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Two-time Daytime Emmy winner Steve Burton‘s latest General Hospital run has come to an end, the soap opera vet confirmed in a video posted to Instagram.
Burton said that he and ABC, like co-star Ingo Rademacher before him, arrived at an impasse due to the COVID vaccine mandate which took effect at GH on Nov. 1. Burton taped his last episode on Oct. 27, TVLine hears.
In the Nov. 22 episode the ABC sudser, Burton’s character, Jason Morgan, was declared missing (and perhaps will be presumed dead?) after being caught in a tunnel collapse beneath Cassadine Island. (Is it no longer called Spoon Island? Where have I been? Are there still parapets?)
Burton said he was unsure when his final air date will be (or if it already aired).
“I know there’s been a lot of rumors and speculation about me and General Hospital, and I wanted you to hear it from me personally. Unfortunately, General Hospital has let me go, because of the vaccine mandate,” Burton shared on Instagram.
“I did apply for my medical and religious exemptions, and both of those were denied… which, you know, hurts,” he added. “But this is also about personal freedom to me. I don’t think anybody should lose their livelihood over this.”
“I’ll always be grateful for my time on General Hospital. I love it there, I grew up there,” Burton continued. “I believe that when one door closes, multiple doors open… so I am excited to see what the future brings. And maybe one day, if these mandates are lifted, I can return and can finish my career as Jason Morgan.”
Burton said back in mid-August that he had tested positive for COVID-19 but felt “fine” and experienced “no symptoms.” Sharing his positive result in the context of postponing the next in a series of in-person comedy club appearances, Burton claimed that he had been exposed to the virus “at work.”
Burton’s original stint as Jason Morgan né Quartermaine began in 1991 and ended in 2012, when the character was (seemingly) killed off. In 2017, following a run as The Young and the Restless‘ Dylan McAvoy, he returned to ABC’s sole surviving daytime drama. He has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy nine total times, and has converted twice — once for his GH work (in 1998), and again during his Y&R run.
Burton, as noted above, marks GH‘s second major exit this month, with the Nov. 22 episode also marking Ingo Rademacher’s final appearance as Jasper “Jax” Jacks (who returned to Sydney on a business trip).
SAG-AFTRA actors are currently working under the terms of a pandemic-era Return to Work agreement which states, “Producers may in their discretion implement policies requiring that current and prospective employees in Zone A, studio teachers and others who come into close contact with minors be ‘fully vaccinated’ as a condition of employment where permitted by law.” (Zone A is the area where actors are taped/filmed performing scenes for a TV show or movie, plus the immediate perimeter where crew members work.)
The cast and crew are safer that he is no longer on the show. The thing is, it isn’t just ABC/Disney is the studio and union rules.
Hardly, he already tested positive and now has natural immunity. There have been zero documented cases of people with natural immunity passing the virus on to ANYone.
I don’t know why I’m bothering but, that is not factually accurate at all.
they buy the lies
So true, after all this time these sheep are still believing and spouting the lies spread from the orange man and his minions and his news network. Meanwhile he got the vaccine on his way out of office as did his wife. Burton says he doesn’t think it’s fair for him to lose his livelihood over this. Well I don’t think it’s fair that someone else could get really sick or lose their life over his selfish and childish decision. The issue is that it isn’t just about you and your personal choices, it affects others as well and could be life threatening. This week 897,000 in US tested positive for covid-19 and it’s been going up steadily for weeks. Four countries are thinking about or starting lockdowns again, let’s just end this nightmare already. GET VACCINATED, for most of you it’s just political anyway not about being anti vaxxers or medical and religious. They mandate seat belts, it’s the law and the only person that saves is you! If you aren’t worried for yourself, have compassion for those around you, possibly more vulnerable.
Trump is not antivax, and in fact helped millions by purchasing and mass producing Pfizer when they were negotiating with Germany, so USA was served first
The Pfizer vaccine was developed *in* Germany, and supported with €375 million grant from the German government. It was not part of Trump’s “Operation Warpspeed.” Meanwhile, Mango Mussolini was busy advising people to ingest bleach. Your hero-worship is embarrassing.
AMEN!!! Totally agree with everything you wrote!!
You do know that people who have been vaccinated and also received the booster are still testing positive for the virus, so either these test are inaccurate or we are not being given the correct facts and information , this has nothing to do with Trump now but everything to do with the current administration
Vaccines mitigate the impact of the virus. It is not a magic shield that can can guarantee you will not contract it, especially as variants emerge. How is this news to you, given that the same thing has been true for flu shots for decades?
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Try educating yourself before you embarrass yourself.
Done with General Hospital I will start watching it again when Jason comes back not until
yeah the current admistration forkin sucks bad!!
