Matthew McConaughey clarified that his eldest son, Levi, 13, has been fully vaccinated after saying he’s against mandates for kids ages 5 to 11.
“I want to clarify something that has been making the rounds in the press about my answer in a NYT interview I did the other day,” the actor, 52, said in a statement posted to his Instagram Story on Thursday.
“When asked my opinion on the subject of children and vaccination mandates I stated, ‘I couldn’t mandate it for kids just yet.’ What was not clear is that I was referring specifically to the 5-11 year old mandate.”
The “Wolf of Wall Street” star continued, “What is NOT true, and insinuated with the click bait headlines since, is that I am against vaccinating kids at all. This is false. In fact, our eldest 13 year old son Levi is fully vaccinated for Covid 19.”
Earlier this week, McConaughey shared that he believed it was too soon to mandate the vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 following the CDC’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine for them.
“I couldn’t mandate having to vaccinate the younger kids,” he told the New York Times when asked whether the vaccine should be mandated for children. “I still want to find out more information.”
He added, “There will come a time where you’re going to have to roll the dice one way or the other and go: ‘Where are the numbers in my favor?’”
But fans had been under the impression that the Oscar winner was not vaccinating any of his children because he told the Times, “Right now I’m not vaccinating mine, I’ll tell you that.”
McConaughey, who was mulling a run for Texas governor earlier this year, revealed that he and his wife, Camila Alves, are fully vaccinated. They share three kids: Levi, Vida, 11, and Livingston, 8.