blood on your hands. If you took two seconds to figure out what a reliable source is (newsflash it’s not Facebook, Fox News, or you neighbor!!!), then you would know that the absolute worst adverse reaction for the covid vaccine in the MILLIONS of children aged 12-17 was a very very small number of males getting myocarditis, and every single one of those cases resolved completely either on their own or with basic anti-inflammatories in a few days with NO LONG TERM PROBLEMS! That’s it!!!! This is a truly wonderful and safe vaccine, so you better believe my 5 year old has gotten his first shot and I’m on pins and needles waiting for it to be approved for my 3 year old.
“Covid is not going to make them angels straight away.” Tell that to the parents of children KILLED BY COVID!!! See you next Tuesday!
People are being very unkind and causing people who won’t get vaccinated to dig in their heels. You’re actually making it less likely that people who are hesitant will get vaccinated.
I know a lot of people who’ve died and am vaccinated and I also think that the tone here is out of control.
@Catherine, I’ll skip the “with all due respect” because quite honestly, what you’re seeing here is the release of pent up anger, frustration and grief. While people who spew dangerous lies invade school board meetings (and don’t even have kids there!), actively put teachers in impossible situations, and medical professionals are being run into the ground, there’s going to be a release somewhere. I for one am extremely reluctant to publicly try and engage with someone who CLEARLY doesn’t want to understand science at this point because every. Single. Person. I know who holds these views is like a rabid dog just waiting to pick a fight. Wearing masks that say “forced to wear this”, fighting restaurant workers, assaulting airline workers. The time for civil engagement that could have made a difference passed last spring. People who are digging in their heels are doing so for no other reason than to prove a point that they CAN. It’s morally reprehensible at BEST. so you know what, THANK YOU posters above for being “unkind” by calling out dangerous information that can easily be disproven on a site that has provided refuge to many of us over the past 2 years (longer for me). I can 100% say people who aren’t vaccinated by now (not due to legitimate medical conditions) will only want do so when they’re learning they’re likely going to die alone in an ICU.
yeah, I’m fully vaxed and was very happy when I was allowed to get it. But even not all governments agree with vaccinating children under the age of 12, so this unison here is not a general consensus even between health agencies over the world.
He is rich and his kids would get probably better treatment than other children of people with less means who would listen to him
I’ve said this a thousand times but at this point it’s about protecting other people. I would be devastated if I found out I unknowingly infected someone and they got seriously ill or died, and I hadn’t done everything I could to prevent that.
Somehow my son and I have managed to not get Covid or had very mild cases. I’ve been fully vaxxed since May and he gets his first shot tomorrow (he is 5). I feel like our luck is going to run out soon so yeah I signed him up sooner than I had originally planned. But I also read the Pfizer study and feel very confident in getting the vaccine for him.
A friend of my parents got covid, and didn’t close his store, went for walks, etc. He ended up infecting an elderly person, one of his best friend. This elderly gentleman died of covid complications. My parents ‘ friend commited suicide out of guilt for’ killing’ his friend…
It was so easy to avoid if he had stayed home, but he thought covid is just like a cold… 😢😕
I know this is anecdotal, but I had a case of whooping cough as a child that has affected me for life. My lungs are jacked in that I can have a cold in the morning, bronchitis by lunch and pneumonia in the evening and a doctor told me it can be traced back to that case of whooping cough when I was young. I can only imagine what Covid will do to kids who recover now when they are older. Everybody should get vaxxed.
I currently have a case of (non-covid) bronchitis. I get bronchitis all the time thanks to a respiratory virus I had as a kid. That’s why I get so angry when I hear people talk about natural immunity. I have “natural immunity” to that virus I had in preschool and now my lungs are permanently scarred, and every winter is hell for me. We’re so lucky in the modern western world, that we forget why we developed vaccines in the first place.
I’ll take my chances with vaccine side effects, because I know first hand the long term damage a nasty virus can have.
kids are being admitted to the hospital & ICUs for co-infections of RSV and COVID. RSV in school-aged kids doesn’t usually lead to hospitalizations but now that COVID is also in play, those mild infections are becoming a major issue
I also had whooping cough as a very young child. I can remember the coughing fits & being unable to breathe. The doctor told my mother that if I hadn’t been vaccinated, I would have died. This is the example I give when talking with anyone who has doubts about the Covid vaccinations
My kids are both under 12, in school, play soccer and I seriously only know of one parent who is also vaxxing her child. Scary
This! It absolutely blows my mind that parent’s with really active kids don’t want to vaccinate them.
