Sebastian Bach says Americans should be mandated to be vaccinated: “There’s no politics in health or medicine”
When asked if he supported concerts requiring punters to be vaccinated (or present a negative test) before they’re allowed entry, Sebastian Bach agreed unequivocally, taking things a step further to declare “I think every American should be mandated to be vaccinated”.
The former Skid Row singer made his views clear in a recent interview with LA radio station KNX 1070, saying: “There’s no reason not to [get vaccinated], unless you have a pre-existing health situation where you can’t get it. Other than that, the only way we’re ever gonna maybe get back to normal is by doing that.
“Even if everybody did [get vaccinated], who knows what [the state of society] would be like? But there’s no way we can get back to quote-unquote normal if people aren’t all gonna get in this together. There’s no politics in health or medicine. Everybody is in it together. Everybody gets sick.”
Bach revealed earlier this month that he’d tested positive for COVID-19, but noted that he feels “totally great” thanks to his symptoms being mitigated by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He shared the news in a video posted to his Twitter, captioned: “Thank God for the vaccine, I can’t wait to get another one.”
After doing 2 shows & going to my wife's High School reunion, I came home & tested positive for covid. Here are the locations I could have got it in any one of these places. Thank God for the vaccine I can't wait to get another one ? all symptoms are gone now not canceling shows pic.twitter.com/RHTK9iglC3
— Sebastian Bach (@sebastianbach) August 7, 2021
Bach told KNX 1070 that he credits the vaccine for his speedy recovery, saying that had he not been vaccinated, it’s likely he would have been seriously impacted as a performing vocalist. “I looked up specifically, what does the vaccine do, and it says that it concentrates whatever outbreak you’re having to the upper respiratory tract,” he said.
“It keeps it out of your lungs – deep down in your lungs. That’s how I make my living – singing my lungs out and running around the stage and being aerobically fit. And everything I read about COVID is that it attacks the lungs and makes it hard to breathe. And I go, ‘Are you kidding me?’ You try to sing along to Skid Row in the car. And then, ‘Oh, let’s make it harder to breathe.’ No, there’s no way.”
Bach is set to embark on a lengthy North American tour at the end of September, playing 38 shows to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Skid Row’s second album, ‘Slave To The Grind’.
Asked if he would consider postponing the dates in response to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Bach told KNX 1070: “I am not a doctor, and I don’t pretend to be a doctor, and I can’t stand people that do. I listen to the science, but everything is confusing.
“Everybody says that the vaccine has an effectivity rate of, like, after six months, it starts to wane. Everybody is on the six-month mark now, if you got it when I did. So, for me, we need a booster shot if we’re all gonna be hanging out together or something.”
Tickets for Bach’s ‘Slave To The Grind’ tour are on sale now from his website.