Actor Ingo Rademacher has lashed out at General Hospital (GH) viewers and social media users who are using the hashtag #FireIngo in response to his stance on vaccine mandates.
Rademacher posted a video clip to his Instagram on Wednesday, August 25th, and addressed it to “all the bigots that called for my firing at GH and made #FireIngo trend”.
“So I’m going to address all of the morons who hashtagged #FireIngo,” the actor began. “I really dislike you at this point. I think that you’re bigots, and I think you know it. To do something like that to another person, it just shows the character you have, the kind of personality you are. You’re a horrible, horrible person.”
In the edited video, which is over three minutes in length, Rademacher explains why he is critical of the vaccine. Instagram has since added a link for users to get educational resources on the issue.
The GH actor, who has logged over twenty years as Jasper Jax on the ABC soap, spent much of the video taking direct aim at those promoting the #FireIngo hashtag.
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“If you were in charge of this country, you’d be a dictator,” he continued. “It’s not a democracy anymore when you can’t have open debate about something. You can disagree but what you can’t do is go to my boss and say ‘Fire me’ because I have a difference of opinion.”
Those opinions were recently made public on Showbiz 411 in an article that tied the actor’s past comments on vaccines to an outbreak on the GH set. Both Steve Burton (who plays Jason Morgan) and Kelly Thiebaud (Britt Westbourne) have tested positive for the virus, which has become a global health crisis. “Long story short, I was exposed at work,” Burton stated in an Instagram video on August 13th.
One day prior, Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis) tweeted, “I work on a set with unmasked, unvaccinated actors, because my union thus far has allowed this. Full stop.”
While Burton and Thiebaud are reporting mild symptoms, other soap stars have shared more harrowing stories from their battle with the virus. Rademacher’s video will only inflame this budding controversy further.
“To all of you again for hashtagging #FireIngo, go get some help,” he instructed, later elaborating that those who are upset with his stance are “dragging down the human race”.
ABC and GH have yet to comment.
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