Emilio Estevez says "I am not anti-vaxx," explains he had long-haul COVID and his Mighty Ducks: Game Changers exit was due to a contract dispute

Deadline

"I am not anti-vaxx. Full stop," Estevez writes in a statement to Deadline in response to its report last week that Disney opted not to bring back the actor because mainly over its vaccination requirement. "I take this pandemic very seriously, and I am often teased about my continued following of the safety protocols and my abundance of caution," Estevez adds. "I want to address what transpired and clear up some falsehoods which appeared in an article regarding my decision to depart The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. In the final analysis, this was nothing more than a good old fashioned contract dispute and not, as some would believe an anti-vaccine position. While I can’t speak for anyone else in regards to this polarizing, sensitive issue, I have my own lived experience." Estevez writes that he thinks he caught COVID early on in the pandemic. "I suffered the summer and fall of 2020 from what we now know as 'Long Haul Syndrome,'" he writes. "As the show went back into production in August 2020, I reluctantly soldiered on, but was uncertain about how I would be safe on set. I questioned the wisdom of returning to make a tv show in the middle of a pandemic and how actors could be considered 'essential workers.' The show producers tried their best to assuage my fears of coming back to work...In retrospect, I wrongly chose to protect the show over being transparent about having contracted Covid-19. I may have provided another public example to wit, how we are all vulnerable to this deadly disease. The quoted 'anonymous sources,' producers and show runners all know the truth. Simply put, I am anti-bully. My exit from the show was due to a myriad of creative differences – any other narrative is false. To the fans of the franchise – I am as disappointed as you are."