Leslie Lawrenceson
A Cambridge-educated man, who posted a video to social media downplaying the threat of COVID-19, has died from the virus.1 Solicitor Leslie Lawrenson, 58, died at his home in Bournemouth, Dorset, nine days after he published a video on why coronavirus was “nothing to be afraid of.”2 As his condition worsened, Mr Lawrenson struggled to breath and said he felt pain “everywhere”, but stated he did not feel like he was in any real “danger.” He later criticized the Government’s approach to the coronavirus restrictions,3 saying “these are things we have to suffer, it’s part of living”, before urging viewers to “trust” their own immune systems over vaccines.4 His partner Amanda Mitchell says, “I feel incredibly foolish. Les died unnecessarily.” She added, “Les was highly educated… so if he told me something, I tended to believe it.5” A “higher education”, unfortunately, does not mean the person knows all subjects and is not qualified to speak on subjects that were never studied.
David Parker denied the reality of COVID and died from it in UK
Lawrenson’s action, was equaled by another anti-vaxxer and anti-masker, David Parker, 56, who had no health problems but died of COVID after posting his solicitations that no one take the vaccine. In one post on Facebook, Mr. Parker, who spent a decade working as the manager of Club Louis in North Yorkshire, shared an image of an anti-lockdown protest in London, writing “brilliant” with a clapping hands emoji. According to the Daily Mail, Mr Parker once wrote: “I feel the need to post information on here for people that aren’t receiving another side to the story due to media not being impartial.”6
Stephen Harmon mocked COVID and died from it
Stephen Harmon of Los Angeles, a 34-year-old man, tweeted about refusing to get the COVID vaccine, chronicled his hospital journey until his death due to COVID. Harmon was a graduate of Hillson College and attended Hillsong Church in Los Angeles. In an Instagram post, Hillsong founder Brian Houston called Harmon one of the most generous people but said COVID is not real.7 Houston, embroiled in sex scandals opined that vaccines are a “personal decision”.8
Dr. Scott Harris Alabama State Health Officer
Alabama9 continues to be the worst state in the country for getting its population vaccinated. Barely more than one in three Alabamians (34.6%) are fully vaccinated, compared to one in two Americans (50.3%). Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris announced Friday10 that one month ago there were less than 200 people in the state hospitalized with COVID-19. Today there are over 1800.
As the delta variant nears 100% of coronavirus cases nationwide Alabama continues to be the worst state in the country for getting its population vaccinated. Barely more than one in three Alabamians (34.6%) are fully vaccinated, compared to one in two Americans (50.3%). Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris announced Friday[1/https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=328204148996911&ref=watch_permalink.] that one month ago there were less than 200 people in the state hospitalized with COVID-19. Today there are over 1800. “We’ve had three straight days of double-digit deaths,” Dr. Harris announced, the first time in months they’ve seen a death rate like that. They’ve also had four straight days of “much higher” coronavirus cases per day, now “ten times higher” than one month ago, more than 3000 per day. Its Republican Governor Kay Ivey refused to issue a mask mandate, and called on the citizens of Alabama to “start blaming the unvaccinated folks letting us down.” Ivey has let the state down. The state has 1.5 million doses currently available, but more than 65,000 doses just expired, Dr. Harris told reporters, calling it a “shame” they had to be thrown out because there are people around the world desperate for vaccines.11
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (l) said he heard from White House but not from Gov. Abbott (r) during the winter freeze of 2021.
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott has been under fire nationally for his handling of the coronavirus, with the second-highest number of hospitalizations in the country, next to Florida. Critics point to his policies that actively undermine public health, including banning vaccine and mask mandates as the highly-infectious delta variant explodes across the country. President Joe Biden this week called Abbott’s policies “the most extreme.”12 The Texas Education Agency also requires just seven vaccines.13 making education in Texas unsafe and aiding communicable diseases to spike. CDC has a list of 12 vaccines it recommends.14 Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is the most recent official to defy the governor’s order. He announced Monday that the city’s nearly 22,000 city employees will be required to mask up inside city buildings where social distancing is not doable. Statewide, cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 have been skyrocketing,15 exposing the genocide brought on by Texas Republican legislators and Abbott. This week, hospitalizations for people with the virus hit more than 7,300 — which is roughly the number of people hospitalized a year ago when Abbott first implemented a statewide mask mandate.
