Eric Clapton Doubles Down on His Vaccine Conspiracy Theories

By now, we all already know how Eric Clapton feels about the COVID-19 vaccine; the guitarist, who has also been outspoken during the pandemic about his anti-mask and anti-lockdown beliefs, has not exactly been shy about spreading misinformation about the jab, making false claims about its side effects and referring to vaccine information as “propaganda.” Now, in a new video, Clapton has doubled down, falsely asserting that the vaccine can cause fertility problems.

The 24-minute video by Oracle Films, which describes itself on its website as having “joined the fight for open debate and freedom of information in the face of global government encroachment and big-tech censorship,” features Clapton describing the severe side effects he claims to have suffered after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“Within several hours, I was shaking like a leaf,” he says. “And I went to bed early, and I couldn’t get home… I was boiling hot and sweating. And then I was cold. And I was out for the count for about a week. I had been preparing for a project where I was going to be playing acoustic guitar with a couple of musicians and we’re all going to film it that week. Not me — [I was] out.”

It’s worth noting a couple of things here. First of all, research suggests that people who have previously had COVID-19 are more likely to have strong side effects to their first dose of the vaccine than people who haven’t had the virus, and while we obviously can’t say for certain, it seems entirely possible that Clapton previously contracted COVID at some point given his well-documented aversion to masks. Beyond that, the musician also suffers from peripheral neuropathy, and there have been instances of the vaccine temporarily exacerbating neuropathy symptoms. (Though it’s important to point out that experts still recommend that people with peripheral neuropathy get vaccinated.)

Taking that all into account, Clapton’s experience with strong side effects isn’t typical of the average person, and he does vaguely acknowledge that in the video, saying, “It’s not all due to the vaccine, but the vaccine took my immune system and just shook it around again.” (Again, to be clear: that is not how vaccines work.) He also seemed to imply that people who have contracted the virus are just imagining it.

“Now I’ve stopped watching TV,” he explains in the video. “One of the cartoons was a drawing of a guy interviewing two Quakers, and saying, ‘How come none of your community have got COVID?’, and he says, ‘Well, we don’t watch TV.’ It’s so true man, so much of the sickness is in our heads.”

Ultimately, he concludes, he’s worried about what will happen to his children in the long term if they get vaccinated (spoiler alert: nothing, except for the fact that they will be protected against a deadly illness), repeating the false claim that the vaccine can affect fertility.

“My fear about vaccination is what will it do to my children, part of the reason, maybe the biggest part of the reason why I’m talking here today with you,” he says. “To talk to my daughters about how they may not be able to have kids, they probably don’t care at that point and time of your life. It’s not an issue.”

You can watch the full video below, if you must.