Photo: Saturday Night Live / Getty
Has he changed his mind?
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Oct 11, 2021
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are making headlines after the rapper showed up to support his ex-wife during her SNL hosting gig.
And while the show of support at 'Saturday Night Live' has left many wondering if the couple are back together, there's something else we can assume from Kanye's appearance.
The rapper, who once staunchly criticized the COVID-19 vaccine, may now be vaccinated.
Is Kanye West vaccinated?
Kanye sat front row at 'SNL' so — considering the show has a strict vaccination policy — we can likely assume he's vaccinated.
New York City has been growing more and more restrictive as the Delta variant continues to rage on — moving towards mandatory vaccinations for all indoor activities and removing the options for vaccine exemptions.
According to the NBC ticket information for Saturday Night Live, “All guests must be fully vaccinated on the day of attendance and will be required to adhere to all applicable COVID protocols.”
They noted that being fully vaccinated meant waiting the 14-day period after the second dose for maximum effectiveness.
Sources close to the Kardashian family told E! News that Kanye was very supportive of his ex throughout the entire week she was set to host SNL.
This means that Kanye either got the vaccine sometime in the last year, or SNL played favorites and allowed Kanye to hang out with them all week unvaccinated.
Kanye West was once critical of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Forbes conducted an interview with Kanye a year ago in July — just 4 months after the nation went into lockdown and mandatory quarantine for the coronavirus.
Kanye had previously tested positive for the virus and talked about what it was like to have COVID-19.
“Chills, shaking in the bed, taking hot showers, looking at videos telling me what I’m supposed to do to get over it,” he said, but that didn’t stop him from being skeptical of the vaccines that hadn’t even been released to the public yet.
“It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed,” Kanye said. “So when they say the way we’re going to fix Covid is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious.”
There were reports that during some of the testing for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, people had developed Bell’s palsy, weakening one side of the face and paralyzing it.
The condition is more often than not temporary, and it wasn’t determined to be caused by the vaccine — seen in 8 cases over 70,000 tests.
“That’s the mark of the beast,” Kanye continued. “They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven.”
Kanye West did offer vaccines at a 'Donda' event.
More recently, during Kanye’s ‘Donda’ promotion cycle, the event organizers at the Soldier Field stadium where the Donda listening parties were held told TMZ that for the third listening party, they would perform on-site COVID-19 vaccinations.
In September, Kanye didn't show up to the Met Gala — which also had a strict vaccine policy — but it is unclear what his motive for this was.
However, if his attendance at SNL is any indication, he could have changed his mind about all of the things he said over a year ago.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.