Eric Metaxas Goes Anti-Vax

Not only has Eric Metaxas become a conspiracy theorist when it comes to the 2020 presidential election, he apparently has gone full anti-vax.

I told you about his move into this world back in 2020. Now Metaxas is telling his followers not to get vaccinated.

(Metaxas has removed the tweet, but below is a screen cap of it)

Hat tip to Joemygod for this. I am blocked by Metaxas so I didn’t see it.

In May 2020, Metaxas had Kent Heckenlively on his radio show and gave him a 36 minute commercial for the anti-vax movement. Heckenlively was allowed to provide a full recitation of the anti-vax catalog of false claims and half-truths. Now it seems Metaxas has fully sided with the fringe and may push some people over the anti-vax edge.

He just keeps finding the edge of the fringe and jumping off.

The article that Metaxas links to is not by a scientist or virologist but by a conspiracy writer. In it, he writes:

It [the vaccine] is not a vaccine. Vaccines are actually a legally defined term. And they’re a legally defined term under public health law. They’re a legally defined term under CDC and FDA standards, and a vaccine specifically has to stimulate, both an immunity within the person receiving it but it also has to disrupt transmission. And that’s not what this is.

Here is the CDC definition of a vaccine: “A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.”

While there is a question about transmission with these vaccines, these questions don’t render the vaccine not a vaccine. Past vaccination efforts have had inconsistent results when it comes to transmission immunity. See this Scientific American article for more on that topic.

This 2009 scientific virology paper casts doubt on the notion that transmission prevention is a requirement to be a vaccine:

The benefits of reducing person-to-person transmission in the context of either an epidemic or a pandemic are clear. It is therefore appropriate that one of the main aims of vaccination is to limit transmission. Nevertheless, the efficacy of vaccines in blocking viral spread, either to or from the vaccinated individual, is not traditionally assessed in preclinical or clinical trials.

Beneficial? Yes. Required or “traditionally assessed?” No.

David Dark asks Simon & Schuster a very good question.

41 thoughts on “Eric Metaxas Goes Anti-Vax”

    1. I’m really happy to see that. We are still a collection of mixed states doing their own thing but it has definitely gone into high gear since Biden got in. Let’s hope this summer brings relief. We still have the rest of the world to deal with. The wealthy nations must play their part in this and help the poorer ones.

      1. It is the case that the four nations of the UK have different regulations, but they all have regulations that are relatively robust (and the statistics for N Ireland and Scotland are broadly similar to those in England and Wales). The third round of ‘relaxation’ in England occurred last Monday; just how effective the vaccines are in keeping down infection rates should be known in around two weeks’ time. (The first two rounds of relaxation has not led to any rise in recorded cases despite more testing than ever going on, especially since the full reopening of schools and colleges in March.)

        In the UK, probably around 65% of people have either had COVID-19 or been vaccinated. Is herd immunity close? We’ll soon get an idea. I certainly hope that an increasing proportion of vaccine doses being produced can be supplied to places where that percentage is lower.

  4. So far there is no vaccine for abject stupidity. But when it’s available Eric needs to get it. If it will help.

  5. The effect of the c.34 million doses of vaccines (AstraZeneca – the most used – and Pfizer mainly, with Moderna coming on stream about now) in the UK is shown very dramatically by this graph (and there is plenty of evidence that the vaccines reduce transmission, as well as preventing people from becoming seriously ill and from dying).
    https://www.google.com/search?q=coronavirus+deaths+uk+graph&rlz=1CAIGZW_enGB935GB935&oq=coronavirus+deaths+uk+gra&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l2j0i22i30l3j0i390l3.8802j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
    (The fall in deaths is much steeper than was the case during the first, and somewhat more severe, lockdown. Cases and deaths have continued to fall, despite phased relaxations in lockdown rules since early last month.)

    An interesting aside: in the UK, even when one includes deaths from COVID-19, significantly fewer people than usual (based on the five-year average for March from 2015 to 2019) died in March 2021. I think that the main reason for this is much greater consciousness on how to stay well – i.e. most ears are deaf to the garbage from the likes of Metaxas …

    1. The wellness habits may be a part of things for fewer total deaths in March 2021 (less travel probably also helps), but eventually getting to below-average numbers for a while is expected with a pandemic that has the demographics of this one. Many of the people COVID-19 has killed were elderly and/or already in poor health, and within a few years of death to begin with. A number of people who under normal circumstances would be dying now were already killed by Covid last year.

      When all is said and done, it will be interesting to look at vaccine uptake rates in different countries and among different groups. I have some hope that the loony Metaxas faction will not be too influential in the US — I was pleasantly surprised that Franklin Graham recently endorsed getting vaccinated (and got some flak for it). Maybe Graham figured that since Trump got vaccinated he could endorse it.

