Sam Frost’s comments regarding the COVID-19 vaccine made headlines over the weekend, with the Home and Away star revealing she would not be receiving it.
Fellow former Bachelor star and vaccine advocate Abbie Chatfield has added to the dialogue surrounding Sam’s controversial comments, breaking down the issue so many took with Sam’s comments.
In case you missed it, Sam posted a video to her Instagram over the weekend, saying she would not be vaccinated for ‘private’ reasons she had discussed with her doctor and psychologist.
However, she then went on to call for less ‘segregation’ within the community against people who are unvaccinated – a term which was rebuffed by many as very loaded given its connotations to issues of racism.
Abbie was just one of numerous celebs to pick up on this and explain why the video made them uncomfortable. On Sunday, Abbie took to her Stories to explain her issues with Sam’s comments.
Initially, Abbie had responded to people asking for her thoughts on Sam’s video by saying she was “choosing peace” and not going to speak out about the video. Then, people accused her of bullying Sam, and so she decided to address it once and for all.
“All these anti-vaxxers are raging saying I’m a bully cos of my post on Sam Frost but literally what I said was ‘babe I chose peace today’,” Abbie said.
“How was that bullying? I … didn’t add any commentary. Like these people want to be victims so badly and saying she was bullied to the point of leaving Instagram because of Abbie Chatfield. I didn’t f***ing bully her, I didn’t even go on my phone yesterday after I posted that.”
“I didn’t explain this yesterday because I was choosing peace. A huge issue with her video was she said she felt segregated and like less of a human, so she’s trying to use the struggles and the oppression of people of colour in the past and currently, to use that idea of equality for her being unvaccinated,” Abbie explained.
She also warned anyone watching to think before flooding her DMs with accusations that she was bullying Sam.
“Also, before any of you come into my DMs saying, ‘well she has a medical exemption,’ Okay, then she doesn’t lose any of her privileges, like going to restaurants, because she will be allowed to do the things we’re allowed to do tomorrow as vaccinated people,” Abbie said, referring to NSW’s freedom day, which will see lockdown end where both Sam and Abbie are based.
“If you have a legitimate medical exemption, you’re fine, you are treated the same way as a vaccinated person. So, it’s either her medical exemption isn’t legitimate enough for her to have that, or she has it and is choosing to not use it? It makes no sense,” Abbie added.
Both former Bachelor Matt Agnew and activist Tarang Chawla were also among those to point out their issues with the video.
Abbie’s commentary followed a post from Tarang, who was quick to call out Sam’s use of the word ‘segregation’ as problematic, leading to further backlash.
“Hey Sam, what you said impacts people of colour. It hurts people,” he wrote yesterday.
“Maybe you didn’t know about the meaning of the word “segregation”, or maybe you do? I don’t know,” he added.
“I hope you apologise meaningfully and then take the time to listen, to learn, and to educate yourself about the experiences of PoC the world over, especially here at home.”
A few hours after sharing her post, Sam deactivated her Instagram account.
Channel Seven released a statement shortly after the viral post, revealing Home and Away cast and crew are tested multiple times a week and that vaccinations are ‘encouraged’ but not mandated.
“Seven strongly encourages vaccination for all our people and all Seven productions strictly adhere to the public health COVID-19 safe protocols,” a spokesman told news.com.au.
“All Home and Away cast and crew also undertake Covid-19 testing three times a week in addition to other preventive measures. Sam Frost continues to work on Home And Away and follows the safety protocols in place.”
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