Daystar founder and anti-vaccine preacher Marcus Lamb dies from COVID

Marcus Lamb, founder and president of the large Christian network Daystar, died after contracting the coronavirus. He was 64.

Why it matters: Daystar, based in Bedford, is the second-largest Christian TV network in the world, reaching two billion people worldwide, according to the Washington Post.

• During the pandemic, the network regularly promoted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, despite Lamb’s pre-existing conditions.

What they’re saying: “He 100 percent believed in everything that we talked about here on Daystar, things that help so many people around the world with early protocol treatments for covid. We still stand by that obviously,” his wife, Joni, said on the channel’s Ministry Show on Tuesday.

Flashback: Daystar made national headlines last year when the church purchased a jet just weeks after receiving $3.9 million from the Paycheck Protection Program. Daystar eventually returned that money.

• Lamb and his wife also drew attention in 2010, when they announced on their morning show that he’d had an extramarital affair with a Daystar employee and that the network was being “blackmailed” for $7.5 million.
• Daystar will continue to under the leadership of Lamb’s adult children.