Marcus Lamb, a prominent televangelist who founded the Dallas-based Christian Daystar Television Network and frequently maligned COVID-19 vaccines, has died at age 64.

What You Need To Know

  • Marcus Lamb, the founder of Daystar Television Network, a popular Christian network, died this week after contracting COVID-19, his family reported

  • Lamb opposed COVID-19 vaccines and spread misinformation about them via his network and its website

  • Lamb, who was 64 years old, is reported to have been undergoing an invermectin regimen for the virus

  • Daystar Television was launched in 1997 and today is viewed by 2 billion people worldwide, according to its website

While Daystar Television, one of the world’s largest religious networks, in a tweet announcing Lamb’s passing didn’t disclose his cause of death, according to reports, his wife and Daystar co-founder Joni Lamb confirmed her husband died after contracting COVID-19.

Joni Lamb further said that her husband died after he was hospitalized, his oxygen levels dropped and alternative forms of treatment were infective. She also said he was diabetic, putting him at greater risk of serious complications from the virus. It was further reported that Marcus Lamb was taking ivermectin to treat the virus. The drug has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19.

The news was confirmed by the Marcus Lamb’s son, Jonathan, on a Daystar broadcast as well. 

Marcus Lamb took an anti-vaccine stance throughout the pandemic, hosting voices supporting that view on his network including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Lamb called vaccines the “most dangerous thing” children face on the Daystar website and referred to mandates as a “sin” against God. Daystar filed a petition to block President Joe Biden’s mandate requiring companies with at least 100 employees to require those employees be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

According to his biography, Marcus Lamb became an evangelist in the early 1980s and established religious television programming in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1985. That was followed by a move to the Dallas area in 1993. After acquiring television stations in Denver, Colorado, and Macon, Georgia, the Daystar Television Network went on the air on Dec. 31, 1997. Today the network reaches more than 2 billion people worldwide, according to its network. 

Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, confirmed COVID-19 as the cause of Marcus Lamb’s death.