Natural immunity for a few months, and then he’s ready to catch and spread it all again. Btw, vaccine immunity is also natural immunity – the antibodies are created by your own body, exactly the same way they are when you get sick, just in higher amount and with a lesser risk of, well, you dying in the process.
Actually the natural antibodies have a shelf life and deteriorate like anything else. The natural antibodies, as I understand don’t protect against variants nor do they prevent the carrier from transmitting the virus to others.
Also, natural immunity is only for that particular variant, which is why some people have had covid-19 twice.
That is an outright misstatement of reality. First, is that were the case, how would people get covid multiple times, second,this is an ever evolving virus…np precaution is too great, finally, you shpuld get your covid information from somewhere other than facebook
I had it near the beginning of the pandemic and the antibodies were almost gone when I was tested 5-6 months later.
There is NO evidence that testing positive for COVID endows immunity. Try a fact.
@annielaurie: You are sadly mistaken and, just plain wrong. You people need to stop pedaling this nonsense.
He has the freedom to not take the vaccine. The company has the freedom to show him the door. Good on them.
Thank you for common sense…people with uneducated theories from the toilet of facebook are making impossible to get out fof this pandemic
Incorrect. And natural immunity fades fastest – it’s failing within 8 weeks and is gone by 8 months. You comment is not fact based.
Trump, his wife and his youngest son all had COVID and they made sure they are all vaccinated less than 3 months later, before they left whitehouse. The Health recommendation is get to vaccinate even after having CVOID, as all immunity, natural and vaccine, will wane over time.
annielaurie – don’t know where you’re getting your info BUT your statement is NOT true for everyone who gets Covid! My friend had Covid last year and AGAIN this year. You have to get tested to see if your natural immunity has built up and kicked in, its NOT automatic!
And good riddance to anyone who puts their life and “personal freedom” above everyone else’s life. It’s selfish, self serving, and for an actor its both egotistical and unprofessional that he/she can’t follow company and union rules. These are private companies and can set ANY policy they choose to.
WRONG!! A former friend of mine came down with COVID twice and ended up infecting more than two dozen security guards at a company he worked for and was fired soon after. A person with COVID can get the illness repeatedly unless vaccinated.
If they’re vaccinated, what does it matter?
As you would know if you knew any science, the vaccine doesn’t provide 100% immunity.
Nothing in life is 100% – ever – so your comment is pointless. The vaccine provides massive benefits for a vanishingly tiny risk.
There are babies on the set. People have compromised immune systems, which is why Colin Powell died even though he was vaccinated.
So using that reasoning one could say:
If they are wearing their seatbelts what does it matter if I don’t wear min? or
If they are driving the speed limit… and so on.
It is his prerogative to not to get vaccinated but it is also their prerogative to ask him to leave if he doesn’t. They aren’t saying that he can never work again just that he will have to wait until the mandates are lifted.
Yep. Vaccinations work. They work even better when someone has antibodies from having it. It’s astonishing to me that this is still a controversial position.
Good riddance.
I keep seeing people requesting religious exemption. Has a single person actually successfully got it? No religion to my knowledge is actually against the vaccine.
It’s actually tied to the cell lines used in testing that were lab grown from fetus cells collected for science years earlier. They are citing an indirect link of the vaccine to abortions, which they oppose on religious grounds. However, since the vaccines, as I understand, do not actually contain cells from aborted fetuses, the exemption is usually denied. At least that is what I understand is happening from what I have read.
How does one be morally against abortion and not spreading potential death to another?
The same way there is a demographic of the population that claims to love the unborn, but do not after they have been born. Heck, and love their guns – an instrument that has no other purpose than to main, kill and destroy.
The cognitive dissonance, no longer amazes me.
Hell, doesn’t the Vatican have a vaccine mandate? If anyone were going to use the “abortion” argument against the vaccine it’d be them, but if they’re supportive of and encouraging it, that should be further proof of just how much BS the “vaccines contain aborted fetuses!” argument really is.
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But yeah, “religious exemption”, at this point, is basically just another way for a subset of people in this country to act like they’re being oh-so-persecuted for their outdated and ignorant beliefs. You see it with the “Don’t want to bake cakes for gay people” crowd, this is no different. It’s their crutch to avoid having to take responsibility for anything they say or do.
Great comment. Burton has worked with some of these people off and on for 25 years. Where is his humanity and compassion for his friends and colleagues, he is risking their health, livelihoods and their lives. I would never permit him to return to GH.
Who left you as Judge, Jury & God. I don’t believe you are for real Nina. You are unbelievable. DUH!!
@judy; DUH Nina was giving her OPINION not acting as judge jury and God. The one who is unbelievable is YOU for your ignorance. Get a life!