Texas daily new cases of COVID as Abbott does nothing.
As coronavirus cases and hospitalizations reach heights not seen since February,16 Gov. Greg Abbott is largely focused on blocking local mandates and continuing his commitment to protect the rights of the unvaccinated.17
Facts not fear: exposing the lie of COVID being like the flu.
Abbott started shifting his emphasis to personal responsibility over government intervention after ending his own statewide mandates earlier this year, but he’s been doubling down on that position in recent weeks as the delta variant has wreaked havoc across the nation and renewed calls for stricter safety precautions. The numbers have prompted even the state health department to ring the alarm in a way that Abbott has not, tweeting Wednesday that Texas is “facing a new wave” and the variant “has erased much progress to end the pandemic.” In June, Abbott signed a bill into law banning businesses from requiring proof of the vaccine from their customers. That followed his April executive order banning state agencies, political subdivisions and organizations receiving public funds from creating “vaccine passports” or otherwise requiring someone to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccine in order to receive services. Texas now has a 44% full vaccination rate as of Tuesday ranks 36th nationally. The greatest percentage of people getting COVID and dying are Blacks (52%), with Hispanics/Latinos second (26%) and Whites/Caucasians (22%). Abbott, however, is not bad as Governor Rick DeSantis who has done nothing to stem the surge of COVID and the Delta Variant in Florida.
Brian Lee Hitchens and his wife Erin came across conspiracy theories on Facebook and ignored COVID signs
“We thought the government was using it to distract us,” says Brian Lee Hitchens, a Florida Uber (taxi) driver, “or it was to do with 5G. So we didn’t follow the rules or seek help sooner.” Brian, 46, is talking by phone from his hospital bed in Florida. His wife, Erin, is critically ill – sedated, on a ventilator in an adjacent ward. “The battle that they’ve been having is with her lungs,” he says, voice wobbling. “They’re inflamed. Her body just is not responding.” After reading online conspiracy theories, they thought the disease was a hoax – or, at the very least, no worse than flu. But then in early May, the couple caught Covid-19. “And now I realize that coronavirus is definitely not fake,” he says, running out of breath. “It’s out there and it’s spreading.” The couple didn’t follow health guidance or seek help when they fell ill in early May. Brian recovered but his 46-year-old wife became critically ill and died this month from heart problems linked to the virus. Erin, a pastor in Florida, had existing health problems – she suffered from asthma and a sleeping disorder. Brian said he and his wife didn’t have one firm belief about Covid-19. Instead, they switched between thinking the virus was a hoax, linked to 5G technology, or a real, but mild ailment. They came across these theories on Facebook.
Wanda & Gary Lenius died of drinking a mixture of soda and the chemical, typically used to clean fish tanks
In Mesa, Arizona, a couple mistakenly thought a bottle of fish tank cleaner contained a preventative medicine. It was late March when Wanda and Gary Lenius started to hear about hydroxychloroquine.18 The couple noticed a similar-sounding ingredient on the label of an old bottle that was lying around their house in Phoenix. It also found its way into White House press briefings – and President Trump’s Twitter feed where he praised it as the cure for COVID. Trump tweeted (his account is now closed):19
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains – Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents)…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020
Trump and Hydroxychloroquine
In May 2018, the Trump Administrations disbanded the White House pandemic response team because it was created by Barrack Obama. When the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency left the post, the Trump Administration eliminated the role. Trump praises China’s handling of the coronavirus: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!” January 24, 2020.20 February 26, 2020, Trump declared: “This is a flu. This is like a flu.”
Rep Lloyd Doggett chronicled Trump’s lies about COVID
February 27, 2020, “The ineptness with which the Trump Administration approached this problem is not only serious, it can be deadly if not changed in the approach.” – Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) [During a hearing,21 Rep. Doggett questions HHS Sec. Azar on Trump’s refusal to take this virus seriously, warning about mask and test shortages] On March 19, 2020, Trump admitted to Bob Woodward, “I intended to always play it down.” 22 Trump’s response to governors who were pleading for medical gear and ventilators to treat surging coronavirus hospitalizations on April 1, 2020: “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.” On April 6, 2020, the US death toll passed 10,000. On April 20, 2020, the death toll in the USA passed 40,000. More than 26 million Americans were jobless. On May 6, 2020, the USA death toll passed 70,000. Five days later, the USA death toll passed 80,000. The death toll passed 100,000 on May 22, 2020.
