'I Want to Find Out More Information': Oscar Winner McConaughey Says He Won't Be Vaccinating His Kids
Amid an onslaught of Biden administration voices calling for children to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, actor Matthew McConaughey says he is not sold on the idea.
The Oscar winner has three children, ages 13, 11 and 8.
“They just said we can vaccinate kids,” McConaughey said in an interview Tuesday during The New York Times DealBook/Online Summit, referring to the recent approval of a vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
“Do we need to trust? I want to trust in the science,” he said.
McConaughey said the experts mean well, even if they might be wrong.
“Do I think that there’s any kind of scam or conspiracy theory? Hell, no, I don’t. No … we’ve all got to get off that narrative. There’s not a conspiracy theory on the vaccine. These are scientists trying to do the right thing,” the actor said.
But the bottom line, he said, was that he is not going to act yet.
“It’s scary. Right now I’m not vaccinating mine, I’ll tell you that. I’m not vaccinating mine,” McConaughey said.
Concerns over the possible risks of heart inflammation have accompanied the vaccines, with the Food and Drug Administration so far reluctant to approve the Moderna vaccine for adolescents due to the myocarditis cases associated with it.
Although the Pfizer vaccine carries a risk as well, it received an FDA emergency use authorization for children 5-11 late last month.
Nearly 1 million kids ages 5 to 11 expected to receive first Covid vaccine dose by end of Wednesday https://t.co/jWvoJCQsmc
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) November 10, 2021
The actor noted he is not opposed to vaccinations against the coronavirus.
“I’ve been vaccinated. My wife’s been vaccinated. We have a high-risk person in our household, my mother, who’s 90, and she’s immunocompromised,” he said.
He said he went slowly on vaccinations even prior to COVID-19.
“I couldn’t mandate having to vaccinate the younger kids. I still want to find out, still want to find out more information,” McConaughey said.
Sooner or later, he said, there will “come a time when you’re gonna have to roll the dice” on vaccinations.
“I’m vaccinated. Wife’s vaccinated. Didn’t do it because somebody told me I had to, chose to do it,” he said. “Mom is vaccinated three times, still, it’s not created any antibodies for it. She’s the one we’re really trying to protect. And we’re over here just trying to live as healthy of a lifestyle as possible. But I couldn’t mandate it for kids just yet, no.”
The actor received pushback for his comments on social media.
Please. For the love of god.
Stop taking health advice from people who aren’t qualified to give it.https://t.co/vex7MkZpBm— Kaz Weida (@kazweida) November 10, 2021
Stay in your lane, Matthew McConaughey!
— Cathamand (@cathamand) November 10, 2021
Celebrities ? aren’t ? doctors ? or ? experts ? so ? stop ?seeking ? or ? publishing ? their ? thoughts ? on ? vaccines ? !!
— astra-moderna-mak (@myzmak) November 10, 2021
The U.S. surgeon general pushed back against comments by Matthew McConaughey about Covid vaccine mandates for children.
“I couldn’t mandate having to vaccinate the younger kids,” the actor said. “I still want to find out more information.”https://t.co/YOvvKP5HbR
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 10, 2021
Some voices have been cautious about a blanket immunization campaign targeting children 5 to 11.
“Vaccinating children to protect adults via herd immunity is ethically dubious and is scientifically weak,” David Livermore, a medical microbiologist at the University of East Anglia in England, told the Daily Mail last month.
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