I’ve got bad news for people worried about the Covid vaccine using fetal cell lines in testing and development if they’ve ever taken Tylenol, Benadryl, Pepto Bismol or a whole host of other common medications.
Part of my job is analyzing religious/moral and medical exemptions. The moral/religious exemption allowance paints with a pretty broad legal brush, but it’s all in the language of how it’s requested. The objection must be based on a pattern of behavior and the minute they mention anything political/medical in nature, it almost always nullifies the request. And calling it a moral objection (again, based on pattern of behavior) is actually easier than claiming a religious one since, as mentioned often, no major (or minor, really) religions have issued a specific objection to this vaccine.
Thank you Aeol. The only “religion” I’ve heard about is Christian Science who don’t believe in medical intervention of any kind. If you’re sick you pray to God to heal you, not medicine. And Jehovah Witness are not against vaccinations since they no longer contain “live blood” in the vaccine, which there isn’t and hasn’t been for decades, but they are still opposed to blood transfusions as it is “live” blood. As far as I’m concerned anyone claiming “moral objection” is a hypocrite – but that one is just my own opinion.
Spoon Island is in Port Charles. Currently Nic and Ava live there. Cassadine Island is in Greece.
It is never going to be lifted. While at some point the pandemic might be considered over, still, it will long be with us, and to work, you will probably have to be vaccinated. It is one thing if he was dealing with a medical issue related to, but personal freedom does not qualify for medical or religious. When you are on a soap or any acting field which involves kissing and other intimate scenes. Yeah, they are going to make sure all the actors are perfectly safe for the other person in the scene.
Well not all of the networks, etc. are implementing a mandate. He could go to work on Days of Our Lives, they don’t have one, lol.
Even if they do not. They would look foolish for employing someone who was terminated from another soap due to the vaccine mandate.
No more foolish than continuing to employ people who consistently bash the vaccine and all mandates on social media. They are endangering their fellow co-workers just as SB and IR were.
That’s not true. Why would they not hire someone, when they themselves, don’t have a mandate? lol
Due to the fact that they do not want someone who is NOT a team player.
So blasting on social media how bad the vaccine and all mandates are, etc. is being a team player? Days and the others should be embarrassed that they allow to this to go on right in their faces.
He said personal AND religious reasons
And medical! Another idiot aiming for the “whatever will work” exemption. As others have noted, the rest of the cast and crew will be safer with him gone.
Personal = I’m a Trumper
Religious reasons = Easy line to use without proving nothing.
The vaccines are made from aborted fetuses that’s why people say religious exemptions.
No, no they aren’t That is a flat out lie. You may believe it, but it is still a lie.
They absolutely are NOT.
Lol. Omg. Some people will believe anything in a meme or on Facebook. It’s scary
Please point to a single actual source that confirms this.
There are NO religions that prohibit vaccines – not even Christian Scientists.
There are three very small religions in the US that qualify for the religious exemption, and you have to 1) know what one is, 2) been a member for some time, and 3) know the tenants of that religion. Most employers do test.
Or maybe the other actors sign a waver that they are ok being around him. Just a thought
Why should they? You’re pretty shockingly naive if you don’t think anyone in the cast or crew has young children or immunocompromised family members that they want to protect over this asshat.
They are in Greece that is why it is called Cassadine Island. Spoon Island is in Port Charles.
Everyone has a right to choose and he took the consequences of that choice. So be it. He’ll be fine wherever he ends up. Now, NBC Days needs to do the same.
You may have the personal freedom to choose not to get vaccinated, but you don’t have the personal freedom to force an employer to employ you, nor do you have the personal freedom to potentially spread a deadly virus
Yes, it is the fact that he is one of many such people who make it more likely that more people will become ill and place terrible burdens on the nurses and doctors in our hospitals. Those health professionals have to assume the consequences of his “personal” decision every day. I hope he quarantines himself but I doubt that he will have the humility to do that.
This. Amazing how the “personal freedom” argument only ever seems to go one way for these people. I guess the fact that many of us would like to be able to have the freedom to go out in public without worrying about being infected with a deadly virus doesn’t matter to these selfish brats.
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Truly, I have never seen so many supposedly grown adults act so freaking stupid and childish over something that shouldn’t be an issue in the first place. It’s a vaccine. It’s a mask. They’re both beneficial and have proven to work. Suck it up and get the hell over yourselves already.
@angela. THANK YOU!!!!!!
Spot on Angela. I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with a comment so much!
Spoon Island is the island where Nikolas lives in Port Charles. Casadine Island is in Greece. Nobody should be made to vaccinate if they don’t want to or can’t. Weekly testing should be mandatory instead. Losing your job is ridiculous. Stay strong and hope you come back Steve
While I might agree that testing could be a compromise, I think it would have to be more often than weekly. Second, why should a company have to pay for testing their employees when their employees could simply get a vaccine? Or in other words, if an employee does not want to get vaccinated, than the employee should be the one to have to pay for testing and if your company requires daily testing, than be prepared to pay for five tests per week.