White women for Trump as the Chosen One of their god
Today, because of Trump’s inaction, the death toll is at 632,647 and 36,449,535 cases and rising.23 The global death toll is now over 4,000,000 and rising. 97%-99.2% of all the deaths are with the unvaccinated, anti-vaxxers, and anti-maskers.24 Their stupidity and slavish devotion to the low IQ, twice-impeached, two-times-popular-vote loser who only graduated from all his schools because of his father’s money is responsible for their deaths. It is what they wanted. It is what they deserved. I have no pity for them, and only scorn for their predatory pastors who screamed for them not to get vaccinated or wear masks.25 Almost all are white evangelical christian extremists, identical to Hitler’s evangelicals who pushed him into office.26 The majority are Pentecostal, Holiness, and Southern Baptists.
White christians for Hitler: a crowd of women, children, and soldiers of the German Wehrmact give the Nazi salute on June 19 1940 (AP photo)
There were women who were among the most vocal declaring Trump the Chosen One of god. This was also the situation with white women (and men) in Germany from 1939-1945 and even today with German youth gathering at today’s Nazi rallies like the Proud Boys and American Nazis gathered at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. As Alison Owings wrote in her 1993 collection of oral histories of women who lived through the Third Reich:27
“For one, there was a firm belief that German systems were above reproach and corruption and that German leaders were law-abiding. (Indeed, many Jewish Germans trusted the government so much they refused to leave despite growing anti-Semitism.)
Another thread is the Christian history of Germany, including the legacy and life of Martin Luther,28 the cultural belief that God divinely grants power to the leader. A song popular in Germany before the time of Hitler pleaded, “Oh God, send us a Führer who will change our misfortune by God’s word.” One woman told Owings she loved this song and that she, like many others, welcomed Hitler because Germany needed a strong man sent by God to beat the threat of communists.29
The is absolutely no difference between the women for Hitler and the women for Trump. Both tyrants cost millions of human lives, waged war against minorities, were sexual predators, and inadequate scholars and poor writers.
- https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/covid-anti-vax-vaccine-lawyer-dies-leslie-lawrenson-b949378.html. ↩
- https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/vaccine. ↩
- https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/life-government-people-scotland-nicola-sturgeon-b949014.html. ↩
- https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/covid-anti-vax-vaccine-lawyer-dies-leslie-lawrenson-b949378.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=Feed. ↩
- https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-58080116. Cp. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000ydbz. ↩
- https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/antivaxxer-dies-david-parker-durham-covid-mocking-experimental-vaccine-b949524.html. ↩
- https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/07/23/hillsong-church-stephen-harmon-dies-covid-19-unvaccinated/. Cf. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57958358 ↩
- https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/24/us/hillsong-church-stephen-harmon-covid-vaccine/index.html. ↩
- https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2021/08/alabama-has-the-worst-vaccination-rate-in-america-cases-are-exploding-they-just-threw-out-65000-expired-doses/. ↩
- https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=328204148996911&ref=watch_permalink. ↩
- https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1423678023719555073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1423678023719555073%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com%2F2021%2F08%2Falabama-has-the-worst-vaccination-rate-in-america-cases-are-exploding-they-just-threw-out-65000-expired-doses%2F. ↩
- https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/04/texas-mask-mandate-greg-abbott-covid/. ↩
- https://www.dshs.texas.gov/immunize/school/school-requirements.aspx. ↩
- https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/growing/immunization-schedule.html. ↩
- https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-coronavirus-cases-map/?_ga=2.193600429.1697631814.1628293499-1657394913.1626824828. ↩
- https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/05/texas-hospitals-nurses-covid/. ↩
- https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/06/texas-greg-abbott-covid-restrictions/. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdT7ESPSUtk. ↩
- https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/police-say-death-arizona-man-not-being-investigated-homicide-n1195591. Cp. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2020/04/29/gary-lenius-death-after-ingesting-chloroquine-phosphate-not-homicide/3052133001/. They were from Waterloo, Iowa and left after settling a discrimination suit against John Deere: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2020/04/29/gary-lenius-death-after-ingesting-chloroquine-phosphate-not-homicide/3052133001/. ↩
