Most people wouldn’t take perpetually laidback surfer dude Matthew McConaughey for an anti-vaxxer—including Matthew McConaughey. But when asked about vaccinating his kids against COVID at The New York Times‘s DealBook summit on Tuesday, the Oscar-winning actor responded in a way that made it sound like he wasn’t quite onboard with the idea of letting his kids get jabbed.
While speaking with journalist and Billions co-creator Andrew Ross Sorkin, the topic of mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for kids came up. When Sorkin asked the actor for his opinion on the topic, McConaughey’s response was: “I couldn’t mandate having to vaccinate the younger kids. I still want to find out more information.”
Though he later stated that: “I’m vaccinated. My wife’s vaccinated. I didn’t do it because someone told me I had to. I chose to do it,” McConaughey believes that because of his initial response, many outlets took that quote out of context and ran with it, which led to hundreds of headlines that stated the possible gubernatorial candidate is anti-vaccine—and he was determined to set the record straight. So, as Yahoo! Entertainment reports, late Wednesday night, the Magic Mike star posted a statement to his Instagram story in which he clarified his earlier statement:
“When asked my opinion on the subject of children and vaccination mandates I stated “I couldn’t mandate it for kids just yet.” What was not clear is that I was referring to specifically to the 5-11 year old mandate.
What is NOT true, and insinuated with the clickbait headlines since, is that I am against vaccinating kids at all. This is false. In fact, our eldest 13 year old son Levi is fully vaccinated for COVID 19.
I appreciate the ear and clarity, just keep livin,
McConaughey”
Spoken like a man who has been arrested while playing bongos in the buff.
(Via Yahoo! Entertainment)