SLIPKNOT‘s M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan says that he will “definitely” get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The 51-year-old percussionist weighed in on his possible inoculation while interviewing BEHEMOTH frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski for the latest episode of his Internet show, “The Electric Theater With Clown”.
Crahan, who lives in Iowa, which has had more than two million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered so far, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I haven’t had a flu shot in 20 years, and I haven’t had the flu in 20 years. But let me take it a step further. Do I agree with the vaccine? I don’t know what I agree with. I know I don’t wanna be told to do anything. I’ve never been told I had to get the flu shot, but I’m being told — and this could have changed… I don’t like talking about things unless I know they’re facts, but I have heard this from a reliable source, that Canada is gonna make it mandatory, to be able to come into Canada, you’re gonna have to have proof of the vaccine. So, I’ve never had to get a flu shot to go anywhere, but now to do my living, I’m gonna have to have a vaccine — proof of it — to go to Canada. So, normality for me is that now I just need Japan to say that, I need North America to say that, I need South America to say that, Australia, New Zealand… Once everybody jumps on, then I know we’re in it together. I don’t think we’re not in it together now. I think the right people were offered the shot first, and then it opens up as it’s created knowledge.
“Am I gonna get it? Well, no one can even prove I’m the real Clown anyway,” he continued. “So if I don’t want it, I can continue that and just play it off and just disappear — like maybe I have already. I mean, this [conversation] could be a simulation. But I believe in it, and I wanna tour. And most importantly, as long as my family gets it and wants me to get it, then I’ll get it, because I wanna be able to hug my fans again; I wanna be able to embrace the people that have needed me and that I’ve needed. And the way that I’ve been explained by the doctors I go to, they basically say, ‘Hey, get the vaccine,’ because what we do, we’re gonna be around a lot of people that aren’t gonna take it, and they’re gonna be sick. There’s gonna be a lot of healthy people, but there’s also gonna be a lot of people that are naysayers that aren’t going to [take the vaccine].
“You and I are around great amounts of people very day — tremendous amounts of people,” Crahan added. “Meet-and-greets, handshakes, people coughing in our face, blah blah blah. So, I believe in it, and I believe what the doctors say. It’s, like, look, the idea is to keep me out of the hospital, and if I’m gonna be around people that choose to make it a conspiracy or they don’t believe in it or they just are out, whatever, I risk being in a different country and getting a different strand [of the virus] that I might never leave that country again and not see my family.
“So, I’m definitely gonna get it, but we’re waiting for everyone to get it. I’m healthy. I feel like those that really need it here in our location should get it. They’re already trying to make me get it. One of the guys that’s here is, like, ‘Oh, I had you signed up.’ And I’m, like, ‘You didn’t even ask me.’ But I know that I might not be able to get in anywhere, and I should just do it now.”
As of this morning, the Iowa Department Of Public Health reported 390,594 total positive tests, 342,409 total recoveries and 5,893 total deaths since the start of the pandemic.
So far, roughly 40.1% of the population has gotten at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And about 26% of the population is fully vaccinated, that data shows.
At least 568,532 people have already died from COVID-19 in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
A recent NPR/Marist poll found that one in four Americans said they would refuse a coronavirus vaccine if offered. Another 5% are “undecided” about whether they would get the shot. 49% of Republican men said they would not take the vaccine when it’s available to them.
Although the COVID-19 vaccine was produced quickly because of the urgency of the health crisis and the number of clinical trial volunteers, scientists say the vaccine was not rushed, and it relies on years of research.
The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has estimated that about 70-85% of Americans would need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
America’s two main vaccines have shown 95% efficacy against the coronavirus.
Johnson & Johnson‘s vaccine, which became available in the United States last month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it emergency use authorization, was tested with new variants of COVID-19, and has shown to be effective against them; Pfizer and Moderna were tested prior to the emergence of these variants.