- ttps://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241367239900778501?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw. ↩
- https://doggett.house.gov/media-center/blog-posts/timeline-trump-s-coronavirus-responses. ↩
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbdyehVU_QI. ↩
- Trump in a private taped interview with Bob Woodward, made public on September 9 ↩
- https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/. cp. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html. ↩
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/07/04/more-than-99-us-covid-deaths-involve-unvaccinated-people/7856564002/. cp. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/covid-deaths-unvaccinated-1189072/. ↩
- https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/08/02/tennessee-pastor-greg-locke-bans-masks-mxp-vpx.hln. Cp. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/27/tennessee-pastor-greg-locke-masks/. Cf/ https://www.complex.com/life/right-wing-pastor-filmed-shrieking-congregation-not-get-vaccinated-wear-masks-in-church/. ref. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/03/southern-pastors-vaccines-497898. ↩
- https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=honors-theses. ↩
- Alison Owings, (1993). Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich. New Brunswick, NJ. Rutgers University Press. ↩
- Luther’s Works, American Edition, 55 vols., (St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia Publishing House and Fortress Press, 1955–86) 47:267, and read his 65,000-word treatise Von den Juden und Ihren Lügen (On the Jews and Their Lies) and Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (Of the Unknowable Name and the Generations of Christ). ↩
- https://www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/good-white-christian-women-nazi-germany. ↩
Wonderfully detailed article! Initially, I tried to be sympathetic to people who didn’t understand how the vaccines had been created. But recently, someone repeated that tired, old line about, “I didn’t get vaccinated because we just don’t know enough – they didn’t do enough research before releasing them under emergency orders.” Frustrated, I replied, “Seriously? How much of an effort did YOU make to find anything out?”
I use a private browser, rather than Google, & by just entering “Research on the COVID-19 Vaccines” as a general search term, I got TWENTY-NINE (29) PAGES of results. None were advertisements. The results were direct links to reports from labs that created & tested these vaccines, as well as teams that reviewed them. There’s no need to be a physician to understand the information, although you do need to be able to READ well, dismiss your personal bias, and to accept the conclusions presented. If I can do it, anyone else can – and should.
I’m beyond furious at the shocking waste of human life. Originally, I said that the blood from this was on Donald Trump’s hands. Now I understand that, when someone decides to be willingly ignorant of reality, they share responsibility for their own demise. But make no mistake, they were lead to ignorance (and to their eventual death) by a trail of lies and misinformation by Trump and his cronies.
Anyone who still believes that Trump will ever hold public office again is delusional. He will NOT. The majority of Americans know exactly what he is, what he’s done to our country, and why so many Americans have died and are dying from this virus. Hopefully, Trump will be convicted & spend the rest of his life in federal prison, so the question of further political office will be settled. Fingers crossed that the seditious Republicans who aided and abetted him in his failed coup will also be changing their addresses to federal prisons shortly. It’s time we had congressmen and senators who understood that they work for the people in their districts – and no one else.
You have studied it well, and I applaud you. The fact that California had 4 million Delta cases today (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-06/coronavirus-cases-surpass-last-summers-spike-as-surge-continues?utm_id=34981&sfmc_id=3587471) is shocking because all could have been avoided by getting vaccinated, wearing a mask, and social distancing. Sadly, it is Republican Governor and legislators that keep the numbers high with the aid of predatory pastors of white evangelical churches (Adventist, Pentecostal, Southern Baptist–like “Pastor” Jeffress at First Baptist in Dallas, TX coupled with flock fleecing fanatics like Brian Houston of Hillsong Church (even their celebrity singers are leaving) that encourage it. Now in Tennessee a “pastor” spitting at his congregation and threating “anyone who gets vaccinated” will not only get kicked out of his church but out of his illusionary heaven–all because the worst president ever, the twice-impeached, twice-loser-of-the-popular vote and serial sexual predatory Donald J. Trump thinks COVID is a flu. My new article has graphs refuting the Orange Liar point by point. I wish I had your commentary to incorporate it (of course with your permission and full accreditation) as it would be a de luxe candle in a dark world. I am glad you have Lloyd Doggett who is not afraid to the stand up to the disgraced traitor.
