Yesterday we wrote this about Paul’s Fox News op-ed: What does “resisting” or “standing-up for freedom” look like in this case? An armed rebellion? More riots? Another tea party? Whatever Rand thinks his words mean, his followers will interpret this […]
vaccines
Kayyem: Nobody has a constitutional right to take a domestic flight, attend the Lion King, or work at Disney or Walmart
Juliette Kayyem is faculty of chair of the homeland security program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In her recent piece at The Atlantic she argues that unvaccinated people should not be allowed on domestic flights. A taste: Polls suggest […]
Lindsey Graham, who has COVID-19, needs to do more than just tweet
The GOP senator from South Carolina has COVID-19. He is thankful for the vaccination: Now he needs to book himself on Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham and say the same thing.
Practice virtue. Get vaccinated
On Wednesday I wrote a piece at Current titled, “Love Your Neighbor. Get Vaccinated.” I discussed the resistance to vaccines in the evangelical community and focused a significant portion of the piece on talk radio show host and author Eric […]
What do Americans think about vaccine mandates?
According to a recent study by the COVID States Project: 64% of Americans believe all their fellow Americans should get the COVID-19 vaccine. 70% of Americans support requiring a vaccine to get on an airplane. 61% of Americans support requiring […]
An evangelical anti-vaxxer in the Olympic pool
His name is Michael Andrew and he ran out of gas on the last leg of yesterday’s final in the 200 meter individual medley. Watch: Rowdy Gaines said it all: “He’s done.” Out of the pool, Michael Andrew is a […]
Vaccinations required
Yesterday Joe Biden announced that federal employees need to be vaccinated or “face new testing, masking, and distancing rules.” Several companies are also insisting that their employees get vaccinated, including Google, Facebook, Netflix, Morgan Stanley, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington […]
Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA is mobilizing evangelicals to oppose vaccine mandates
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 […]
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 […]
“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: […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Are you looking for an evangelical congregation not divided by race, Trump, or COVID-19? Good luck
Many evangelical Christians believe that racism is a problem in the church, Trump was bad for the church, and COVID-19 revealed selfishness in the church. Some are deciding to stay in their divided congregations and work toward reconciliation. Others are […]