Right-wing radio host says unvaccinated are most hated group in US 'since slavery'

Dennis Prager complained also about Twitter hate for comparing the virus to HIV

An American right-wing radio host has been condemned after claiming that unvaccinated Americans are “the most hated” group of people “since slavery”, in an attack on vaccinations against Covid.

Dennis Prager, who hosts the nationally syndicated The Dennis Prager Show , told an audience recently that he had received “4,000 f**** you” messages for comparing Covid and AIDS.

He alleged that was because he “had the hotspur to say that the unvaccinated are pariahs the way that the gays were during the AIDS crisis”, in remarks delivered to a live audience.

“Was there any talk about banning anyone with AIDS from using all public transportation?” he asked his Twitter followers at the beginning of November.

“Such a ban on the non-vaccinated is being seriously discussed by the Biden regime and already exists in Canada.”

The radio host, who did not appear to understand how HIV or Covid spreads, went on to argue that unvaccinated Americans were in fact “bigger pariahs” than the LGBT+ community during the AIDS crisis.

While Covid is contracted by breathing in airborne droplets, HIV is caught though bodily fluids and the two diseases are not similar.

“Were gays or people with AIDS banned from travel? Were they banned from restaurants? Fired from jobs?” Mr Prager asked of restrictions on the LGBT+ community in the 1980s, which were largely the result of misconceptions about HIV.

He also ignored the huge barriers the LGBT+ community faced to accessing healthcare for HIV and AIDS during the crisis, fuelled by a deadly combination of government inaction and homophobia.

“The unvaccinated are the most hated group since, I would say since slavery,” he went on to argue, and asked: “Tell me who would be equivalent”.

His remarks were widely condemned by Twitter users for being both factually inaccurate offensive.

“He’s upping the ante from unfavorably comparing the unvaccinated ‘gay men dying of AIDS in the 80’s’ to now comparing them to the enslaved?,” one Twitter user wrote.

“Dennis Prager man,” another tweeted. “There’s a fundamental difference between other people being discriminated against because of uncontrollable things.”

“Then there’s being ‘hated’ because you won’t get a vaccine and are putting others at a higher risk.”

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended vaccinations to reduce the risk of Covid.

US President Joe Biden has meanwhile issued mandates for federal and private companies on vaccinated workers.

Right-wing commentators have been highly critical of vaccinations and mandates despite more than 750,000 Americans, and millions globally, dying of Covid.