      1. I agree with your analysis. For one thing, the ‘flu’ season was a washout (for the ‘flu’ virus[es], that is).

        As for FG: I have noticed a change there, including when it comes to recognizing who is really the President now. Still mixed messages (pray for then President-elect Biden, but how dare US Rep Tom Rice vote for impeachment), of course, but not exclusively loony tunes …

      1. Yes, I have been aware of his contributions. Thank you.

        Of course, the ‘negative’ excess deaths is a recent thing in the UK, although there was a brief period last summer where, overall, fewer people than the average of the last five years were dying. During the first wave (March – June 2020), there were excess deaths not directly attributable to COVID-19, but I suspect that this was partly because the NHS had not yet got onto its proper ‘war footing’. As of today, the seven-day average for daily deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test is 35*, but this will rise slightly later in the week, because of delays in data collection over the long holiday weekend (which ends tomorrow).

        * This is one-tenth the number in Italy (with a similar population and land area to the UK), showing clearly the enormous effect of the vaccination programme. Metaxas can ignore this if he wishes, but by doing so he is putting his contemptible stupidity on full display.

        I would add that protestants / evangelicals in the UK seem on the whole to be taking a very different line to many in the USA. The local Baptist church is still closed, as are the Pentecostal churches I know of in the local area; the URC (Presbyterian / Congregationalist) church is open, but with very strict rules being applied. Across the spectrum of Christian traditions, the vaccines appear to have been welcomed.

    3. I expect that most of us in the UK have never heard of Metaxas (I only know of him from this and one or two other blogs) – and long may it remain so.

      1. I’m sure you are right about that, and – as you suggest – they are not missing much!

  6. the more I think about this, I’m starting to hope pfizer, moderna, johnson et al follow Dominion and Smartmatic and start suing these people for defamation. Even if they just force these clowns to testify under oath and answer questions about their “sources.” .

    I’d be very curious to hear what Metaxas would say under oath if asked: “Have you taken a covid vaccine”?

  7. While there is a question about transmission with these vaccines…

    That question becomes less relevant every day. An ongoing study monitoring care home residents in the UK is finding a significant reduction in the risk of infection among the vaccinated:

    Researchers estimated the effectiveness of the vaccine by looking at the number of infections within specific time periods after vaccination (e.g., 0-6 days, 7-13 days, 14-28 days, up to seven weeks) and comparing these to the number of infections that occurred before vaccination. From this, they calculated that the risk of infection was 56% lower four weeks after vaccination, and 62% lower after five weeks.

    https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-home-residents-gain-dose-covid-.html

    They’re also finding fewer infections in the unvaccinated who are living among them meaning the vaccines don’t just help you, but they help protect others around you.

  8. While there is a question about transmission with these vaccines…

    That question becomes less relevant every day. An ongoing study monitoring care home residents in the UK is finding a significant reduction in the risk of infection among the vaccinated:

    Researchers estimated the effectiveness of the vaccine by looking at the number of infections within specific time periods after vaccination (e.g., 0-6 days, 7-13 days, 14-28 days, up to seven weeks) and comparing these to the number of infections that occurred before vaccination. From this, they calculated that the risk of infection was 56% lower four weeks after vaccination, and 62% lower after five weeks.

    https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-home-residents-gain-dose-covid-.html

    They’re also finding fewer infections in the unvaccinated who are living among them meaning the vaccines don’t just help you, but they help protect others around you.

    1. the vaccines don’t just help you, but they help protect others around you
      Shhh. Don’t let people like Metaxas hear that vaccines benefit others around you. That would remind him too much of that evil woke left-wing slogan “love your neighbor”.

      1. All Fake News(TM)!
        Librul Media Lies(TM)!
        So They Can Take Away Our GUNS!

    2. Already anticipated you:
      “Vain Imaginings of men or WORD! OF! GAWD!”

      “‘Science’ Falsely So Called or WORD! OF! GAWD!”

  9. the more I think about this, I’m starting to hope pfizer, moderna, johnson et al follow Dominion and Smartmatic and start suing this people for defamation. Even if they just force these clowns to testify under oath and answer questions about their “sources.” .

    I’d be very curious to hear what Metaxas would say under oath if asked: “Have you taken a covid vaccine”?

  10. One assumes “Pass it on,” refers to COVID-19.
    Metaxas appears to be going out of his way to prove how much he rejects the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, preferring those of Republican Jesus.

    1. i.e.

      “Every Knee Shall Bow,
      Every Tongue Confess,
      Donald Trump Is LOOOOOORD!”

    1. Unfortunately there is no vaccine for stupid, and Metaxas is definitely spreading that.

  12. I’m of 2 minds about this. On one hand, I realize the damage these nut-jobs can cause. On the other, it means I get my shot(s) faster.

