Comedian Patton Oswalt said he canceled tour dates in places that reject his COVID-19 safety precautions because “my ego isn’t big enough to think people should die to hear my stupid comedy “.
Oswalt told fans on Instagram that four December concerts in Florida and one in Salt Lake City next year would not meet his requirement for fans to submit vaccination tests or a negative COVID-19 test.
“This difficult decision was made because of the growing number of COVID cases and also because I have an ego, but my ego is not big enough to think that people would have to die to hear my stupid comedy,” he said. former “King of Queens” star said in the Instagram video. “So hopefully, hopefully, in the future we can change the reserve when common sense reigns again.”
Oswalt can partly thank Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his failure. DeSantis, a Republican, issued an executive order earlier this year banning vaccine passports and vaccination testing to gain access to businesses. The delta variant has now been extended to the state.
A spokesman for the Salt Lake City location, Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah, told Deseret News that the school had a vaccination requirement for students and teachers, but that it could not be enforced by the public in general on campus sites.
Oswalt’s position is totally opposed to veteran rocker Eric Clapton, who said he would not play in places that require shots.