Unvaccinated Offspring Drummer Removed From Band

Pete Parada isn't vaccinated against COVID-19, and he says it cost him his high-profile job. The drummer for the Offspring took to Instagram on Tuesday to share the news, writing, "It has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour. I mention this because you won’t be seeing me at these upcoming shows. I also want to share my story so that anyone else experiencing the agony and isolation of getting left behind right now knows they’re not entirely alone." He writes that he is "unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate" due to his history with Guillain-Barré Syndrome; he references the "side-effect profile of these jabs" and writes that "I'm not so certain I'd survive another post-vaccination round of Guillain-Barré Syndrome"—a disorder that causes your immune system to attack your nerves, reports USA Today.

Variety reports that Parada doesn't make clear whether he's been given the boot permanently or was just put on ice, but it sees his line about "find(ing) a new way forward" as indicating he's looking at this as a permanent exit. What he does state plainly is that he has "no negative feelings towards my band. They’re doing what they believe is best for them, while I am doing the same." Parada notes that he has had a case of COVID, and that it was mild so he believes he'd handily make it through again should he contract COVID again. But he adds this isn't just about him, writing of the "countless folks" who are making decisions like his own and the "understandable distrust" many people have in the system. Variety points out the band's frontman, Dexter Holland, has an atypical medical backstory: He has a PhD in molecular biology from USC. (More coronavirus vaccine stories.)