Academy Award-winning Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey turned heads this week when he admitted during an interview that he and his wife are vaccinated against COVID-19 but he is against mandating the vaccine for young kids.
The Interstellar actor and his wife Camila Alves have three children together: son Levi (13), daughter Vida (11), and son Livingston (8). Here’s a picture of the happy family in 2014:
During a livestream interview this week, the New York Times asked his thoughts on vaccines for children.
“I couldn’t mandate having to vaccinate the younger kids. I still want to find out more information,” McConaughey said on Tuesday, according to Fox News. “There will come a time where you’re going to have to roll the dice one way or the other and go: ‘Where are the numbers in my favor?’”
“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 added. “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.”
That being said, McConaughey still doesn’t plan to vaccinate his children, saying, “Right now I’m not vaccinating mine, I’ll tell you that.”
After explaining that he’s “quarantined harder” than his friends over the past year, McConaughey said that his family has relied on a “heavy amount” of COVID-19 testing.
“I’m in a position though where I can do that, and I understand that not everyone can do that,” he said.
Related: Matthew McConaughey Opens Up About Possible Career In Politics
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has since fired back at McConaughey by telling CNN that the clinical trials found the vaccine to be “remarkably safe” and more than 90 percent effective in children 5 to 11 years old.
“Many kids have died. Sadly, hundreds of children — thousands — have been hospitalized, and as a dad of a child who has been hospitalized several years ago for another illness, I would never wish upon any parent they have a child that ends up in the hospital,” Murthy claimed.
“And the vaccines have shown in these trials for children 5 through 11 they are more at 90% effective in protecting our kids from symptomatic infection, and they are remarkably safe as well,” he added.
McConaughey also gave his thoughts on the Texas abortion ban, which is facing a Supreme Court challenge, calling it “overly aggressive.”
“It doesn’t doesn’t seem to open up the room for a sensible choice to be made at the right time,” he said. “I believe in this: 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 comes as Matthew McConaughey is openly considering a gubernatorial run in Texas. He has until next month to make the decision as to whether or not he’ll run.
Read next: Matthew McConaughey Reveals Running For Governor Of Texas Is ‘A True Consideration’
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