From Jim Bakker’s Bats*it Zombie CT To Tucker Carlson’s ‘It Doesn’t Work’ People Are Dying From COVID Listening To Right-Wing Madness

This would be comical if it wasn’t so tragic and if gullible people weren’t dying, from listening to a disgraced pastor who went to prison for bilking his parishioners and another guy whose lawyers argued successfully in court that he wasn’t to be taken seriously — yet they’re both on the airwaves and people believe them — and they’re dying from COVID-19 as a result. First, listen to a nutty clip from Jim Bakker’s religious show. This is the fare he sells so that he can justify getting $60 a bucket for his apocalyptic pancake mix on the commercial breaks.

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Steve Quayle warns Jim Bakker's audience that nasal tests for COVID-19 are part of a plan to obtain DNA samples to be used in the creation of targeted biological weapons that will turn everyone into flesh-eating zombies. https://t.co/pqRDC84cCn pic.twitter.com/Fd0BVGonAY

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) April 6, 2021

Now of itself, this is sheer lunacy. But couple it with the bastion of right-wingnuttia media, Fox News, and its crown prince, Tucker Carlson, who is saying that the vaccines don’t work, the implication being that they’re a Deep State plot. That’s not as nuts as making a connection with flesh-eating zombies, but in point of fact it may even be worse. It’s one more rock on the anti-science pile and it erodes faith in government. Daily Beast:

Carlson appeared to suggest there must be some conspiracy behind the CDC director and Dr. Fauci suggesting people continue to wear masks and social distance even among those currently vaccinated, especially in areas with rising coronavirus cases. He further took issue with Fauci recommending that vaccinated individuals stay away from crowded situations where infection levels are high.

“Does that tell us that he believes the vaccine is ineffective?” Carlson rhetorically asked. “He seems to think that. Here he is telling you that once you get the vaccine, you are still not allowed to eat or drink indoors at restaurants. Your life can’t really change at all.”

According to the cable news host, who Fox News lawyers have successfully argued in court should not be taken seriously, the only possible rationalization for the continued cautiousness from experts amid the vaccine rollout is that the vaccines are a dud.

“Experts say it is not entirely clear when it will be considered okay for people who are fully vaccinated to stop wearing masks,” he stated. “At some point, no one is asking this but everyone should be, what is this about? If vaccines work, why are vaccinated people still banned from living normal lives? Honestly, what’s the answer to that, it doesn’t make any sense at all!”

Carlson continued: “If the vaccine is effective, there’s no reason for people who’ve received a vaccine to wear masks or avoid physical contact. So maybe it doesn’t work and they’re simply not telling you that. Well, you’d hate to think that especially if you’ve gotten two shots but what’s the other potential explanation? We can’t think of one.”

Now where that anti-vaxxer thinking goes is to right here. Daily Beast is running a touching, first person account of a woman whose friend wouldn’t get vaccinated because Donald Trump didn’t — or he did, but he did it secretly and thereby missed an opportunity to influence people to do the right thing.

“If he had come out and even taken a picture of himself getting it, he could have saved many lives.”

[Anastasia] Kelley—who asked that her friend’s surname not be used—also blames herself for not being more insistent when she discussed the vaccine with Lizzie on the phone during the winter. They had been inseparable roommates at Marshall University in West Virginia and in the years immediately afterward. Lizzie was the kindest, most thoughtful, generous, and empathetic person Kelley knew. And she would not have imagined that political differences might affect them.

But they had now entered their forties and Lizzie was back to living in a holler in the heart of coal country, which is also Trump country. She seemed to have been swayed by conspiracy-theory nonsense. She feared the vaccine had been developed in too much haste to be trusted. She did not know what chemicals went into it.

“The exact quote was, she was not going to put that shit in her body,” Kelley recalled.

This is the culture war in a nutshell. There is tribal warfare here, two Americas, and it’s way beyond Republican or Democrat. It’s a lot more basic than that, which tribe you identify with and who you trust, which version of reality you subscribe to. Unfortunately, reality doesn’t come in different flavors. There’s only one and the rest is lies. That’s the problem.

Then, on March 19, Kelley saw a Facebook posting by Lizzie’s sister.

“Her sister had posted on Facebook that she had made one mistake and because of that one mistake even though they had been careful all along, they had COVID,” Kelley would recall. “They all lived in that some holler and I knew if her sister had it, [Lizzie] it.” […]

On March 26, Lizzie texted Kelley to say she was also being hospitalized.

“I can’t breathe, I feel awful. This is the worst thing I’ve ever been through,” the text read.

Lizzie was placed in isolation. She and Kelley texted back and forth through the day: […]

“Do you have pneumonia?”

“Yes, in both lungs.”

“How are they treating you?”

“Antibiotics and getting ready for the infusion and plasma.” […]

Lizzie’s condition deteriorated on March 31 to a point where her family was summoned to say goodbye. The nurses made sure that Lizzie’s sister in the next room did not see them and become alarmed.

Kelley was home in Florida when she got a Facebook message from Lizzie’s husband that left her sobbing.

“She just passed.”

Kelley had blocked the husband on Facebook for a brief time because of his Trumpian pronouncements. But she now made it her mission to help him through his grief. […]

Kelley remains convinced that Lizzie would have taken the vaccine if Trump had set a public example.

“All this could have been avoided,” she said.

And she is sure that Lizzie is far from the only one Trump could have led by example to take the vaccine. A poll taken in March suggested that one in four Americans intend to refuse the vaccine.

“He has a lot of blood on his hands,” she said.

One in four Americans not wanting to take the vaccine is a lot. That impedes us getting to herd immunity in a big way. Yet the disinformation mill continues to rumble. Turn on Jim Bakker, turn on Tucker Carlson, listen to more idiocy — and I’m willing to bet you they got their shots, or are scheduled for them. This is some snake oil sales performance for the rubes. It’s tragic that this is happening in America. Basic decency has been replaced by the need to sell circus and make a dollar. That’s the sad truth.