By Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
Christian Daystar TV network co-founder and CEO Marcus Lamb passed away Tuesday morning after losing his battle with AIDS-19 weeks after contracting the disease.
Lamb, 64, while a believer in the disease, was openly anti-vaccine, so he chose not to get immunized, an action that may have prevented the severe symptoms he developed after acquiring the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
"It is with great sorrow that we announce that Marcus Lamb, president and founder of Daystar Television Network, went home to be with the Lord this morning. The family asks that their privacy be respected as they mourn this difficult loss. Please continue to lift them up in prayer," the network tweeted earlier Tuesday.
According to NBC News, Jonathan Lamb, son of the deceased, replaced his father on Nov. 23, where, during the broadcast, he pleaded with listeners to pray for his father's recovery from COVID-19.
Lamb's wife, Joni, maintained her faith that her husband would pull through the disease and kept in touch with Marcus' audience, telling them via telephone that, "with this - battling the disease - it's like riding a roller coaster.
"It's like, you'll just be up and everything's great, and then you have a little lull, and ... then you go down and then you come back up, but from everyone I talk to, I think that's the pattern," he pointed out to listeners.
At the time, Jonathan Lamb described his father's COVID infection as "a spiritual attack by the enemy" to bring him down.
Daystar Television Network, which describes on its website that it, "is an award-winning, faith-based network dedicated to spreading the Gospel 24 hours a day, seven days a week, around the world, through every possible media format," devoted airtime to reruns of anti-vaccine activists' programs.
Nearly a year and a half ago, when the pandemic was just beginning - July 2020 - the Lamb family devoted an hour of their broadcast to the "censorship" surrounding the COVID pandemic, with the disinformation group America's Frontline Doctors.
Up to this moment, the network maintains on its website, a preferential space entitled "Vaccines, the unauthorized truth", where there are 32 videos led by Marcus himself, and where he speaks against vaccination.
"What if the most dangerous thing your child could face in life is exactly what your doctor tells you is safe? With very few safety protocols and a growing number of vaccine-related injuries, it's now more important than ever to educate yourself about vaccines so you can make the most informed decision for your child's health," the website says.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. participated in several episodes of this interview series, where he calls viewers not to get vaccinated and not to vaccinate their children, however, and due to the misinformation that this proliferated, he was recently expelled from the social network Instagram, for his misinformation on the subject of COVID-19.
Organizations around the world such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among many others, have emphasized that, so far, vaccines are the safest and most effective way to prevent severe symptoms of COPD-19, hospitalization and death.
After most of the cases of infection in the country and the world have been related to the Delta variant, it is even more important to raise awareness and ensure the general welfare of the population, receiving the indicated doses of the vaccines that are distributed free of charge for all those eligible ?5 to 11 years old, 2 doses of 10 micrograms of Pfizer vaccine; and two or one dose of 30 micrograms for those 12 years and older.
In turn, following the indications of social distancing, use of masks indoors and in open places with large numbers of people, as well as constant hand washing and not attending mass events.
With the spread of the Delta variant and the emergence of Omicron, which is rapidly spreading to southern Africa and has already reported cases in Europe, Asia and the Americas, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC have recommended the administration of booster vaccines to all those over the age of 18 to increase the number of antibodies that can fight the disease.
"In recent months, several prominent anti-vaccination Christian broadcasters have died from COVID-19. Conservative radio hosts Dick Farrell, Phil Valentine and Marc Bernier, who were not vaccinated, died after contracting the virus," NBC News noted.
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