# Howard Stern on unvaccinated Americans



## Sunny (Sep 10, 2021)

From today's Washington Post, by Timothy Bella:

Howard Stern was reflecting this week on the coronavirus deaths of four conservative talk-radio hosts who had espoused anti-vaccine and anti-mask sentiments when he took aim at those who have refused to get vaccinated.

“I want my freedom to live,” he said Tuesday on his SiriusXM program. “I want to get out of the house. I want to go next door and play chess. I want to go take some pictures.”
The shock jock, who advocated for the coronavirus vaccine to be mandatory, then turned his attention to the hesitancy that has played a significant role in the U.S. spread of the virus, leading to what Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has called a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” He pointed to unvaccinated people who are “clogging” up overwhelmed hospitals, calling them “imbeciles” and “nut jobs” and suggesting that doctors and nurses not treat those who have not taken a coronavirus vaccine.


“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 said. “You had the cure and you wouldn’t take it.”
Stern’s comments come after several other celebrities expressed to their large social media audiences their frustration with the ongoing lag in vaccinations when hospitals are being pushed to their limits by the highly transmissible delta variant.
More than 185,000 coronavirus infections were reported Wednesday across the United States, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. Nearly 102,000 people are hospitalized with covid-19; more than 26,000 are in intensive care units. A slight decline in hospitalizations over the past week has inspired cautious optimism among public health leaders.

While there is not a nationwide vaccine mandate, President Biden is expected to sign an executive order Thursday requiring that all federal employees be vaccinated, without an alternative for regular coronavirus testing to opt out of the mandate, The Post reported. The order affecting the estimated 2.1 million federal workers comes as Biden plans to outline a “robust plan to stop the spread of the delta variant and boost covid-19 vaccinations,” the White House said.   

Health officials, doctors and nurses nationwide have urged those still hesitant to get vaccinated — and some have gone a step further. Jason Valentine, a physician in Mobile, Ala., informed patients last month that he would not treat anyone who was unvaccinated, saying there were “no conspiracy theories, no excuses” preventing anyone from being vaccinated. Linda Marraccini, a doctor in South Miami, said this month that she would not treat unvaccinated patients in person, noting that her office would “no longer subject our patients and staff to unnecessary risk.”

The summer surge also has led celebrities to use their platform to either call on unvaccinated people to get vaccinated or to denounce them for not doing so. Actor and activist Sean Penn said the vaccine should be mandatory and has called on Hollywood to implement vaccination guidelines on film sets. Actors Benicio Del Toro and Zoe Saldana were part of a vaccine video campaign this year to help debunk misinformation about coronavirus vaccination. When actress Melissa Joan Hart revealed her breakthrough coronavirus case last month, she said she was angry that the nation “got lazy” about getting vaccinated and that masking was not required at her children’s school.

Late-night talk host Jimmy Kimmel suggested Tuesday that hospitals shouldn’t treat unvaccinated patients who prefer to take ivermectin — a medicine long used to kill parasites in animals and humans that has soared in popularity despite being an unproven covid-19 treatment and the subject of warnings by health officials against its use for the coronavirus. After noting that Anthony S. Fauci, the chief medical adviser to Biden, warned that some hospitals might be forced to make “tough choices” on who gets an ICU bed, the late-night host quipped that the situation was not difficult.
“That choice doesn’t seem so tough to me,” Kimmel said. “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.”
Jimmy Kimmel suggests hospitals shouldn’t treat unvaccinated patients who prefer ivermectin
Stern has featured front-line workers on his show and has advocated for people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. In December, the host interviewed Cody Turner, a physician at the Cleveland Clinic, about how the front-line doctor struggled with his mental health while treating infected patients when a vaccine was not widely available.


“We are drowning and we are in hell, and people don’t understand, not only what’s happening to people, you know, but patients across this country,” Turner said.
Stern was a fierce critic of President Donald Trump’s response to the pandemic, saying last year that his former friend was “treasonous” for telling supporters to attend large rallies, despite the risk of infection, in the run-up to the presidential election.
On his eponymous program this week, Stern referred to four conservative talk-radio hosts who bashed the vaccine and eventually died of the virus: Marc Bernier, 65; Phil Valentine, 61; Jimmy DeYoung, 81; and Dick Farrel, 65. In the weeks and months leading up to their deaths last month, all four men had publicly shared their opposition to mainstream public health efforts when coronavirus infections were spiking.


“Four of them were like ranting on the air — they will not get vaccinated,” Stern said Tuesday. “They were on fire … they were all dying and then their dying words were, ‘I wish I had been more into the vaccine. I wish I had taken it.’ ”
After he played a clip of Bernier saying he would not get vaccinated, Stern suggested that the coronavirus vaccine be considered as normal as a measles or mumps vaccine.
“When are we going to stop putting up with the idiots in this country and just say it’s mandatory to get vaccinated?” he asked.


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## Pepper (Sep 10, 2021)

I love Howard.   That's all I have to contribute.


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## Aneeda72 (Sep 10, 2021)

I heard about this on CNN.  While I support anyone’s right to die of anything, I totally agree with what he said, I agree with what Biden is doing, and we all knew that this was coming.  Instead of the vaccinated having to mask up, again, and/or limit themselves to staying home and/or short runs to the grocery; the UNVACCINATED, who could get vaccinated and refuse to do so, need to STAY HOME.

