An anti-vax politician has caught chickenpox... and we can almost smell the irony.

An Italian politician who leads the country’s anti-vax movement has been hospitalised after contracting chickenpox.

Ah, the irony.

According to local news outlets, Massimiliano Fedriga, who is a member of Italy’s far-right party, was hospitalised for four days last week after being diagnosed with the infection.

Posting to Twitter earlier this week, Fedriga shared that he had fallen ill.

“I’m fine, I’m at home in convalescence, and I thank everyone,” he wrote.

As expected, Fedriga’s admission led to a lot of backlash online and honestly, we’re really not surprised.

“[The critics] even said I would get chickenpox from my children, not realising that my children are vaccinated.”

“A leading anti-vax figure and Italian politician was hospitalised with chickenpox earlier this week.” pic.twitter.com/k3JSE9MAR2

— Nathália Urban #EleNão (@FairyS) March 19, 2019

“If only there was something they could have done to prevent this…” one person joked.

“How ironic,” another commented.

“I wouldn’t waste a hospital bed on someone that has zero respect for human medicine,” another said.

“Karma at its best.”

A prominent microbiologist Roberto Burioni also called out Federiga, writing that he hopes the news would encourage more adults to ensure their vaccinations are up to date.

In the end, the backlash grew so intense that Federiga was forced to respond to the comments on Twitter.

“I have always said that I am in favour of vaccines and to achieve the result is necessary to form an alliance with families, not impose [it on them],” he wrote.

The Quicky explores the latest anti-vaxxers to pollute the system. Post continues below…

Strangely, Federiga states that he is in favour of vaccines.

But despite vaccinating his own children, the Italian politician is strongly against Italy’s new mandatory vaccination laws, which were created to immunise children against several diseases including, ironically enough, chickenpox.

Fedriga has previously stated that he believes parents shouldn’t be coerced into vaccinating their children and called those who demand the laws “Stalinists”. Yikes.

The mandatory vaccination laws were introduced in Italy following a measles outbreak in 2017.

Titled the Lorenzin decree, the laws fine parents who fail to immunise school-age children and prevent unvaccinated children from attending preschool.

Read more on this topic:

• • 7 arguments against getting your kids vaccinated – and why they’re complete and utter crap.