Founder of Christian television network that discourages coronavirus vaccination dies from Covid-19

Marcus Lamb of Daystar

Marcus Lamb, the founder of Christian TV network Daystar, died of Covid-19 Tuesday. A spokesperson would not say whether the 64-year-old was vaccinated, but Michelle Boorstein reports for The Washington Post that during the pandemic "Lamb and his network went in big with anti-vaccine conspiracies, hosting daily interviews with skeptics who talked about dangerous, hidden forces pushing vaccines and stealing Christians’ freedoms." 

Lamb's wife Joni said he had diabetes and got pneumonia after being diagnosed with Covid-19, which he tried to treat with alternative medicines. Earlier this month, his son Jonathan said on the network that he believed the illness was a "spiritual attack from the enemy" in retaliation for the network's promotion of unfounded alternative treatments, Boorstein reports.

"Lamb was an outspoken skeptic of Covid-19 vaccines and eagerly promoted unproven, alternative treatments, including hydroxychloroquine, which the US Food and Drug Administration says has no effect on Covid-19, but has been linked to heart rhythm problems, kidney trouble, and liver failure," Daniel Silliman reports for Christianity Today. "In Lamb’s last fundraising newsletter, he touted Daystar as 'the only Christian TV Network that has made continuous efforts to warn you about the dangers of the Covid-19 ‘Vaccine’ and to help you with the truth' about alternative treatments."

"Daystar is the second-largest Christian network in the world, according to CBN News, a competitor, reaching 2 billion people worldwide. Its brand is a fluid, modern, charismatic faith, more about general good-vs-evil, miraculous healings and religious freedom than any specific denominational theology," Boorstein reports. The network was founded in 1998, and now owns more than 100 television stations all over the globe. In recent years Daystar has been rocked with scandal: first for an affair Lamb admitted to, and more recently for claims of fraud, Silliman reports. In 2011 an NPR investigation found that Daystar only gave away about 5% of the money it had raised for charity, and in 2020 the network "returned $3.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program money after an Inside Edition investigation found his ministry purchased a jet two weeks after getting a PPP loan meant to help employees struggling during the pandemic," Boorstein reports.