Earlier this week, the conservative evangelical Trump-follower said that Simone Biles is a sociopath. He doubled-down on the comments yesterday: Today we learn how Kirk is stoking vaccine resistance through his “pro-Trump youth group” Turning Point USA. Here is Isaac […]
COVID-19
Eric Metaxas: Don’t get vaccinated. Be a rebel.
I wrote a lot about Metaxas today in my piece at Current. I could have added this to the article. In addition to his radio program, Metaxas serves as a “fellow” at the Liberty University Standing for Freedom Center. Watch […]
Conservative evangelical radio host Phil Valentine changes his tune on COVID-19 vaccination
We wrote about Valentine last week in a post on Eric Metaxas’s claim that “he can spread false information [about the COVID-19 vaccine] all day long.” The New York Times is now covering the story. Here is Hamilton Matthew Masters […]
Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s pro-vaccination op-ed praises Trump and trashes the “because the science says so crowd”
The former former Trump press secretary and gubernatorial candidate is calling her fellow Arkansans to take the vaccine. Only 35.62% of the Arkansas’s population is vaccinated. Only Mississippi and Alabama have lower vaccination rates. As expected, Huckabee Sanders is incapable […]
Billy Graham’s grandson Jonathan Lotz is in critical condition due to COVID-19
Jonathan Lotz is the son of Anne Graham Lotz. Here is Julian Shen-Berro at the Charlotte Observer: Jonathan Lotz, the grandson of Rev. Billy Graham, is hospitalized and in critical condition due to COVID-19, according to social media posts by […]
“You should not have the right to spread disease and occupy a precious hospital bed”
We urgently need a vaccine passport in the United States. I agree with every word of Fareed Zakaria’s column this week. Here is a taste: Like the United States, France has had high levels of anti-vaccination sentiment. But political leadership […]
Eric Metaxas on the COVID-19 vaccine: “I can spread false information all day long.” Tells listeners to “get a gun” to stop those gathering vaccination data
To be fair, Metaxas does not believe that anti-vaxxers like Tucker Carlson and others are spreading “false information.” Metaxas actually believes that the real science behind the vaccination is “nonsense” and “disinformation.” People are dying of COVID-19 in large numbers […]
Alabama governor Kay Ivey slams the unvaccinated people in her state
Alabama has the lowest population of fully vaccinated people in the nation (33.91%). 49% of Alabama residents identify as evangelical Christians. Even a staunch Alabama conservative like Kay Ivey understand the science. Watch: Also near the bottom of the list: […]
Why is this pandemic still going?
Here is a taste of David Frum’s piece “Vaccinated Americas Has Had Enough“: In the United States, this pandemic could’ve been over by now, and certainly would’ve been by Labor Day. If the pace of vaccination through the summer had […]
The number of COVID-19 cases is rising, especially in communities with lots of evangelicals
Some disturbing news from Jack Jenkins at Religion News Service: As COVID-19 cases surge again, two things are true about many counties considered hot spots: Vaccination rates are low and white evangelical Protestant populations are high, according to a new […]
“There’s nothing like a near-death experience to serve as a wake-up call.” Unless you’re Donald Trump.
Damian Paletta and Yasmeen Abutaleb are the authors of the forthcoming Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History. In an excerpt published at The Washington Post, we learn that Trump’s case of COVID-19 was […]
80% of Vermont’s eligible population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine
61.23% of Vermonters are fully vaccinated. Here is Erin Doherty at Axios: Vermont’s progress on vaccinating the eligible population comes as nationwide vaccination rates continue to wane. While the country was averaging about 1 million vaccines administered per day over […]
The Biden administration is framing health as a matter of personal choice. Why this is a bad idea.
I drove through four states yesterday. I didn’t get out of the car much, but when I did make stops I didn’t see many masks. When I got to my hotel I read Ed Yong’s piece at The Atlantic. Here […]
I went shopping this weekend. Why were so many people wearing masks?
I went shopping with my family on Saturday. My daughter needed to buy some things for her new apartment so we jumped in the car and headed east on the Pennsylvania turnpike. We started at IKEA in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania and […]
How COVID-19 made T.D. Jakes rethink his theology
The Atlantic just published a fascinating conversation between religion writer Emma Green and Dallas megachuch pastor T.D. Jakes. On COVID-19 in his church, The Potter’s House: Emma Green:Â In the past year, how many members of your congregation have either gotten […]
Class of 2021: What’s in your toolbox?
Historian David Perry offers some advice to the class of 2021: We understand more or less the science of viruses, of germ theory, of infection. We know how to quarantine and that it works, and with modern telecommunications, quarantine didn’t […]
Social class and vaccination
The largest vaccination gap is based on class. Here is David Leonhardt at The New York Times: It is common to hear about two different demographic groups that are hesitant to receive a Covid-19 vaccination: Republican voters and racial minorities, […]
Marjorie Taylor Greene goes on Trump court journalist David Brody’s show and compares House mask mandates to the Holocaust
Here is CNN: Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during an interview on a conservative podcast this week, compared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to continue to require members of the House to wear masks on the chamber floor to steps the […]
Who are the people holding us back from full vaccination and where do they live?
According to Dr. Sema Sgaier at The New York Times, they fall into four categories: Covid Skeptics: They are the least likely to get vaccinated and most believe in some kind of conspiracy theory related to the vaccine. They are […]
Reading Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life in a pandemic
This is wonderful reflection on the writing by Alejandra Olivia. A taste: She writes of the writing life as monastic and hard and isolated; I was hoping for love and connection and some ease, after finally having escaped from the […]