One of the nations oldest and most conservative newspapers, the New York Post, opposes Donald Trump’s pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Here is a taste of its editorial: The overriding […]
vaccines
Michael Flynn’s anti-vaxxer dating site
Former Trump National Security Director Michael Flynn is one of the stars of the Christian nationalist “ReAwaken America” tour. He is also the a “founding member” and president of the advisory board for “4thPURE” a dating and community site for […]
Anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running for president
Here is Kelly Garrity at Politico: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, is running for president as a Democrat, according to a statement of candidacy filed with the […]
Episode 107: “The Politics of Smallpox in Revolutionary America”
The American Revolution happened in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. In one of the timeliest history books of the publishing season, historian Andrew Wehrman visits the podcast to talk about what the patriots of the American Revolution and the […]
A St. Louis anti-vaxxer was arrested, strapped down by four men, and vaccinated after trying to convince Blacks from the South not to take the vaccine
The article is from the St. Louis Dispatch, August 6, 1923. Thanks to historian Andrew Wehrman for bringing this to my attention. Here is his Twitter commentary:
What is going on with NBA Hall of Famer John Stockton?
Gonzaga University suspended Stockton’s season tickets because he will not wear a mask to games. Next to Bing Crosby, Stockton is the most famous graduate of the Jesuit school in Spokane, Washington. Here is ESPN: Gonzaga has suspended John Stockton’s men’s […]
National Review turns on Fauci
The editors of one the leading (and still reasonably sane) conservative magazines in the country is calling for Joe Biden to relieve Dr. Anthony Fauci of his “duties at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as chief medical adviser […]
COVID-19 vaccines and and the history religious exemptions
Last November I joined Michelle Mello of Stanford University Law School in a conversation on religious exemptions and vaccines. The Council on Foreign Relations sponsored the event. You can watch it here:
Pope Francis says “cancel culture” is a form of “one-track thinking”
On Monday, the Pope had some interesting things to say about cancel culture and tried to offer a lesson in historical thinking. Here is the relevant part of his address to the Vatican’s Diplomatic Corps: The diminished effectiveness of many […]
Gerson: The GOP view on vaccines is not pro-life
Yesterday we wrote about Michael Tomasky’s piece titled ““The Right Wants to Freedom Us to Death.” Today we have Michael Gerson’s Washington Post column, “How is the GOP’s coronavirus recklessness compatible with being pro-life?” Here is a taste: During last […]
Tomasky: The Right’s view of liberty during this pandemic is “incompatible with human life”
Michael Tomasky is the editor of The New Republic. Here is a taste of his piece, “The Right Wants to Freedom Us to Death”: Future historians—that is, if future historians are actual historians and not a bunch of hired-gun fascist […]
What a Charles Willson Peale painting can teach us about vaccinating our children
Central Michigan University historian Andrew Wehrman has been an indispensable guide in this age of COVID-19. Here is a taste of his recent piece at Age of Revolutions blog: For portrait painters like Charles Willson Peale, ignoring smallpox was part […]
Sources on the history of religious-based vaccine resistance in America
I included a lot of history in today’s Current feature on vaccine exemptions. The piece draws on a talk I gave earlier this week to the constituents of the Council of Foreign Relations. I am told that the video will […]
Tweet of the Day
Andrew Wehrman nails it:
Kareem Abdul Jabbar blasts Aaron Rodgers
The hoops legend pulls no punches on the former Cal-Berkeley student: Professional athletes have come so far from the dark days when the public saw them as perpetually partying adolescents, mean-spirited bullies, and worse: dim-wits one step above tackling dummies […]
Gerson: “Vaccine resisters sacrificing their jobs are not heroes”
Here is the evangelical Christian writer and Washington Post columnist: The nation’s leading purveyor of lethal medical advice during a pandemic (trademark pending) has recently elevated the resisters against coronavirus vaccines — an airline pilot here, a nurse there — as models of citizenship. […]
What is going on in Idaho?
I am a little late to this story, but it seems to set up a rip-roaring election in November. While GOP governor Brad Little was in Texas, his Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin grabbed the reins and banned COVID-19 passports and […]
Vaccination mandates have a long history. Backlash to vaccination mandates have a long history.
Good to see Andrew Wehrman cited in Maggie Astor’s New York Times piece. A taste: Professor Wehrman this week tweeted an example of what, in an interview, he said was a “ubiquitous” phenomenon: The health board in Urbana, Ohio, Jordan’s hometown, enacted […]
Apparently a lot of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are running for local school boards
Some are saying it’s a new front in the culture wars. Back in August, CNN ran a story about about a group called “Back to School-PA” that is throwing money at anti-mask candidates. In Delaware, a group called “Stand Up […]
Thank you pastor Reverend Keith Marshall!
Marshall is the pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Enumclaw, Washington.