Packed to the Rafters’ Hugh Sheridan urges Australians to get vaccinated

We need incentives to entice people to get vaccinated and the messaging needs to change, says three-time Logie winner Hugh Sheridan.

Packed to the Rafters star Hugh Sheridan is urging Australians to get vaccinated.

The talented triple threat had Johnson and Johnson – the American equivalent of AstraZeneca – not long after he landed in Los Angeles in June.

“First thing they asked was ‘are you vaccinated?’ and when I said no, they handed me a piece of paper which had a hundred locations within a mile of the airport,” Sheridan said.

Sheridan was fortunate to receive an exemption to return to The States for work, to see his cat and sort his LA apartment for the first time since August last year.

“You don’t even have to be an American citizen, even tourists, can have the free vaccination,” he said.

Actor Hugh Sheridan got the jab and is urging all Australians to get theirs too. Picture: Richard Walker

He said he was amazed at how open and vibrant New York was.

“I was expecting it to be so dire and different – I couldn’t believe it.

“I don’t know a single person who didn’t know someone who had been hospitalised or died of Covid. We witnessed their intense lockdown while Australia was still open and we thought we were smashing it.

“Now they are fully vaccinated and looking at getting booster shots to protect them from Delta.”

The three-time Logie winner – who will next be seen in Five Bedrooms and the reboot Back to the Rafters in coming weeks – also shares he has some PTSD after his false positive result last September.

“I haven’t talked much about that, but I was sitting in that hotel room by myself and spiralling, crying because I was waiting for my body to change,” Sheridan said.

Back To The Rafters cast Rebecca Gibney, Hugh Sheridan, Angus McLaren, Michael Caton, George Houvardas and Georgina Haig at the Amazon Prime launch. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

“I was expecting to get so very sick. So while I feel so much safer now I’ve had J & J – last week on that last day in quarantine I was ringing the police, doctors, the nurse in the hotel from early that morning, I just wanted to know my result.”

Sheridan thinks the messaging should switch to saying ‘if you’re vaccinated, you won’t die from Covid’.

“You could still catch it – but you won’t die,” he said.

“Just get it – India and other countries are being crippled and here we are with a wonderful health plan in Australia. We have health care provided on a national level and that is our privilege for being born here, but we are still not taking advice from leading medical minds.”

Hugh Sheridan with his partner Kurt Roberts after Sheridan proposed at the opening night of his Adelaide Fringe show. Picture: Mark Brake

The 36-year-old believes the federal government should be offering incentives, joking he was peeved he was one day early to get a free McDonald’s Big Mac meal and the chance to go into the US lottery where every millionth person vaccinated wins a million dollars.

“It’s so crucial for the entertainment industry,” Sheridan said.

“My biggest concern at the moment is keeping arts and theatre alive and protecting companies – The Australian Ballet, Opera Australia. Just spare a thought for all those beautiful artists, comedians, actors who entertain us who have spent their whole lives training – same as a tennis player – to be a dancer or an artist and now they are in their kitchen with no money coming in and no idea what to do to put bread on their table.”

Sheridan acknowledges he’s one of the lucky ones.

He headed straight from Sydney quarantine to Queensland – a logistic nightmare in itself, saying it would be easier to cross several European borders – to prepare for next month’s Brisbane Festival.

He has his fingers crossed the current Delta crisis will ease and that he will be able to perform his Hughman show, which he debuted at the Adelaide Fringe.

It was also where he proposed to his partner Kurt Roberts on opening night.