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Howard Stern Slams Conservative Radio Hosts Who Recently Died of COVID

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By Peter Malbin | Thursday, 09 September 2021 03:06 PM EDT

Radio host Howard Stern has ranted against conservative radio talk show hosts who died from COVID-19 after promoting anti-vaccination views to their listeners.

Speaking on Tuesday on his Sirius XM radio show, the comedic radio personality labeled anti-vaccine proponents "imbeciles" and criticized people for refusing the vaccine and then occupying hospital space, The Hill reported.

"When are we going to stop putting up with the idiots in this country and just say it's mandatory to get vaccinated?" He then used an expletive, one of many, to lambaste their "freedom" not to get vaccinated.

"I want my freedom to live. I want to get out of the house already. I want to go next door and play chess. I want to go take some pictures," Stern countered.

Radio host Marc Bernier, 65, who told his listeners in Daytona Beach, Florida, that he was "Mr. Anti-Vax," was at least the fourth talk radio host to die recently, The Washington Post reported.

Others who have died were Phil Valentine, 61, a popular host in Tennessee; Jimmy DeYoung, 81, a nationally syndicated Christian preacher also based in Tennessee; and Dick Farrel, 65, who had worked for stations in Miami and Palm Beach, Florida, as well as for the Newsmax channel.

"It's really funny when these radio, the radio guys are the best, they're like four of them died, four of them were like ranting on the air," Stern said on his radio show.

"They will not get vaccinated. They were on fire, these guys, it was like day after day, they were all dying and then their dying words are: 'I wish I had been more into the vaccine. I wish I had taken it.'"

Stern used Bernier — who died from COVID in August — as an example, playing a clip from his show on Daytona Beach talk radio.

Before his death, Bernier likened the vaccination drive to fascism in Nazi Germany.

"I'll tell you what, far as I remember, when I went to school, you had to get a measles vaccine, you had to get a mumps vaccine, you had to get, it was a ton of them," Stern said.

"When are we going to stop putting up with the idiots in this country and just say, 'You know, it's mandatory to get vaccinated?'"

Stern also criticized people who refused the vaccination and are now occupying space in hospitals.

"The other thing I hate is that all these people with COVID who won't get vaccinated are in the hospitals clogging it up," he continued.

"So like, if you have a heart attack or any kind of problem, you can't even get into the ER.

"I'm really of a mind to say, 'Look, if you didn't get vaccinated [and] you got COVID, you don't get into a hospital.'"

All four radio talk-show hosts who died this past summer were older than 60 and therefore more vulnerable to COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And all lived and worked in two states, Florida and Tennessee, that have been particularly hard hit by the delta variant, according to the Post.

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