    1. Some friends of mine in NC got their jabs early because of non-take-up.

      1. yes, I know people in SC who also got vaccinated early from the “excess” at the end of the day. However, it took them 3 days of standing in line to get it.

  13. You know, Eric, I don’t care what you call it: injection, shot, jab, vaccine, whatever. If it keeps me from getting terribly sick and possibly dying from COVID-19, or from giving it to others, I’ll take it.

    On a slightly different note, this isn’t exactly a surprise. Eric Metaxas has been pretty much anti-truth on everything Dr. Throckmorton has brought up that involves him, from Thomas Jefferson to support for Donald Trump–and now this.

  14. Don’t get the vaccine. Pass it on.
    Why yes, Eric, if you don’t get the vaccine you are much more likely to “pass it on” (the virus, that is).
    That some Christians still actually listen to this maroon is a sad indictment of what passes for evangelical Christianity in the USA.

  15. Don’t get the vaccine. Pass it on.
    Why yes, Eric, if you don’t get the vaccine you are much more likely to “pass it on” (the virus, that is).
    That some Christians still actually listen to this maroon is a sad indictment of what passes for evangelical Christianity in the USA.

  16. Today’s conservatism, or at least what passes for conservatism in the modern Republican party, has been taken over by authoritarians. And authoritarians hate facts and the truth. Facts and the truth are their Kryptonite.

    David Brock (whose Blinded by the Right explains a lot about how we arrived at this state of affairs) has said that Republicans approach things, erm, differently. They are convinced that the media is just a mouthpiece for liberal ideas, and that it lies constantly. The believed the Brookings Institute, for example, is just a propaganda mill. So their response to all this liberalism was to create their own media and think tanks to lie for conservatives.

    Projection is a hell of a drug, but here we are. Anyone reading the conservative press and watching conservative media must understand that they are lying pretty much nonstop. And that’s not hyperbole: It’s their modus operandi.

    This explains Trump’s success with the right. Whatever passes for the conservative elite loves Trump not because he is good for the country, but because he hates facts and truth and he drives the Left crazy. Remember this: They don’t argue with people to persuade the listeners of the validity of their cause. They do it to “own the libs”.

    If you think of Trump as that guy in high school who had his own table in the cafeteria where he surrounded himself with toadies and flunkies, the guy who would trip the black kids walking by, the guy who bragged endlessly about all the girls he “got” and what he did to them, the guy who snickered in class and was never prepared and couldn’t care less, then you have a pretty good idea what the GOP has become. They stand for nothing good. And they’re proud of that.

    Metaxas is obviously trying to get a seat at the cool Trump table. Never mind that the coolest kid has a life of pumping gas to look forward to. Eric just doesn’t want to be left out.

    Who knew he was just empty inside?

    1. Remember Trump’s entire 2016 campaign was “I’LL STICK IT TO ‘EM FOR YOU!!!!!!!”

      “STICK IT TO’ EM! STICK IT TO ‘EM! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!”

  17. I’ve been wondering how much of this anti science stuff from the Christian right has to do with the theory of evolution and protecting themselves from the idea. All science has to be questioned and discredited so they don’t have to deal with evolution. It also kind of reminds me of leftist activists in Africa talking about decolonizing science and starting over with African beliefs and assumptions. With the conservatives we deliberalize science by restarting with republicanism. I have been following the COVID pandemic by reading a lot scientific papers but keep getting text messages from my inlaws with the true, “nonpolitical” numbers and scientific insights from republican talk show hosts.

    1. I think you’re giving the anti-science conservatives too much credit. I think it boils down to something Stephen Colbert’s alter ego said at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner:

      “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

      Therefore science, as by far the best tool we have for exploring reality, has that same liberal taint, as evidenced by the “extreme” liberal bias of academics, as as liberals, everything they do is political, and designed to destroy everything conservatives hold dear.

      Or something like that.

      It’s a conspiracy theory. It’s not that science is proving conservatives wrong, it’s that scientists are conspiring to hide the truth of reality from the world in order to bring about the next great socialist revolution (among other things).

  18. OMG what next. Glad I’ve had my two doses. The only unvaccinated member of our family is our 31 year old daughter who works at Amazon. She was just telling me how a number of her coworkers don’t want it.

    1. Today Gov Inslee changed the plan to allow everyone 16 and over. My daughter is very happy

      1. Joke on Reddit/QAnonCasualties:
        How can you tell if someone’s been vaccinated?
        Ask them who won the election.”

      2. Joke on Reddit/QAnonCasualties:
        How can you tell if someone’s been vaccinated?
        Ask them who won the election.”

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