Matthew McConaughey is still considering whether to have his younger kids vaccinated.
The Oscar-winning actor has three children with wife Camila Alves: 13-year-old son Levi, daughter Vida, 11, and son Livingston, 8. He was asked his thoughts on vaccines Tuesday during a livestream interview with the New York Times that was part of its DealBook Online Summit.
“They just said we can vaccinate kids,” McConaughey said. “Do we need to trust … ? I want to trust in the science. Do I think it’s any kind of scam or conspiracy theory? Hell, no, I don’t. No … we’ve all got to get off that narrative. There’s not a conspiracy … These are scientists trying to do the right thing.”
Still, he added, “It’s scary. Right now I’m not vaccinating mine, I’ll tell you that. I’m not vaccinating mine. I’ve been vaccinated. My wife’s been vaccinated. We have a high-risk person in our household, my mother [Kay McConaughey], who’s 90, and she’s immunocompromised.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the shot for children 5-11.
During the livestream, interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed McConaughey on why he was waiting to decide whether his younger kids should roll up their sleeves.
“We go slow on vaccinations anyway, even before COVID,” McConaughey said. “And, mind you, we’ve quarantined harder than any of our friends have and still are, two years later.” He noted that they were doing a lot of testing and trying to do a lot of things outdoors, although he acknowledged that wasn’t possible for everyone.
At the end of the conversation, Sorkin noted that McConaughey’s team wanted to clarify that he hadn’t been referring to the vaccine for children 12 and older, which was approved over the summer. Instead, he had meant the vaccine for 5-to-11-year-olds, which got the go-ahead from the CDC on Nov. 2. “He said he’s gonna think a lot more about the information as it becomes available,” Sorkin said.
A rep for McConaughey did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s question about whether his older son is vaccinated.
McConaughey, who’s teased that he might run for office, has so far kept some of his political opinions to himself, but he opened up here about vaccine mandates for children.
“I’m vaccinated. Wife’s vaccinated. Didn’t do it because somebody told me I had to, chose to do it,” he said. “Mom is vaccinated three times, still, it’s not created any antibodies for it. She’s the one we’re really trying to protect. And we’re over here just trying to live as healthy of a lifestyle as possible, but I couldn’t mandate it for kids just yet, no.”
He also spoke a few words on the controversial Texas abortion law, saying that it seemed “overly aggressive.”