I’m sorry Art. I can’t read this stuff without feeling like I’m going to throw up. I have to live this shit day to day because Texas is where I was born and where I live. And, I’m probably going to eventually be cut out of FB because I know I’m going to slip and say something like my prayer is that trump slips on a banana peel and is run over by a cement truck and he rots in hell after being buried in a garbage dump even though burying that kind of trash in a land fill would not be the environmentally correct thing to do. Thank that’ll fly on FB? I doubt it.
Seriously, as I said once before, I’m am staying away form this shit. I am looking forward to leaving at the end of the month for two months during which time I will not be reading any news, listening to any news, or seeing any any news….for two glorious months.
Well said, my friend, and I totally agree with you. I want to live long enough to read in all the papers that the twice-impeached, two-time-loser of the popular vote, with a very small brain and no negotiating skills is dead. I think back on my time at Wharton (U Pennsylvania) and the times I had to put up with this nutcase who was always drunk and trying to pick up co-eds when he wasn’t trying to bribe a classmate to do his work. I just hope he dies soon so we do not have to put up with another “stolen” election.
Enjoy your vacation. I wish we could escape for two months: but I have an operation the end of next week, and another cutting (cute way of saying “operation” which the doctors know call a “procedure” at the end of the week after the initial cutting. I will be thinking of you.
Very well done, Art. That was one of your best in a while. I appreciate the reference to Owings, but also want to recommend Milton Mayer’s They Thought They Were Free.
So, as you mention, “97%-99.2% of all the deaths are with the unvaccinated, anti-vaxxers, and anti-maskers”. What is this costing society, not just in death and misery, but tangible costs? Cost to the medical system (which should be Universal, not based on a for-profit insurance model), the costs to our society, our jobs, economy and social infrastructure.
My option starts with the person coming into the ER. Administrative Nurse asks: “Sir/Madam, have you received vaccination against Covid-19?”
“No, because [insert ignorant statement here].”
Now that person gets billed for 100% of their care. No insurance, no case management submission to their Aetna or Medicare. THEY must pay for their ignorance. I, Art, also have no sympathy for such ignorance. The vaccines available here have been proven safe and have been readily available for months. By far, most of the anti-vaxxers are Fuckublicans. By far, most people now being admitted to hospitals for Covid infections are unvaccinated Fuckublicans. Fuckublicans advance the notion of personal responsibility. Let’s hold them to it. They take personal responsibility for advancing this horrid virus, so let them pay for their right to inflict and infect. Hit them where it hurts.
Quite simply, playing by their own rules, fail to get vaccinated and get Covid, end up in the hospital and cost all of us resources that should be for others, and we’ll hit you where it counts most for the bass-ackward Fuckublican mindset: in the wallet.
I agree with you fully; your sage argument is why I feel no pity, no remorse, no sympathy when an anti-vaxxer or anti-masker dies of the COVID he/she discounted and ignored. That person was angling to die and his/her deliberate suicide (as deliberate as “Russian-roulette”) was rewarded . The nation and the community that the COVID-denier lived in, is better off without such stupidity and self-aggrandizing nit-wit. In my most recent essay I rifle in on the genocide of Florida’s wanna-be President DeSantis, and Texas loathsome Blabbit (sic: Abbott) as deliberately causing the deaths of thousands and argue that they (and wasters in the Tennessee, South Dakota, and Missouri) must be arrested and tried for genocide, and when found guilty of genocide, each must be executed. South Dakota’s nutty Noem has opened Sturgis Falls to one million maskless people in near-butt-to-balls motorcyclists leading Fauci to comment it will be a superspreader event and when the idiots return to their own states they will contaminate more people: already the Lambda Variant is on the rise in South Dakota (personally, I hope Noem gets it and has painful death with her lung collapsing since she is sole responsible for the deaths in South Dakota).