Entertainment
Andrew Lloyd Webber likens ‘selfish’ people who refuse Covid vaccine to drunk drivers: ‘You’ve got to think of other people’
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Andrew Lloyd Webber has likened people who refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccine to drunk drivers, branding them ‘selfish’.
The theatre legend, who has often spoken about his hopes for the West End to reopen soon, didn’t mince his words when speaking about anti-vaxxers.
‘I do think it’s selfish, because look at it this way – you could just say, “I would like to go out and have a drink tonight and drive home,” and accidentally I kill somebody,’ the 73-year-old said.
‘It seems to me that nobody’s going to go out and deliberately infect anybody with Covid, but it’s completely wrong if we know the science – I was on the Oxford vaccine trial last year for this reason.
‘We know that the vaccines are very effective and we know that they are really broadly speaking, unbelievably safe, and it just seems to me that it is just not…I think the Queen put it rather well. You’ve got to think of other people in all of this.’
When asked on BBC Radio 4 if he thinks it’s a ‘very stark comparison’ to make between drunk drivers and people who refuse the vaccine, Andrew responded: ‘Well I don’t know, I think you could argue it’s your choice.
‘I feel very strongly now that there are really now people who have got to realise that by not having the vaccine they’re affecting an enormous number of people’s jobs and livelihoods.’
The West End theatres are set to reopen this summer after going dark last March when the coronavirus pandemic began.
However, Andrew previously admitted he’s not sure if commercial theatre will ever fully recover.
‘I’ve been in theatre now for 50 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,’ he said on Good Morning Britain.
‘It’s an extraordinary time and I am going to go so far to say that I really don’t think theatre – or commercial theatre will survive – unless the government steps up to the plate and offers help.’
Andrew criticised the government for not offering the industry more support, like he claims they are doing for the TV and film industry.
‘Commercial theatre is pretty much down on the food chain, they are underwriting the film industry with an insurance scheme, does theatre get a look in, no?’
In the UK, more than 57million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been given.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock recently urged people to get the vaccine to help fight the Indian variant of the virus.
He said: ‘To anyone who feels hesitant, not just in Bolton or Blackburn, but to anyone who feels hesitant about getting the vaccine right across the country, just look at what is happening in Bolton Hospital where the majority of people in hospital with coronavirus were eligible for the jab but have chosen not yet to have the jab and have ended up in hospital – some of them in intensive care.
‘Vaccines save lives, they protect you, they protect your loved ones and they will help us all get out of this pandemic.’
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