One can contract the virus minutes after taking a test. What happens to the next person you come in contact with? The only option to protect oneself and others is the vaccine. Not taking one isn’t staying strong; it’s staying selfish.
Well, now he has lots of personal free time.
I feel forcing someone to do something against their religious beliefs is wrong plus Steve Burton makes GH. This truly sucks.
Spoon island is in Port Charles, and is where the PC Cassadines live in windermere. Cassadine Island is the quasi ancestral home island in Greece
No religion says you shouldn’t get the covid vaccine. Also, if he’s applying for both religious and medical exemptions, that sounds like a last ditch effort to not get the shot and continue to work.
Lol, if the only rule of your religion is that you’re against a vaccine, it’s not a religion, it’s a ridiculous cult.
What could his religious reason be? He has no religious concerns with playing a killer or potentially infecting others. Sounds hypocritical to me
He had way too much botox/work on his face anyway. No emotion, the range of a brick wall. Byeeeeee!
Bye Felica
No, I think she’s still there.
You win the intarwebs today!
Glad someone got it!
Applying for both exemptions sounds like he didn’t actually qualify for either. Oh well. Sometimes the trash takes itself out.
Exactly. And people like this who apply for medical and/or religious exemptions when the real reason is personal beliefs just make it that much harder for people who actually have legitimate reasons.
Yep.
The ONLY legit reason is if you have a documented medical condition which is exceedingly rare. Even those who have had issue with past vaccines are being given this one, usually in an ER in case there are issues.
IMO, any documented medical reason should be signed off by two doctors to be sure one isn’t a quack.
That’s EXACTLY how I read it too.
Always amusing to see an anti-vaxxer get booted.
Steve Burton can now go make direct-to-video movies with Dean Cain, Kristy Swanson and Kevin Sorbo.
and Scott Baio
and Ingo
Placing the Health of others at risk because of supposed religious beliefs (and can anyone point out where in the Bible spreading illness is ok?) Is trying to impose you’re beliefs on others and that is NOT covered by religious freedom. Religious freedom is the right to practice your beliefs AND to be free from being forced into someone else’s
The irony is the bible actually says the opposite – there are tons of rules about quarantining people with communicable diseases and preventing their spread, but actually reading the bible isn’t a priority for a lot of people that claim to follow it.
I guess people don’t die from the flu anymore, just Covid. Good luck, Steve Burton. Maybe you can get a job on “Days”, my favorite soap. We’d love to have you.
they really didn’t want to work. replace these idiots who need jobs.
This is such a stupid comment, because each of these two guys that were let go from GH have other occupations besides just the soap. In other words, they are harder workers than most others on the set.
Steve still working that pyramid scam?
That absolutely sucks!!!! GH will not be the same without him! I seriously cannot believe GH has taken it this far. They are losing one of the best cast members on the show that has a longtime history with the show. Terrible!!
He did it to himself. Jobs have rules. People are required to follow the rules of their employers or get out.
Everyone has the right to make their own personal medical decisions – at least, that’s what I’ve heard from the pro-choice lobby for decades. And that right should supersede any company’s rules.
Nope, not how it works. He doesn’t have a right to spread a deadly illness.
They do NOT have the right to expose others to a potentially fatal disease. Some may be immunocompromised, even vaccinated. So the anti-vaxxers crying about a little jab are fine to protect themselves but not others. They can go. Thank you, ABC/Disney, for doing the proper thing and having a mandate to protect EVERYONE.
Abortions are not contagious.
No – unlike COVID, they are always fatal.
I think the rumors about Trevor St. John joining GH are looking much better now, given that he and Steve Burton have a similar look I could see him taking over the role. The story will likely suffer with a recast, but Jason is a central character and will probably be recast.
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But honestly, I’d rather the writers keep Jason off-screen for the time being until the mandate is lifted one day. I don’t see this being a permanent issue, but for now it’s probably safer that Steve and Ingo no longer part of the show. It would be great to see him finish his career as Jason, but the show must go on.
He did something like this a few years ago. He quit GH saying that the violence went against his religious beliefs.
Lmao so naturally he returned a few years later to continue playing a literal hit man? Seems like his religious beliefs are as flimsy as this excuse.
Cassadine Island is in Greece. Spoon Island is in Port Charles, New York. Two different places.
Bye, ya fool.
This Sucks! Please do NOT recast! There is only 1 Jason Morgan!
Looks like a pretty dime a dozen older white dude to me.
Argh,no resolution for the Britt/Jason storyline….terrible since it was already derailed for Carly =_=
That’s the only actual tragedy in all of this.