Tom Hanks' Son Doubles Down on Anti-Vax Stance

'There's more evidence for UFOs being real than that vaccine being healthy for you,' says Chet Hanks
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 12, 2021 12:28 PM CDT
Tom Hanks' Son Doubles Down on Anti-Vax Stance
Chet Hanks, left, and Rita Wilson arrive at the InStyle and Warner Bros. Golden Globes afterparty at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 5, 2020.   (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

The rapper son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, some of the first celebrities diagnosed and then hospitalized with COVID-19 last year, says he's fine without the vaccine, thank you very much. Chet Hanks—whose rap name is Chet Hanx—was derided Tuesday after posting a video on Instagram, viewed more than 400,000 times, in which he said COVID-19 was "the motherf---ing flu, get over it," per the Hollywood Reporter. "If you're in danger, stay inside. I'm tired of wearing a motherf---ing mask," he added. He doubled down Wednesday in another video. "Just like you have the right to be mad at me … I have the right to not get that s--t," he said, calling the vaccine an "experimental government injection." "My immune system said it's good, it doesn't need to be tampered with."

"There's more evidence for UFOs being real than that vaccine being healthy for you," the White Boy Summer rapper went on. But "real-world data from around the world shows that the shots are reducing transmission and drastically lowering the chances of hospitalization and death," per CNN. Hanks' own parents have been advocating for people to get vaccinated, per the Reporter. Hanks didn't mention his parents in either video. When they were sick last year, he claimed "both are fine, they're not even that sick." Tom Hanks later told the Guardian of "crippling body aches" and severe fatigue, adding Wilson suffered severe nausea and lost her sense of taste and smell. The 31-year-old Hanks is no stranger to controversy, having previously argued that he can use the n-word. (More on that here.)

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