In July of 2021, rock ‘n’ roll legend Eric Clapton told the world he wouldn’t perform his brand of blues guitar in venues that required proof of vaccination against COVID-19. He followed that up by funding an anti-vaxxer musicians group in the United Kingdom. Clapton did this all after believing that the vaccination had led to what he wrote were a “disastrous” set of side effects that made the 77-year-old musician fear he “would never play again.” Clapton blamed an exacerbation of his existing condition of peripheral neuropathy on the vaccine.
On Monday, it was announced that Eric Clapton will not be playing any venues in the near future as he has tested positive for COVID-19. For now, Clapton has canceled at least two upcoming European gigs. Clapton tested positive for the virus shortly after performing at London's Royal Albert Hall on May 8, according to NPR. The good news for Clapton is that while he has encouraged other people to not get vaccinated, he himself—for all of his misguided blame—was vaccinated with both shots of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
In a statement, Clapton’s PR team wrote: "It is very frustrating that having avoided COVID throughout lockdown and throughout the period when travel restrictions have been in place Eric should have succumbed to COVID at this point in time.” This is a strange phraseology when you think about it. During lockdowns, Clapton wasn’t out and about mixing it up with a general maskless population. Playing lots of shows, traveling about, and being someone with a history of not taking personal responsibility for being shitty to people in his life is a real recipe for catching things like COVID-19.
RELATED STORY: Eric Clapton now funding anti-vaxxer musicians group in the U.K., proving once again he's a jackass
To be clear, you can try to take all of the precautions possible, then still run into a person like Clapton and end up ill.
You can discuss more over at community member Witgren’s story about Clapton here. You can watch Clapton’s pretty lame anti-lockdown song, “This Has Gotta Stop,” on YouTube, or you can listen and subscribe to Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast.
Christina Reynolds, vice president of communications at EMILY's List, talks about spending $150 million to center abortion rights in this November’s elections on Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast