ORLANDO, FL – Author, coach, speaker, and philanthropist Tony Robbins went off on an anti-COVID-19 vaccination rant at a business speaking engagement in Orlando, Florida recently, belting out several jokes that drew laughter and cheers from the audience, but also making some factual errors in some of his observations and claims as well.
In a video obtained by TMZ, Tony Robbins is seen being filmed by an audience member at an event called Funnel Hacking Live while standing on a stage with his image projected onto a large screen; Robbins’ presence at the event was reportedly to assist salespeople to increase their output by listening to his motivational stories.
At one point during the seminar, Robbins turned his attention to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, where he first poked fun at current evening curfews in-place in Australia to prevent large gatherings in entertainment venues – joking that “we all know that the virus sneaks out at night” – and then debated whether or not the current crop of vaccines are effective against the virus.
“We’re all supposed to be afraid because the unvaccinated people are destroying the vaccinated people. Well, that’s kind of confusing to me,” he said. “If the vaccine works, you’re protected, aren’t you? How could unvaccinated people be a threat to you? Besides that, 100 million Americans are unvaccinated, and they’re not all crazy people. You know the number one group that is vaccine-resistant? PhDs!”
However, according to studies, COVID-19 is more likely to spread amongst the unvaccinated; it is amongst this population that variants of the virus – such as the Delta variant – have a greater chance of being created. However, Robbins is correct in insinuating that the vaccinated can still contract COVID and spread it to others; however, vaccinated individuals who do contract the virus – known as a “breakthrough case” – are less likely be hospitalized or have serious symptoms than those who have not taken the jab.
Robbins also equated the mortality rates of the COVID-19 pandemic to those of automobile accidents in the United States, although the statistics he quoted to back up his assertions were questionable.
“Being afraid of your neighbor is pretty stupid, because there’s risk in everything,” he said. “1,200 people die every day and you know what they die of, way more than COVID? Driving their car. That’s a fact.”
However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics for U.S. car deaths per day (from 2016) averages out to 102 per day, as opposed to Robbins’ claim of 1,200. In contrast, the current seven-day average of deaths due to COVID-19 is just over 2,000 per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University; Texas and Florida combined currently account for about one-third of the nationwide average.
