The Project host Kate Langbroek mocks people who ‘lined up like little b*****s’ to get Covid jab

The Project host Kate Langbroek has left fellow panellists stunned after mocking people who “lined up like little b*****s” during the pandemic.

The Project host Kate Langbroek has mocked people who “lined up like little b*****s” to get the Covid jab.

The comedian and broadcaster made the comments on Tuesday night’s panel during a discussion about tennis star Novak Djokovic, who was in the headlines again this week after accusing the Wimbledon crowd of “disrespect” for booing him during his straight sets victory over Danish player Holger Rune.

Langbroek praised Djokovic for his steadfast refusal to get vaccinated, which resulted in the world number one being deported from Australia in January 2022 days before he was scheduled to play in that year’s Australian Open.

“His sense of himself was so strong, then when all the world was lining up like little b*****s to get jabbed with an unknown vaccine, he went, ‘I’m not going to,’” Langbroek said, leaving her fellow panellists and audience stunned. “And the world hated him, and he was just like, staunch.”

“We locked him up,” co-host Sam Taunton noted.

“Yeah, and then booted him out,” Langbroek said.

Kate Langbroek says people ‘lined up like little b*****s’ to take the vaccine. Picture: X

Djokovic returned to Australia in December 2022 to prepare for the following month’s Australian Open, saying at the time he bore no ill will despite the difficult experience.

“Obviously what happened 12 months ago was not easy for me, for my family, team, anybody who’s close to me, and so it’s disappointing to leave the country like that,” he said.

“You can’t forget these events, it’s one of those things that stays with you for the rest of your life. I had to move on and no event or circumstances would replace what I have lived in Melbourne, and in Australia throughout my career.”

Speaking to CBS in December 2023, Djokovic revealed he was still scarred by the experience and said that while he had often faced hostile crowds, nothing had prepared him for the deportation saga.

“I was basically declared as a villain of the world,” he said.

Langbroek, a regular presenter on the Channel 10 show, has previously weighed in on the vaccine issue, slamming employer mandates in September 2021 in a heated on-air discussion with co-host Hamish Macdonald.

Nearly all Australians lined up to get vaccinated. Picture: David Crosling/NCA NewsWire

“I’m not an anti-vaxxer, but I’m just very uncomfortable prescribing to people mandatorily what they have to put in their bodies in order to work,” she said at the time.

Later speaking to Stellar magazine, Langbroek stood by her position, saying her upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness had made her wary of “cults”.

In particular she drew parallels with the “repugnant” practice of “disfellowshipping”. Those who are “disfellowshipped” from the religion are immediately shunned by their former friends and loved ones.

“I’m confused that everyone is so militant and happy about it,” she told Stellar.

“I don’t want to see people disfellowshipped from their lives. I witnessed it growing up, and it’s a cruel and effective means of control … the values and sense of community [within the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith] is good until you decide to leave, and then you discover all the love they supposedly had for you was dependent on what you believe. I was raised in a cult and to see the emergence of other cults is unsettling.”

She added, “You only have to see what’s happened in the pandemic to see Australians are not easygoing. We never think we’re this bunch of risk-averse, dobby neighbourhood snitches, but we are.”

Novak Djokovic was deported from Australia in January 2022. Picture: Diego Fedele/Getty Images

Langbroek has also clashed with her Project co-hosts about other controversial issues, including 15-minute city “conspiracy theories” and electric vehicle “misinformation”.

Nearly 99 per cent of Australian adults have lined up to take a Covid vaccine at some point, according to the most recent Health Department figures.

But low booster numbers suggest many are not coming back for more.

Of the 19.8 million Australians aged over 18 who got jabbed, 17.8 million were last vaccinated more than six months ago, while just two million have had one within the last six months, the data as of June 12 show.

That leaves an estimated 230,700, or 1.2 per cent, who have never taken a Covid vaccine.

Dr Nick Coatsworth, the country’s former deputy chief medical officer and now the Nine Network’s medical expert, said last month he would not be getting any more Covid vaccines. Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham, Dr Coatsworth said he stopped getting vaccinated “about two years ago”.

“I had three vaccines, and that’s been enough for me,” he said.

“Any reason why?” Fordham asked.

“Because I don’t think I need any more, Ben, and the science tells me that I don’t,” Dr Coatsworth said.

Originally published as The Project host Kate Langbroek mocks people who ‘lined up like little b*****s’ to get Covid jab