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| - FACT CHECK: Viral Image Claims Mayim Bialik ‘Refuses To Vaccinate’
An image shared on Facebook claims actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik “refuses to vaccinate.”
Verdict: Misleading
While Bialik has said that she hasn’t been vaccinated in 30 years, she has stated that she received the COVID-19 vaccine and that her children are vaccinated. Her publicist said she and her children are “fully vaccinated” against COVID-19.
Fact Check:
The meme features a picture of “The Big Bang Theory” actress Bialik, who received a doctorate in neuroscience from UCLA. It alleges she “refuses to vaccinate” and contains the hashtag “SmartParentsDon’tVax.” (RELATED: Image Claims To Show A CDC Infographic Saying ‘Refusing To Take The Vaccine Is A Form Of Racism’)
Bialik, who has faced criticism for prior comments she has made about vaccines, has said she and her children are vaccinated, however. In an October 2020 YouTube video, Bialik stated that she would be getting both the COVID-19 and flu vaccine this year and that her two children would also be getting flu vaccines.
“This year I’m going to do something I literally haven’t done in 30 years. I’m going to get a vaccine. And guess what? I’m actually going to get two,” Bialik said in the video. “Number one vaccine that I’m going to get is the COVID vaccine. I can’t wait for it, bring it on. Number two vaccine, I’m going to get a flu vaccine.”
She also stated in the video, “My 12- and 15-year old children have never received a flu vaccine. This year, roll up them shirt sleeves, boys, vaccines for everyone.” At one point in the video, she says that she believes the perception that she is anti-vaccination stems from a book she wrote about her experience parenting, noting, “At the time my children had not received the typical schedule of vaccines, but I have never, not once, said that vaccines are not valuable, not useful or not necessary, because they are.”
“As of today, my children may not have had every one of the vaccinations that your children have, but my children are vaccinated. I repeat: my children are vaccinated,” she said in the October 2020 YouTube video. In a February 2015 tweet, she also said her kids are vaccinated.
Bialik expressed support for COVID-19 vaccines in a January 2021 interview with Yahoo! Life and in a May 2021 interview with Cheddar News. In both interviews, she said her children were vaccinated and, in the Cheddar News interview, confirmed she received the COVID-19 vaccine.
“It’s not ‘I’m pro every single vaccine that anyone talks about all the time everywhere, every single minute,'” she said, according to Yahoo! Life. “I have a lot of questions about the vaccine industry, as do a lot of people. I have a lot of questions about the profits involved. [But] when it comes to this virus, the insidiousness of this virus, the way this virus works, the way that it adapts, we absolutely need to see this as distinctly different from the flu. It’s different than the common cold. This is something we need absolute protection from.”
Heather Besignano, Bialik’s publicist, told Check Your Fact that “Mayim and her children are all fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus.”
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