Shock jock Howard Stern ripped unvaccinated people and opponents of getting the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, saying they are threatening his “freedom to live.”
Here’s what he asked on his SiriusXM show, “When are we going to stop putting up with the idiots in this country and just say it’s mandatory to get vaccinated?”
The 67-year-old went to dismiss concerns about individual liberty when it comes to Covid policy, saying of the vaccine-hesitant, “F— them. F— their freedom. I want my freedom to live.” He added, “I want to get out of the house. I want to go next door and play chess. I want to go take some pictures. This is bulls**t,” as first reported in The Hill.
Stern addressed the overwhelmed hospitals, as well. “The other thing I hate is that all these people with COVID who won’t get vaccinated are in the hospitals clogging it up,” he continued. “So like, if you have a heart attack or any kind of problem, you can’t even get into the E.R. And I’m really of mind to say, ‘Look, if you didn’t get vaccinated [and] you got COVID, you don’t get into a hospital.’”
He went on to openly mock Conservative broadcasters Mark Bernier, Dick Farrel, Phil Valentine, and Tod Tucker, all outspoken opponents of the vaccine who then contracted Covid and ultimately died.
“Four of them were like ranting on the air, they will not get vaccinated,” said Stern. “They were on fire, these guys. It was like day after day, they were all dying and then their dying words are ‘I wish I had been more into the vaccine. I wish I had taken it’…”
Stern continued, “Go f— yourself, You had the cure and you wouldn’t take it.”
Stern’s assertion that Covid vaccines are a “cure” is incorrect as people who have been inoculated can reportedly still contract the virus. Arizona health officials, for example, reported Wednesday that about 15% of new coronavirus infections in that state are breakthrough cases.
In his diatribe about the unvaccinated, the radio icon also did not address the immune-compromised — who may have been advised by doctors not to get the vaccine — or people who may have natural immunity due to a previous infection.
Stern is just the latest in a rash of celebrities slamming the unvaccinated and dismissing concerns about government authoritarianism.
The same day Stern made his comments, ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel joked in his opening monologue that hospitals should turn away unvaccinated Covid patients.
“Dr. Fauci said if hospitals get any more overcrowded they’re going to have to make some very tough choices about who gets an ICU bed,” Kimmel said, “That choice doesn’t seem so tough to me. ‘Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right in, we’ll take care of you. Unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo? Rest in peace, wheezy.’”
Stern’s comments also echoed the views of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in early August suggested that public safety outweighs individual liberty.
“There is a virus here,” said the “Terminator” star. “It kills people and the only way we prevent it is: get vaccinated, wear masks, do social distancing, washing your hands all the time, and not just to think about, ‘Well my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.’ No, screw your freedom.”
Sources: Dailywire, Sports.yahoo, Dailymail, Thehill