Or die, and let the rest of us get on with our lives.

Harsh?  Yes, but the unvaccinated have chosen their path and now they need to endure the inconvenience and consequences of their choices.  I am 75 years old with lots of medical issues.  I refuse to spend whatever time I have left sitting in my house because of someone else’s behavior.


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## Irwin (Sep 10, 2021)

Good for Howard, although his is a younger audience, I believe, and probably liberal. 

What's needed is for pundits on conservative TV and radio to promote the vaccine, but I don't think that's going to happen since at this point they're so deeply entrenched in their anti-vaccine campaign that there's no turning back. And their objective may be to tank the economy in hopes that doing so will help their candidates get elected. We shall see if that's a winning strategy next year.

Personally, there's never been a political candidate that I was willing to get sick for and especially not to die for (literally).


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## feywon (Sep 10, 2021)

Irwin said:


> Good for Howard, although his is a younger audience, I believe, and probably liberal.
> 
> What's needed is for pundits on conservative TV and radio to promote the vaccine, but I don't think that's going to happen since at this point they're so deeply entrenched in their anti-vaccine campaign that there's no turning back. And their objective may be to tank the economy in hopes that doing so will help their candidates get elected. We shall see if that's a winning strategy next year.
> 
> Personally, there's never been a political candidate that I was willing to get sick for and especially not to die for (literally).


Stern will be 68 in January of 2022.   When he started out he definitely deserved the label 'shock jock' and he still, on his radio show, says a lot just for 'shock' value---to get people talking. Suspect his 'audience' spans a couple of generations.  My respect for him grew watching him talk on other people's shows and some America's Got Talent clips (where he displayed his caring and compassionate side).  What i heard from his show decades ago turned me off as i didn't think it conducive to civil conversations.


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## Pepper (Sep 10, 2021)

feywon said:


> What i heard from his show decades ago turned me off as i didn't think it conducive to civil conversations.


Give him another chance.  Now that he's a grown-up, and on Sirius and no longer has to push those FCC buttons-----you'll be happily surprised.  Not always of course, he is still Howard, but a better model.  Sirius 100 &101.


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## feywon (Sep 10, 2021)

Pepper said:


> Give him another chance.  Now that he's a grown-up, and on Sirius and no longer has to push those FCC buttons-----you'll be happily surprised.  Not always of course, he is still Howard, but a better model.  Sirius 100 &101.


i have seen some more recent clips of him on YT, and my daughter and i have talked about how he seems to have matured. But he wouldn't be as interesting if his personality was totally different.


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## Pepper (Sep 10, 2021)

feywon said:


> i have seen some more recent clips of him on YT, and my daughter and i have talked about how he seems to have matured. But he wouldn't be as interesting if his personality was totally different.


No, he is the same and much more interesting as he has given up the ratings wars, the FCC conflicts. He's much much better, funnier.  He's not totally different.  He is the same, though improved, Howard.  Listen or not, that's up to you.


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## terry123 (Sep 10, 2021)

Like him more now than I used to.


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## Nathan (Sep 14, 2021)

I could never stand Howard Stern, primarily because of his "style", but he is sensible and his commentary is level headed and mainstream.


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## Remy (Sep 14, 2021)

I don't want to post the video because it contains a lot of unedited profanity but one of the biggest laughs I ever got was from his movie Private Parts. Search "private parts match game" on YouTube if you haven't seen the movie. It's hilarious. But again, be aware if you are offended by profanity, they use about every word there is. Make sure you watch the one over 4 minutes long.


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## Alligatorob (Sep 14, 2021)

Nathan said:


> I could never stand Howard Stern, primarily because of his "style", but he is sensible and his commentary is level headed and mainstream.


Well put, irritating and obnoxious, but sometimes right.


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## WhatInThe (Sep 15, 2021)

The 1990s called. They want their personalities back.

The last week seems to have been a battle of celebrity covid pontificators. Stern has always been an attention seeker. Don't conflate outlandish or repugnant with him. His attention seeking got multi million dollar contracts with a pay radio service. The likes of Joe Rogan are now bigger than Stern with his podcasts which is part of the rub against unvaxxed because Rogan didn't and/or therapeutics when got the virus. Then we have ms Niki. Actually for a celeb tweet she seems the reasonable one in the battle of the pontificating celebrities. But they are celebrities. Again very few actually follow current events in detail or even understand or research it.


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## Knight (Sep 15, 2021)

Maybe Stern is overlooking the point that unvaccinated are helping build the herd immunity.


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## Dancing_Queen (Sep 15, 2021)

This is a "Vaccine Exemption Letter" from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  I think it's great!

The seal at the top of the letter didn't copy.



https://www.spaghettimonster.org/2021/09/vaccine-exemption-letters/


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## win231 (Sep 15, 2021)

When it comes to health decisions, celebrities are experts.    
Actors & baseball players are Reverse Mortgage experts.
And rap stars are experts on extended car warranties.   
I _always _check with them before making any financial decisions.


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## Lethe200 (Sep 15, 2021)

_>>What's needed is for pundits on conservative TV and radio to promote the vaccine, but I don't think that's going to happen....  >>_

Agree. The terrible irony of this is that just about all these anti-vaxx "influencers".....are in fact, already vaccinated with the mRNA vaccines. Tucker Carlson et. al. have a lot to answer for.


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