Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz of veteran Floridian death metallers CANNIBAL CORPSE has doubed down on his statement that he is in no rush to get the COVID-19 vaccine to help stop the novel coronavirus from spreading. Earlier this month, Mazurkiewicz made headlines in the metal world when he told Finland's Kaaos TV that "it kind of stinks" that he may be "forced" to take the vaccine in order to be able to tour internationally with CANNIBAL CORPSE. "In a personal sense, I don't know if I would [get the vaccine], per se," he said. "It's a good question. I'm not sure. The flu shot has been readily available, obviously, for years, and so many people always just got a flu shot, and I know a lot of them as well. But it wasn't anything that I felt that I neeed to get. So, yeah, I'm just weird about being forced to take something. It's a touchy subject, of course, so I don't know if I will get one or not, unless I have to." After Mazurkiewicz's comments were first published on BLABBERMOUTH.NET and later picked up by other metal web sites, he was accused by some fans on social media of being an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist. He has since addressed the controversy in a new interview with Pierre Gutierrez of Rock Talks, saying that he was aware that his original comments had generated heated comments from both sides of the vaccination debate. "I saw it on Blabbermouth, and I didn't even read any of the replies or the comments," Paul said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I was just, like, people are gonna talk no matter what; they're gonna have opinions. So I'm, like, I'm not even gonna bother. So I don't even really know what was said other than… Who the heck am I to even cause controversy, kind of a thing. So I don't know, man. It's just silly, I think, that it would cause any stir, I guess. But it is what it is… I said what I said, I guess. I guess that's what I believe, because I said it, right?! "Everyone's got different views and everything," he continued. "And I'm not sitting here going, 'My God, I can't wait to get the shot.' I'm not — that's the truth. Will I get it? Maybe. I don't know. If I have to get it, I guess I have to get it. But I'm not sitting here going, 'Right, I'm going to get it,' or I'm thinking about it, like, 'Oh, as soon as it's available, I'm going tomorrow to get it.' I just don't think that way. So, who knows?" A new poll from the Pew Research Center showed that more than two-thirds of U.S. adults plan on getting the COVID-19 vaccine. The poll, released on March 5, found that 69 percent of adults say they are going to receive the coronavirus vaccine. The Pew poll showed that 19% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, 32% say they will definitely get the vaccine and 17% say they will probably get it. The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has estimated that about 70-85% of Americans would need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity. America's two main vaccines have shown 95% efficacy against the coronavirus. As of late January, the CDC discovered that only 11 per 1 million people experienced severe reactions from the Pfizer vaccine, and only 2.5 per 1 million people who received the Moderna dose. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, which became available in the United States earlier this month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it emergency use authorization, was tested with new variants of COVID-19, and has shown to be effective against them; Pfizer and Moderna were tested prior to the emergence of these variants.
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