‘General Hospital’ Cast in Conflict Over Possible COVID Vaccine Mandate

Meredith Jacobs August 27, 2021, 4:14 pm

Steve Burton, Nancy Lee Grahn, Ingo Rademacher for General Hospital — ABC/Todd Wawrychuk; ABC/Craig Sjodin; ABC/Todd Wawrychuk

The stars of General Hospital are falling on either side of the COVID vaccine mandate debate — and it’s spilling onto social media.

“I work on a set with unmasked, unvaccinated actors, because my union thus far @sagaftra has allowed this. Full stop,” Nancy Lee Grahn (who plays Alexis Davis) tweeted on August 12. “The reason there needs to be a vaccine mandate is because there are ppl who refuse to get vaccinated because they believe they somehow know more than the leading experts, the best scientists in the world, who are united in their findings that this vaccine is safe and necessary to lower our chances of dying or getting serious ill and of causing this for people who can’t be vaccinated,” she added in an Instagram post on August 23.

Grahn’s first post came a day before Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) announced he and Bradford Anderson (Damian Spinelli) would have to postpone their Stone Cold and the Jackal August tour because Burton tested positive for COVID. “Long story short, I was exposed at work,” he revealed in a video shared to Instagram. He had no symptoms. Then on August 17, he shared on his own Instagram, “All is well.”

On the other side of the argument is Ingo Rademacher (Jasper “Jax” Jacks), who posted about a No Vaccine Passport Rally on August 21 in his Instagram stories. After that, #FireIngo reportedly trended and he addressed that campaign in a video on Instagram on August 25. “Getting vaccinated does not stop you from spreading the virus,” he wrote in the caption. “That’s straight from the CDC. Mandating any vaccine is wrong but especially one that doesn’t help stop the spread, that’s nothing short of crazy talk. If you want to take the vaccine, take it. Just know you’re doing it for yourself, not to save anyone else. You’re not a hero.” He says more in the video. Watch it below.

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A post shared by Ingo Rademacher (@ingorademacher)

Instagram has added a link to the CDC’s information about COVID-19 and the vaccine to his post. According to the CDC, those who have not been vaccinated are more likely to get infected and transmit the virus, while fully vaccinated people contract COVID-19 less often than the unvaccinated.