TV host Osher Gunsberg has condemned ‘radicalised’ anti-vaccination campaigners

Adding his voice to the immunisation debate and vaccine conspiracies circulating during the COVID-19 pandemic, Osher Gunsberg has argued the need for vaccinations, urging the public not to be “radicalised away from reality”.

TELEVISION host Osher Gunsberg has condemned anti-vaccination campaigners and conspiracy theorists.

Responding to the immunisation debate and vaccine conspiracies aired during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brisbane-raised television identity shared a lengthy post on Instagram late Tuesday, saying he was concerned by how easily the public could be “radicalised away from reality”.

“My 46th year on this earth is brought to you in part by: ⁠My toothbrush, ⁠Sanitation, ⁠Water Purification, ⁠ Antibiotics, ⁠ SSRIs, ⁠ a while on antipsychotics, ⁠the Haber-Bosch process, ⁠and … ⁠vaccines,” Gunsberg wrote alongside a photo of himself getting vaccinated.

Osher Gunsberg voiced his support for vaccination and science on Instagram. Picture: Instagram/ @osher_gunsberg

“100 years ago I’d be less than twelve years from death. ⁠Now, we’re just over halfway there. ⁠Hooray for science!”

Social media has been flooded with conspiracies, with some claiming the pandemic was manufactured to allow billionaires, Big Pharma and global bureaucrats to use a vaccine as a ruse to control the public.

The anti-vaccination movement has been championed in Australia by celebrity chef Pete Evans, who said he was suspicious of science because “it had been bought by vested interests in so many different fields over the years” during a 60 Minutes interview this month, telling interviewer Liz Hayes he would not be vaccinated against COVID-19 if, and when, a vaccine was found.

Pete Evans appeared on 60 Minutes, where he said he would not be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the time came. Picture: Channel 9

“One of the things I love about science is that it also explores the reasons that people won’t accept science – which in itself is fascinating,” Gunsberg continued in the post. ⁠

“As a society – at this moment in history we have a dire need to share a common view of reality. ⁠Without that view, it’s very hard for us to make any decisions about what’s best for our society.” ⁠

“In recent times, the ability for people to be so easily radicalised away from reality is truly worrying.”⁠

Gunsberg has been open about his battle with depression, once taking himself off antidepressants for nine months before hitting breaking point and realising he wasn’t capable of fighting the condition without medication.

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Gunsberg, host on The Masked Singer, has been open about using medication to treat depression

“As someone who went through a period of reality distortion myself – I know how scary it can be,” he said.

“It took a really long and painful amount of time to get to the point I’m at now – which is being prepared to just be with that uncertainty. ⁠Because that’s life. That’s reality. ⁠You can’t have confidence and comfort without uncertainty and discomfort – that’s just how it is.”

Gunsberg, host of The Bachelor and The Masked Singer, concluded the post by congratulating “the 10th Century Chinese who figured out that vaccines worked against smallpox”, saying “I’m alive today because of people like you”.

Earlier this week, Gunsberg shared a post about conspiracy theorists, asking followers to look into the research of British Social Psychology expert, Professor Karen Douglas.

“Her work on the link between belief in conspiracy theories and narcissism is fascinating,” he wrote.