Disturbed’s David Draiman: A Friend Lost Seven Family Members to COVID-19 In a Week

With the holiday season over and a new year upon us, the world is still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over 1.8 million people (per Johns Hopkins University & Medicine) and shows no sign of slowing down. Disturbed's David Draiman has underscored the devastating impact of the virus in an interview with comedian Don Jamieson, relaying that a family friend lost seven family members in just one week due to COVID-19.

The interview originally aired July 21, but was just recently uploaded to YouTube in its entirety. During the That Jamieson Show conversation (video below), Draiman was optimistic that fans will return to live experiences "like never before" once a vaccine is available and distributed (since this interview was conducted, two vaccines have been granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States).

"But here's the harsh reality of it: my wife and I, we have friends of ours that they lost their entire family in a week — seven people; all died," Draiman lamented.

"And if you go ahead and you buy in to the whole 'it has something to do with genetics and blood type,' well, then it makes a whole lot of sense," he continued, "This poor girl lost all seven members of her family in a week — they all dropped dead from the virus. Not complications from the virus — from the virus. So it's a very real thing."

At the time of the interview, the United States was in the thick of a wave of protests spurred by the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died in police custody as seen on witness-shot cell phone footage on May 25.

The right to organize and protest peacefully is a Constitutionally guaranteed right, though the protests came under scrutiny as they entailed large gatherings of people in public spaces, which was against the expert advice of scientists guiding the pandemic response.

Draiman expressed the inherent risk associated with large gatherings, whether it was in the form of protest, a rally "or any other reason."

"If they're not dealt with in the right way — and even if they are dealt with in the right way — you get a whole bunch of people together, socially distanced from one another, screaming their lungs out, maskless or not, enough of that particular matter is gonna get in the air and you're gonna fucking catch something; it's gonna happen," claimed the singer.

Over the summer, the Disturbed frontman urged for everyone to "chill" on public gatherings for the betterment of everyone's health. "Until we figure out how to really best deal with this thing, and until people that we love stop dying for unnecessary reasons, there's no other way around it," he affirmed.

The singer has been tight-lipped about potential new material from Disturbed, but did reveal to Loudwire Nights radio host Toni Gonzalez in October, "I can pretty much guarantee you it's going to be blisteringly angry. It's coming, don't worry."