PAUL SHORTINO Says He Won’t Take COVID-19 Vaccine, Insists He Is ‘Not Afraid’ Of Contracting The Virus

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Former ROUGH CUTT and QUIET RIOT frontman Paul Shortino has told the "Ouch, You're On My Hair" podcast and radio show that he is not concerned about contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He said (hear audio below): "I'm not really afraid of it. I think [other] people are more afraid of it. I'm such a believer in the law of attraction that if you're not afraid of it, and you put out there that you're not afraid of it, I don't think you're gonna contract it. I know people that have contracted it who were so afraid of getting it. And then they just put it out there." The singer continued: "Everything begins with a thought, and everything's on a frequency, so if you put out something there, you're gonna get it back. So you should only think about what you want, not what you don't want. [Don't think] 'I don't wanna get this. I don't wanna get the COVID.' "I know people that have gotten the COVID, and I know people that don't care if they get it or not. And they've had it, and they've lived through it. I know people that have taken the vaccine now and have had some really bad reactions from it. And then someone sent me this whole thing on 'don't even take it at all.' Because there's a whole thing about when the government gave out vaccines for the military, and my dad was in the military — he was a marine during [the war in] Korea. She mentioned World War II, but mainly Korea and Vietnam. Those guys are sickly — they're still sickly. I've got friends that went to Vietnam, and they're very sick — not just from being over there, but from some of the vaccines they gave them. 'Cause they had to give them multiple shots. And this woman talks about it, who's been studying vaccines for over 42 years, and also viruses. And it's interesting that our immune system, the white blood cells in our immune system are the ones that beat up the bad things in our body, with our immune system." The 67-year-old Shortino, who frequently "likes" tweets that amplify Republican talking points and that are derogatory to Democrats, added: "I just recently found out I have an allergic reaction to flu shots; I get deadly sick. Every time I've taken the flu shot, I've been sick for… [While doing the 'Raiding'] 'The Rock Vault' [Las Vegas show], I was for six to eight weeks, and I had walking pneumonia. My lungs were all filled up. I couldn't believe I could sing. The best part about it is I got probably down to 160 pounds, but I was white as a ghost. I'm performing with walking pneumonia. They're talking about COVID-19, and I'm going, 'I've survived hepatitis, I've survived walking pneumonia' and god knows what else. So I'm just not afraid of it; that's just me. If I get it, I get it." Paul concluded: "I'm not gonna take that vaccine; I'm just not gonna do it. And if they say you can't travel outside the country if you don't take the vaccine, well, I just won't travel then. I don't trust anybody anymore." Last month, Shortino made headlines when he criticized Twitter for permanently suspending former U.S. president Donald Trump's account, saying "denying the President and others the right to express opinions is dangerous to the nation." The rocker, who insists that he is neither a Republican nor a Democrat (he calls himself an "independent libertarian"), also claimed that the 2020 presidential was "rigged," with "fraud at its highest level of corruption". He also repeated the debunked claim that there were more votes than voters in the 2020 election, and floated the baseless allegation that "thousands" of "dead people" voted in his home state of Nevada (a claim that was also debunked). A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed almost a third of U.S. adults are undecided on whether they'll get the COVID-19 vaccine. The poll, released earlier in the month, found that 31 percent of adults are going to "wait until it has been available for a while to see how it is working for other people" before receiving the coronavirus vaccine. America's two main vaccines have shown 95% efficacy against the coronavirus. As of late January, the CDC discovered that only 11 per 1 million people experienced severe reactions from the Pfizer vaccine, and only 2.5 per 1 million people who received the Moderna dose. QUIET RIOT's fourth album, 1988's "QR", was the band's only LP to feature Shortino. Prior to joining QUIET RIOT, Paul sang on two acclaimed studio albums from ROUGH CUTT, 1985's self-titled effort and 1986's "Wants You!" Image courtesy of Raiding The Rock Vault