Matthew McConaughey Says He's Against Vaccine Mandates For Kids Ahead Of Rumored Texas Governor Campaign
He says he's not vaccinating his three children.
Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com On October 29th, 2021, the FDA approved the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 through 11, prompting the CDC to begin recommending it to children as well.
However, 52-year-old actor and Texas native, Matthew McConaughey, has his reservations.
The actor has long been rumored to be entering politics and has been hinting at a run for Texas governor. Given how much of a hot-button issue vaccines are in the Lone Star state, his choices for his family may reflect a wider political stance.
Is Matthew McConaughey vaccinated?
Thankfully, the actor did get the Covid-19 vaccine. But he feels a little differently when it comes to the idea of vaccinating his own kids.
"I couldn't mandate having to vaccinate the younger kids. I still want to find out more information," he says.
According to the FDA, which has so far only approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children over the age of 5, “the vaccine was found to be 90.7% effective in preventing COVID-19 in children 5 through 11.”
It seemed as though McConaughey realized the gravity his words might have — not wanting to be labeled an anti-vaxxer, he clarified his statement.
"Do I think that there's any kind of scam or conspiracy theory? Hell no," he said. “We all got to get off that narrative. There's not a conspiracy theory on the vaccines.”
“I'm vaccinated. My wife's vaccinated. I didn't do it because someone told me I had to — [I] chose to do it," he told The New York Times's Andrew Ross Sorkin at their DealBook summit.
The father of three children — Levi, 13, Vida, 11, and Livingston, 8 — with his wife Camila Alves, said, “Right now I'm not vaccinating mine, I'll tell you that."
McConaughey has been pro-mask mandates.
Back in May, McConaughey blasted people who were against masks and mask mandates, calling the practice a "short-term inconvenience for long-term freedom."
"I'm not believing you're really scared of this little cotton thing,” he said during an episode of The Carlos Watson Show. “I don't really feel that takes away your identity and your freedom."
McConaughey also weighed in on abortion rights.
The would-be politician also talked about the controversial Texas abortion ban that has been doing its rounds on political news after the Supreme Court heard arguments to block the law.
He called the six-week abortion ban “overly aggressive,” and said, "It doesn't seem to open up the room for a sensible choice to be made at the right time.”
He expanded on his opinion — something that seems to be a pattern and something someone would do if they wanted to be a politician.
"I believe in this,” he started, “more responsibility, more personal responsibility to make the right choices. And we got to pick context with each situation, and each person's situation, each woman's situation."
This feels like an argument for both sides, solidifying his stance on being “aggressively centric,” while he still has not announced his entry into the political world.
McConaughey has considered running for governor.
He’s been asked several times whether he would enter the political world and run for governor, but his response has always been that he isn’t running until he is.
“Am I giving it honest consideration? Yeah. I’d be a fool not to,” he said in an interview with USA Today’s Matthew Odam. “I’m ready to step into a leadership position in this next chapter of my life, but I don’t know that that’s in politics.”
Texas’s midterm elections won’t happen for another year, so the Academy Award-winning actor still has time to decide if and how he wants to run for a gubernatorial seat.
He says he's a centrist.
During an interview in 2020 for Russel Brand’s “Under the Skin” podcast, McConaughey said, "There are a lot [of people] on that 'illiberal left' that absolutely condescend, patronize, and are arrogant towards that other 50 percent.”
That left-wing politicians and even celebrities belittle or insult the right as a method to try and push their own agenda, but continued to say that the right does a similar thing.
What was McConaughey’s solution? "Let's get aggressively centric," he advised. "I dare you."
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.