After Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber denounced vaccine avoiders as “selfish,” late-night host Jimmy Kimmel denounced them as “freeloaders” that are living off the work of other people.
During his Thursday night monologue, Kimmel discussed the recent spike in Google searches for fake vaccination cards in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent guidelines stating that vaccinated people can go without a mask in public. After ripping such con-artists for “gross” behavior, he then centered his crosshairs on the vaccine avoiders.
“Let’s start calling these vaccine avoiders what they are,” he said. “Freeloaders.”
“The only reason you’re somewhat safe now is because other people got the shot. You’re the person who heads for the bathroom when the check comes at the restaurant. You’re the lady who takes home the centerpieces from a wedding you weren’t invited to. You’re the guy who brings five napkins to a potluck dinner. That’s you.”
“You don’t think it’s you,” he added. “But it’s you.”
Earlier this week, Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber (“Phantom of the Opera,” “Jesus Christ Superstar”) denounced vaccine avoiders as “selfish” while likening them to drunk drivers.
“I do think it’s selfish, because, I mean, look at it this way, I mean, you could just say, I would like to go out and have a drink tonight and drive home, and accidentally I kill somebody,” the 73-year-old composer said in an interview with the BBC.
Webber then touted the science behind vaccines, noting his participation in the Oxford vaccine trial.
“Now, I mean, it seems to me that nobody’s going to go out and deliberately infect anybody with Covid, but it’s completely wrong if we know the science. I was on the Oxford vaccine trial last year for this reason,” he said. “We know that the vaccines are very effective and we know that they are really, broadly speaking, unbelievably safe. It just seems to me that it’s just not – I think the Queen put it rather well, you’ve got to think of other people in all of this.”
When the BBC challenged Webber on his “very stark comparison” between hesitant vaxxers and drunk drivers, Webber was unwavering in his position.
“Well, I don’t know. I think you could argue it’s your choice. I feel very strongly now that there are really now people who have got to realise that by not having the vaccine they’re affecting an enormous number of people’s jobs and livelihoods,” he said.
Meghan McCain and “The View” co-host Joy Behar sparred this week about vaccine hesitancy in the United States and the complexity behind people’s unwillingness to get the shot.
“The messaging is absolute garbage coming from Fauci, and it’s not just about owning the libs. The demographics on who is vaccine-hesitant, it crosses the gamut. There’s still a lot of hesitancy in the African American community,” said McCain.
“I think that, again, the White House and the CDC has done a terrible job in just saying, ‘What, do you wanna own the libs and that’s that?’ Like, it’s not productive,” she added. “That’s why people keep going into their corners, and this is coming from a place of fear, I don’t think it’s coming from a place of politics. People just don’t understand and don’t know, and I don’t like to judge people who aren’t accessible to the same kind of resources and education I am. But this is a serious, serious problem in this country.”
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