Bachelor star Matt Agnew responds to Sam Frost’s vaccination video

Former Bachelor Matt Agnew has issued a lengthy response to Sam Frost’s controversial video “coming out” as unvaccinated.

Former Bachelor Matt Agnew has weighed in on fellow Bach star Sam Frost’s controversial vaccination video, saying he wanted to “challenge a few of the points that were put forward”.

Frost posted an emotional five-minute video to her Instagram account yesterday, in which she revealed that she has chosen not to get vaccinated against Covid, and pleaded for “compassion” and “empathy” for those who have made the same decision as her.

Matt Agnew was The Bachelor in 2019.

Frost has made two starring appearances in the franchise.

The video drew an immediate wave of backlash, particularly for her complaint that the unvaccinated are experiencing “segregation” from the rest of society. She deactivated her Instagram account later in the day.

In a post to his Instagram today, astrophysicist and 2019 Bachelor Agnew said he didn’t want to contribute to the “pile on” against Frost, who said in the video she needed to look after her mental health while she waited until December 1 when the unvaccinated can enjoy the same freedoms as those who’ve been double-jabbed.

“Sam Frost has opened up with a lengthy monologue about being unvaccinated. At it’s simplest, it’s a dog whistle,” Agnew began, a political term used to describe messaging aimed at fringe or niche groups while appearing “superficially unobjectionable.” He then outlined his four issues with the video, listed in full below:

* There are NOT a lot of different reasons why someone shouldn’t be getting vaccinated. There is one reason: medical. And that is a rather broad reason too. It encompasses many things including immunocompromised individuals, people that may experience anaphylaxis to particular components of the vaccines, and (in the case of *live* vaccines) pregnant women.

* An appeal to show compassion and empathy was made, while displaying none of those characteristics by choosing to put the lives of those who *can not* get vaccinated at risk. Anti-vaxxers often skip this step. You are affecting others.

* The use of the word, ‘segregation’, is inappropriate considering the historical significance of the word. It should not be used haphazardly when it carries such immense weight and meaning to others.

* With a social media presence, there comes a social and moral obligation. Misinformation is a hugely problematic issue, and the unregulated proliferation of information through people with large social media followings is a large contributor to that.

Sam Frost’s message to anti-vaxxers: “Know there are people in your corner.”

Matt Agnew: “With a social media presence comes an obligation.”

Agnew is not the only former Bachelor contestant to publicly criticise Home And Away actress Frost, who won the 2014 season of The Bachelor before coming back as the star of The Bachelorette the following year.

Abbie Chatfield, who first found fame in Agnew’s season of The Bachelor, roasted Frost’s video yesterday, writing on Instagram: “I mean, it kinda speaks for itself. So brave to “come out” as putting yourself as an individual above your community because you listen to misinformation. Another reality star bites the dust #love #light #empathy.”

Frost finished her video with a message of support to others who choose not to be vaccinated.

“Know that there are people in your corner, and there are people who are feeling it too, and I hope that this segregation disappears and that people treat each other like human beings with kindness and compassion and empathy.”

Meanwhile, TV host Waleed Aly’s surgeon brother is going viral on social media for a very different video this weekend. Dr Ahmad Aly takes viewers inside the intensive care unit of Melbourne’s Austin Hospital, revealing that 13 Covid patients are currently in the ICU ward, all of them unvaccinated. He said that so far nobody fully vaccinated had ended up in the hospital’s ICU with Covid.

The doctor said he’d “never seen so many fairly young people in ICU, all with the one problem, all of whom are at a high risk of dying”.

“The message is really clear,” Dr Aly warns those watching.

“They’re young, they’re not vaccinated … If you are vaccinated, you may get Covid – but you don’t end up here.”