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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zara Woodcock

Eric Clapton contracts Covid after branding vaccine rollout as 'mass formation hypnosis'

Eric Clapton was forced to postpone a few of his shows after contracting the coronavirus.

The 77-year-old musician - who previously branded the coronavirus vaccine rollout 'mass formation hypnosis' - got Covid shortly after his second concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 8.

He postponed both his show in Zurich, Switzerland, on May 17, as well as his show in Milan, Italy, on May 18.

A statement was released on his website, saying: "He has been told by his medical advisors that if he were to resume travelling and performing too soon, it could substantially delay his full recovery.

"Eric is also anxious to avoid passing on any infection to any of his band, crew, promoters, their staff and of course, the fans."

He hopes to be able to perform in Bologna, Italy, on May 20 and 21.

Eric contracted Covid after his gig in London (GC Images)
He managed to avoid it for the last few years (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

The statement continued: "It is very frustrating that having avoided Covid throughout lockdown and throughout the period when travel restrictions have been in place Eric should have succumbed to Covid at this point in time, but we very much hope he will be sufficiently recovered by the end of the week to be able to perform the remainder of the planned performances.

"The shows are due to be rescheduled within the next six months and tickets purchased will remain valid for the new rescheduled date."

At the beginning of the year, the Cream guitarist insisted subliminal messaging in advertisements led to people getting the vaccine.

He was advised to miss a few of his shows (mirror.co.uk)

He also said he 'didn't get the memo' concerning the vaccine.

In an interview for The Real Music Observer Youtube channel, he said: "Whatever the memo was, it hadn't reached me.

"Then I started to realise there was really a memo, and a guy, Mattias Desmet [professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University in Belgium], talked about it."

Eric previously called the vaccine rollout 'mass formation hypnosis' (Redferns)

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He continued: "And it's great. The theory of mass formation hypnosis. And I could see it then. Once I kind of started to look for it, I saw it everywhere.

"Then I remembered seeing little things on YouTube which were like subliminal advertising. It had been going on for a long time: that thing about "you will own nothing and you will be happy.

"And I thought, "What's that mean?" And bit by bit, I put a rough kind of jigsaw puzzle together. And that made me even more resolute."

Mass formation psychosis is an attempt to hypnotise groups of people to follow messages against their will. It has been widely discredited by medical experts.

He also claimed he suffered 'disastrous' side effects due to the AstraZeneca vaccine and said his hands and feet were 'either frozen, numb or burning, and pretty much useless'.

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