My best friend from childhood is an NP and has 2 small kids. She’s gotten into arguments with other friend’s who are anti-vax, but now she is refusing to get the COVID vaccine or give it to her children. Her entire (huge) family is against it as well and do nothing to prevent the spread. I just don’t understand. It seems so reckless.
I’ve heard all the excuses from parents I talk with.
When I say “well my son has asthma so I need to have him protected” they say something like “oh yah, I’d be worried about that too.” I mean, you can worry about that even if your kid doesn’t have an underlying illness. You can prevent your kid from getting others sick. Blows my mind.
I’m grateful that California is going to have a vaccine mandate for kids in school. Just like all the other vaccines they have to take to start kindergarten. My issue is that unlike 100 years ago in the 1918 pandemic this virus is not going to die off but be constantly spread and mutate because we all travel so much more.
Good news is that I’m shedding moronic idiots I follow on Instagram who make any kind of anti vaxx posts, not interested in medical advice from actors, fashion designers and rich kids.
Here’s hoping that his wife takes the kids for their shots without telling him. His decision to not vax the children is deeply stupid. (BTW Camilla, it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.) I don’t depend on actors for medical advice, nor do I want to see my doctor as Hamlet!
And they live with his elderly mother. Why wouldn’t he get them vaxxed?!
I know I post sporadically, but those who know, know that I can’t stand this guy, since his whole the Washington Team should keep their name, for nostalgia and how sad he’d be and his best friends who are Native don’t care, blah, effing blah. This deadly shtick is so him and, agreed, is playing to the base he wants to cultivate. Just like the worst Chris, Prince ragey-jaw, and the alleged athlete who hosted Jeopardy, temporarily.
I really despise when I hear about people claiming my Native best friend doesn’t care about costumes, names and similar. Because, what I hear is shame, let me carry the wyt person’s message, to the detriment of my soul, because the pain of not doing that is more traumatic and I have no power here to do something different. That’s a gut-wrenching, generational hurt, from deadly punishment because we are who we are, indigenous people, and yet he creates cultures like that around himself. It’s still deadly, our suicide rates our disproportionate and other BIPOC people face the same types of suicidal thoughts/completions from experiencing racism.
You know what else is disproportionate? Dying from COVID. I feel that wyt people like this continue to operate from fear that our health and safety takes away from their status and so burn us and burn the kids of people who will latch onto this savior – who is coming to a Texas town near you to save you, if you’ll only vote for him. TL;DR? F*ck you Matt.
p.s. I couldn’t ignore one more M.M. post without saying something.
I had to laugh at myself and I could go without saying. I just didn’t. Lots of great comments on this thread celebitchies. Thanks.
I have a degree in epi and parsing huge studies is a challenge for me. I’m not sure how lay people think they’re going to wait for more information and interpret safety studies for the vaccine. What exactly are they looking for and how will they know when they’ve found it?
This. I spit my coffee out when I read Aaron Rogers statement about how he did months of research, talked with doctors, etc before he made the decision to not get vaxxed. He sounds like an idiot. But it’s such a stupid statement that it’s almost funny.. like what research did you do, Aaron, what lab were you working in?
When their charlatans of choice tell them because they’re not really trying to understand actual research…
Congrats on your epidemiology degree. Such an important line of work!
I have never gotten the attraction for him. Ever.
We have enough problems without this twit spewing stupidity
Thank you Bradley Whitford for calling him out
P.S.
He’s not that good of an actor either.
(yes. I am grumpy today. But still…)
Me either! I’ve never once thought he was hot. He seems like all of the frat/ski/skateboard douches I spent my earlier years avoiding.
True story: When he was living in West Austin, he was within blocks of my house. This was a couple of months before the bongo thing. So I went up to my local post office and there were about 5 people in line in front of me. The guy directly in front of me kept kind of ostentatiously holding his envelopes up and out from his body. No one was paying him attention. Then I wondered why he was holding his mail like that. It took just a quick glance to see the return address, and it was McConaughey and he wanted to be noticed. So then I started paying attention; yep, dirty blond hair, he’s not as big as I would have thought, a little b.o. Then he finished his business and for the first time I saw his face. All I can say is that he must be incredibly photogenic, because I was not impressed. At my son’s wedding I could have picked out at least ten guys that were more handsome. He was just kind of meh. I think he was also irritated that no one had recognized or had a fit over him. Meh.
I knew someone who went to high school with him. MM is a douche from way back.
He is from a heavily republican state, he sees his future there, so is it really surprisimg he would say that? Complitely in line with his views and attitudes. Why are we expecting more of people who cleary are incapable of thinking for themselves?
