Chet Hanks doubles down on stance against COVID vaccine

Chet Hanks has doubled down on his stance against getting the Covid vaccine.

The son of Hollywood stars Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson – who both caught the coronavirus early in the pandemic — sparked a backlash this week when he posted a video on Instagram in which he initially seemed to be encouraging people to have their jabs, then started ranting about how he wasn’t having it.

He has now reiterated his position, sharing another video saying that he has a right not to get the vaccine.

Read more: Tom Hanks' son wants Adele to call him after cultural appropriation controversy

“I’m going to keep this real simple for you guys, real simple,” he told his followers.

“Just like you have the right to be mad at me because I said I’m not going to get the vaccine - ’Ooooh I can’t believe he said that’ – just like you have the right to be mad, I have the right to not get that s***."

He went on: “I wanted to, but my immune system said it’s good, okay, it doesn’t need to be tampered with. It said it’s good, okay."

Chet went on to call the vaccine "experimental" and claimed there is more evidence of UFOs being real than vaccine safety.

The 31-year-old then says he’s ready for aliens to come and get him, adding: “Or do I have to show you my vaccine papers?”

In the video earlier this week, Chet likened the coronavirus to the flu and suggested that people who were unwell should just “stay inside”.

“Why are we working around y’all? If you’re in danger, stay you’re a** inside,” he said.

“I’m tired of wearing the m************ mask.”

The actor's parents Tom and Rita revealed in March 2020 that they had caught the virus.

Read more: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson taking part in COVID-19 vaccine study

Forrest Gump star Tom – who has previously said he could not understand people who didn’t wear face masks – donated his blood plasma to researchers after recovering from the illness.

The World Health Organization says there have been 203,944,144 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4,312,902 deaths, reported to WHO, as of 11 August 2021, and a total of 4,394,596,684 vaccine doses have been administered.

Watch: Chet Hanks calls COVID 'the flu' in anti-vaccine rant