'Friends' star Matthew Perry catches backlash for selling T-shirt promoting coronavirus vaccines

Matthew Perry caught some backlash for promoting a clothing line that encourages "Friends" fans to get their coronavirus vaccination. 

The 51-year-old actor shared an image of himself sporting the new T-shirt, which borrows from his Chandler Bing character’s catchphrase that reads: "Could I be any more vaccinated?" 

The T-shirt is one of many articles of clothing that Perry is selling for a limited time that feature references to his "Friends" character. 

However, a handful of people initially reacted to the merchandise on social media by calling the actor out for profiting off the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking a small debate among fans of the hit 1990s sitcom. 

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"Just propaganda machines for life huh? That’s all celebs are anymore," one Instagram commenter wrote. 

"Could this BE anymore of a turn off?" another wrote.

"Why would I give a multi millionaire even more money?" someone noted on Twitter.

"Making money from a t-shirt relating to vaccines is in bad taste.  Could I BE any more annoyed," another wrote. 

Although a small portion of Perry’s followers were upset to see him promoting the vaccine for personal gain, a majority of the responses were positive with many even praising the star for raising vaccine awareness. 

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"People ~ why must you get offended over every. little. thing?" one Perry defender tweeted.

"Good for you Mathew... Anything that brings awareness to this effort is priceless.  If you can make a buck or two, so be it. You've done many things that benefit others. Thank you!" another added.

"I'm baffled by how upset ppl are. I'm not and we lost ppl to covid in our family. I think it promotes vaccination which saves lives and helps let those around us know we're vaccinated not anti mask when we're ready to go maskless. All good messages," a third user noted.

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As of Tuesday morning, the novel coronavirus has infected more than 167,338,103 people across 192 countries and territories, resulting in at least 3,474,370 deaths. In the U.S., all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have reported confirmed cases of COVID-19, tallying more than 33,143,747 illnesses and at least 590,533 deaths.

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Perry’s promotion of the limited-time merchandise comes on the heels of the first official trailer for the highly anticipated "Friends" reunion, which was itself waylaid by the coronavirus pandemic and pushed back to a significantly later premiere date of May 27. The special unscripted reunion will see Perry reunite with his "Friends" co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for the first time since the show ended in 2004.