CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Monday explained the increased hesitancy about COVID-19 vaccines among white evangelicals using footage of prominent pastors downplaying the pandemic.
White evangelicals “are most skeptical about taking the vaccine,” Keilar noted, with nearly half of them saying they definitely or likely won’t receive the jab.
Keilar recalled that many high-profile pastors — including Guillermo Maldonado, Jesse Duplantis, Paul Daugherty and Kenneth Copeland — dismissed or spread misinformation about the coronavirus during the early weeks of the global public health crisis.
“Experts say what some evangelical pastors preached from the pulpit for months and months likely had a profound effect on shaping their opinions,” the “New Day” anchor said.
“The loss this country has experienced over the past year has been overwhelming, and many Americans have turned to family and to friends and to faith for comfort and answer,” Keilar concluded. “Unfortunately for many evangelical congregations, they are getting the wrong message and, in some cases, lies from pastors they have entrusted with their faith and with their lives.”
Watch the video here:
A HuffPost Guide To Coronavirus
- Do your vaccine side effects predict how you’d react to COVID-19?
- “I’ve been sick from COVID-19 for almost a year.”
- Should children go to camp this summer?
- These are the most common ways the COVID-19 pandemic has affected mental health.
- Find all that and more on our coronavirus hub page.