Matthew McConaughey Opposes Vaccine Mandates for Children

Actor Matthew McConaughey has come out against coronavirus vaccine mandates for children, saying he wants to find out more information.

“I couldn’t mandate having to vaccinate the younger kids. I still want to find out more information,” McConaughey told Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook summit when asked about the mandates.

McConaughey added that both he and his wife were vaccinated without being mandated to do so.

“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 said. “Do I think that there’s any kind of scam or conspiracy theory? Hell no. We all got to get off that narrative. There’s not a conspiracy theory on the vaccines.”

McConaghey said that he will not be vaccinating his children and that he and his family relied heavily on testing throughout the pandemic.

“I’m in a position though where I can do that, and I understand that not everyone can do that,” he said.

Though McConaughey may not believe in mandating vaccines, he has expressed full support behind mask mandates since the coronavirus pandemic began.

“I’m not believing you’re really scared of this little cotton thing. I’m not believing you really feel that takes away your identity and your freedom,” he told “The Carlos Watson Show” earlier this year. “This is a short-term inconvenience for long-term freedom.”

“There’s no data that says it’s not a good [thing]. No data that says it’s harmful,” he added. “Let’s all take one for the team here.”

In fact, the Dallas Buyers Club star believed in masks to such a degree that he posted a photo of himself wearing one in the middle of nowhere.

In an Instagram video post for July 4th in 2020, the actor wished America a “Happy Birthday” while encouraging people to continue wearing masks.

“Happy 244th birthday, America,” said McConaughey. “We are going through some growing pains on this one, aren’t we? But growing pains are a good thing, because how the hell else are we going to grow up? I think we gotta look each other in the eye. I think we gotta look ourselves in the eye.”

“We gotta look in the mirror and ask ourselves, ‘How can I be better? How can I expect more of myself and others? How can I be more responsible? How can I have more compassion? How can I have more courage? How can I be more fair? How do I make sure I wear the damn mask?” he continued.