Notorious Televangelist Dies Of COVID After Railing Against Vaccines To Viewers For Months

Controversial televangelist Marcus Lamb is once again making headlines after dying of COVID-19 following a months-long anti-vaccine campaign in which he shared conspiracy theories about the pandemic.

Lamb, the CEO of Daystar Television Network, one of the nation's largest Christian broadcasters, died Tuesday after having been hospitalized with COVID-19 since November 12.

Lamb was 64, unvaccinated and diabetic, and chose alternative treatments for the disease.

Long before the pandemic began, Lamb was notorious for his homophobic and transphobic views and promotion of so-called "Gay Conversion Therapy," an abusive practice which purports to "cure" gay people of homosexuality and has been ruled a human rights violation by the United Nations.

Lamb was also frequently embroiled in scandal, including a 2010 extramarital affair that was rumored to be with a transgender person, and his purchase of a private jet with funds from a $3.9 million loan from the Trump Administration's 2020 Paycheck Protection Program meant to aid small businesses at the outset of the pandemic.

But Lamb's more recent notoriety sprang from his televised anti-vaccine crusade during which he featured a "who's who" of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists.

Hydroxychloroquine promoter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was featured on Daystar shows, as was Sherry Tenpenny, infamous for claiming the vaccine makes people magnetic, and Ryan Cole, who falsely claimed "thousands of patients" had contracted "stage 3 or 4 cancers" after getting vaccinated.

Cole was also a proponent of treating COVID-19 with Ivermectin, a veterinary anti-parasitic that has not been approved to treat COVID-19 and the use of which has resulted in a handful of deaths. Lamb himself chose Ivermectin to treat his COVID-19 case instead of medically approved treatments.

But his family seems to see no connection, instead blaming Lamb's struggle with COVID-19 on an attack from "the enemy," an evangelical nickname for Satan.

Lamb's son Jonathan made the claim on a November 23 appearance on his father's show Ministry Now.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a spiritual attack from the enemy."

"As much as my parents have gone on here to kind of inform everyone about everything going on to the pandemic and some of the ways to treat COVID — there’s no doubt that the enemy is not happy about that.”

On Twitter, Lamb's death didn't inspire much sympathy.

It doesn't seem likely Lamb's death will change his family's or congregation's minds about the pandemic and vaccines. On the episode of Ministry Now broadcast just hours after Lamb's death, his wife Joni said she and her family "stand by" their endorsement of alternative treatments like Ivermectin.