Florida’s controversial surgeon general — who has said his religious faith inspires his opposition to COVID vaccines — began the new year by warning mRNA coronavirus vaccines could contaminate patients’ DNA. That conspiracy theory has been roundly debunked by the…
Gap widens on American confidence in vaccines
More Americans trust childhood immunizations than they do vaccines to protect against coronavirus, according to a new study by Pew Research Center. “The survey findings highlight the sizable gap between higher public confidence in childhood vaccines and lower ratings of…
Vaccine hesitancy is not a matter of doctrine, but for some it remains a matter of faith
One-fifth of the United States population remains unvaccinated against COVID-19, and one-third are not fully vaccinated. The gap between the vaccinated and unvaccinated remains for much the same reason that has been true from the beginning: Those least likely to…
Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, now teaching at Purdue, still thinks about the pandemic every day
Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams found himself at the center of American history in dealing with a once-in-a-century pandemic. Now he wants Americans to understand that while things are improving, the pandemic is still with us. “I do think…
It’s not just pastors modern Republicans don’t trust; they also question doctors and politicians who won’t endorse Trump’s lies
Pastors who find some congregants no longer trusting them as much as before are not alone. Two new national polls show significant drops in the percentage of Republicans who trust the medical advice their doctors give or who trust their…
Tucker Carlson undermined COVID vaccines 99% of the time his show discussed them
The old adage that “sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you” has been proved false yet again in an analysis by the media watchdog group Media Matters. Watching Fox News — and Tucker Carlson…
It’s the most angry time of the year?
As a kid, my family had the vinyl LP Andy Williams Christmas album, which we faithfully broke out ahead of the holidays each year. The song I most remember is the one that has come to be a staple of…
Southern Seminary and Asbury Seminary work with noted anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ legal group to claim federal vaccine mandate intrudes on ‘personal health decisions’
A Southern Baptist Convention seminary and a Wesleyan seminary in Kentucky are jointly challenging the Biden administration’s federal mandate on COVID-19 vaccination by claiming a religious liberty violation. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky, which is the largest of…
In Africa, the challenge is not just low vaccine numbers, there’s also vaccine hesitancy
While inequity has caused the African continent to have less access to COVID-19 vaccines than the rest of the world, vaccine hesitancy already is in full supply. That hesitancy is hampering the global effort to contain or defeat the coronavirus…