(WGN) — A long-time star of “General Hospital” has been fired after declining to comply with the production’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to Variety.
Ingo Rademacher’s last episode on the ABC soap opera is scheduled to air on Nov. 22. He has played the character Jasper “Jax” Jacks on General Hospital since 1996.
“General Hospital” mandated vaccines last month for all cast and crew members.
Rademacher has been vocal about his anti-vaccination stance. On Sunday, he shared an anti-vax message on Instagram that read, “I will stand with you to fight for medical freedom.”
In August, when a group of “General Hospital” fans called for this termination after he spoke about his stance, he called them “morons, dictators and horrible, horrible” people, Deadline reported.
News of the actor’s departure comes amid backlash after he shared a meme with a picture of U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, who is transgender, and referred to the picture as “that dude on the left.”
According to Variety, the meme had originally been posted by a conservative commentator.
The actor said he supported the author’s intent to, in his words, “highlight the hypocrisy of the left-wing media.”
In a video posted to Instagram on Monday, Rademacher apologized and said he should have crossed out the word “dude” in the meme and said that those were the author’s words, not his.
He also said in the video that he would comment on his “General Hospital status” later.