Look, I think he’s being a total friggin moron and what he’s saying makes me mad but at this point if he had a chance of ousting Governor Hot Wheels I’d vote for him.
@Melanie
OHMYGOD GOVERNOR HOT WHEELS!!!!! 😆😆😆😆
Dead over here. D.E.A.D.
(I live in Texas and LOATHE that s***head with every fiber of my being.)
and now I will never be able to look at him (which I try to avoid at all costs) without dying laughing
You win!!!
Thank you Hecate! You don’t sound crispy, you sound justifiably angry and I am right there with you. I feel like I’ve been losing the plot recently, my anger at these idiots is consuming me. Yesterday, while driving my little kids (half-vaccinated! One shot down one to go!) home from school we passed a guy standing by the side of the road with an anti-vax sign. It said something like “no vaccine mandate, once it starts it will never end.” And I lost my everloving s**t. I screamed obscenities and made rude gestures out the window. It was not helpful and it didn’t make me feel better, unfortunately. The only effect it had was on my kids who burst into tears because they’ve never seen Mommy lose control like that, and it scared them. I doubt it affected the sign guy much, it certainly didn’t change his mind and probably led him to double down on his f’d-up belief system. But we’re all just so tired of this, right? I’m TIRED of wearing a mask. I’m TIRED of worrying incessantly about my kids and my aging parents. I’m TIRED of being angry at half the country. And so when I see someone out there advocating for the exact mindset that’s keeping us in this mess, I’m at the point where I simply feel no mercy anymore.
I can empathize with this one. There’s a woman who stands outside our local elementary school with a ridiculous anti-mask sign equating mask mandates with child abuse. I lost my mother to COVID last Christmas and it was most likely brought to her by my siblings. One afternoon my rage boiled over and I just rolled down the window and let her have it – I felt like a jerk for doing it in front of my kids, but as I apologized to them for saying those things my daughter said “It’s ok, Mom. Masks keep us safe. Someone should have kept Gramma safe.”. Even they know I don’t have civility left in me.
He won’t listen, and so many of them (who supposedly care more than anyone else about The Children) are quick to respond that “only” so many have died.
Yeah, kids have died, but not his kids.
He will not change his stance.
People must not have this annoying guilt gene that I have. Because if they did they would seek out & read the studies about how a vaccinated person is safer to be around. A vaccinated person:
a. is less likely to get COVID, and
b. when they do get COVID the number of days of a high virus load in their body is less.
And for those 2 reasons a vaccinated person is less likely to spread COVID.
So my guilt gene would kick in, of course, & I’d get even my young children vaccinated if I was MM, so I’d lessen the chance of spreading it to the 90-year-old immunocompromised mom that is living in his home. But that’s because this nasty little guilt gene would haunt me for the rest of my life if my mom caught COVID and died because my kid spread it to her when I chose to not do all I could to prevent that from happening.
Too bad we couldn’t implant a “care for others & not be an ignorant, selfish jerk chip” in their Ivermectin tablet.
I don’t understand this dude. He said in an interview his mother lives with them. She’s 90 years old and immuno-compromised. He said he got vaxxed as did his wife but not his kids? What if a kid brings home Covid? I just don’t understand their logic.
He wants to be Republican governor of Texas? According to most recent figures, COVID is killing 40x more unvaccinated in Texas than vaccinated. The majority of unvaccinated adults in the US are registered Republicans. Keep promoting anti-vax, MattyBoy, and your wannabee constituents will most likely be dead by next November.
He said it himself, he’ in a position where he can quarantine whenever and frequently test himself and his kids. He can afford the very best medical care if his kids did get sick. Most people do not have the luxuries he has. Parents might work in jobs where they are required to be around people and could be exposed to covid every single day. They can’t quarantine as frequently because they have to make a living. And I know lots of people cant afford to foot the bill of what insurance wont cover for a hospital stay.
So before we take the advice of celebrities and politicians, lets be real and realize we probably lead very different lives than they do. Without the millions of dollars in their bank, their opinion might likely be very different.
Again, be mad and dismissive and you have you have made it less likely that others will get vaccinated. You are making it worse.
When my kids do something wrong I can yell at them and belittle them and their takeaway is just that I’m mad and they shrink or fight back. Or I can keep my calm despite how maddening it is and try again and again to use it as a teachable moment. Only then does their behavior change.
I will repeat this only one more time: You are making it worse. If you truly care about the cause, let’s serve it, not your own emotional need to vent publicly.
Commander Lawrence ftw.