Howard Stern Tears Into Anti-Vaxxers: ‘F*ck Their Freedom, I Want My Freedom to Live’

Howard Stern has no sympathy for anti-vaxxers, saying they’re impeding on his “freedom for live” by sharing unfounded claims and prolonging the pandemic.

Howard Stern
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Image via Getty/Kevin Mazur

Howard Stern

Howard Stern has no sympathy for anti-vaxxers and has said they’re impeding on his “freedom for live” by sharing their unfounded claims.

On Thursday, Stern heavily criticized those who have shared anti-vaccine sentiments, saying it might be time to implement a mandate. “When are we going to stop putting up with the idiots in this country and just say it's mandatory to get vaccinated?” he said on his SiriusXM program, per the Hill. "As I remember, when I went to school, you had to get a measles vaccine. You had to get a mumps vaccine."

During the show on Thursday, the 67-year-old radio legend also mocked right-wing personalities who expressed anti-vaccine sentiments only to die from COVID-19. Former Newsmax anchor Dick Farrel, for example, died of COVID-19 complications last month at age 65. It was reported that he changed his mind on the vaccine after he was hospitalized. WNDB radio show Marc Bernier, who once called himself “Mr. Anti-Vax,” also died from COVID-19 this year.

"It’s really funny when these radio, the radio guys are the best, they’re like—four of them died, four of them were like ranting on the air. They will not get vaccinated,” Stern said, per the New York Post. “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.’"

Elsewhere on the show, Stern highlighted the common argument from anti-vaxxers that it’s a violation of their “freedom” to force them to take the vaccine. Instead, he said, they’re the ones impeding on the freedoms of others.

"Fuck them. Fuck their freedom. I want my freedom to live," Stern said. "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 bullshit. ... The other thing I hate is that all these people with COVID who won't get vaccinated are in the hospitals clogging it up. 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.' Go fuck yourself, you had the cure and you wouldn't take it."

It wasn’t just anti-vaccine individuals he was targetting on Thursday, as he also criticized the Texas abortion ban. "We have a system, as [former] President Trump said, the system is rigged. And he's right. It is rigged—except it's rigged for assholes," he said. "We have a system where the minority is starting to rule the country. We have places—like shitholes that have like 300,000 people—and they get two senators. The whole thing is wrong. The majority of the people in this country want abortion rights."

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