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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Republicans while traveling abroad in the United Kingdom Thursday, saying that they are bad for America and members of a "cult." "I say to my Republican friends and I do have some," Pelosi said at an event in Cambridge, England, prompting laughter from the audience. "Take back your party. You’re the Grand Old Party of America, you’ve done wonderful things for our country. You now have been hijacked by a cult that is just not good for our country." (Mark Miller, 9/16)

“Today’s sermon is going to be on Unitopian Anarchy and Autonomy,” Unicole Unicron says in the opening of a sermon on YouTube. Clad in an ethereal white veil, against a background of dizzying black-and-white swirls, the leader of the self-described cult Unicult proceeds to spends the next 51 minutes detailing thoughts on the Covid-19 vaccine and why the cult’s leader is not encouraging followers to get the vaccine. “Only you have autonomy over your own body,” says Unicron, who uses xe/xim pronouns. “Do what is right for you. Perform no medical rituals that are against your own strong intuitive knowledge of your personal health.” Unicron then explains why xe believes contracting the virus would not get xim sick, saying, “I have ascended to the point where I am confident that my own experience of my own internal state and my own vibration of harmony is enough to protect me.” (Dickson, 9/9)

Crucially, celebrities aren't persuasive all the time over all issues. Their influence is complicated by a variety of factors, such as their expertise, their affiliations with advocacy groups and their connection to the issue (think Ellen DeGeneres or Billy Porter on LGBTQ rights). But Mark Harvey, the author of the 2018 book, "Celebrity Influence: Politics, Persuasion and Issue-Based Advocacy," argues that what we're seeing with the coronavirus pandemic, and specifically with Covid-19 vaccines, is completely different. (Tensley, 9/16)

Clark County lawmakers will consider formally taking on a potential crisis that has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic: misinformation. The county commission is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to declare COVID-19 misinformation a public health crisis that has fueled public mistrust and prolonged the pandemic by undermining efforts to combat the spread of the disease, according to a proposed resolution. “We’ve certainly seen across the country, but certainly right here in Nevada, what misinformation about the vaccines and the masks has resulted in,” said Commissioner Justin Jones, who is recommending the county adopt the resolution. (Johnson, 9/16)

how can Ohioans separate quality information from findings health officials have deemed as weak? Chief Scientific Officer Peter Mohler says the first thing you should do when conducting your own research is check the quality of the study. This includes making sure the study is controlled and focuses on a group of people large enough to make an impact. Next, Mohler suggests making sure the study is peer reviewed. That means several physicians have looked at the data and deemed it worth covering. 

The Oregon Medical Board revoked the license of a Dallas doctor earlier this month after he refused to follow COVID-19 guidelines in his office, spread misinformation about masks and over-prescribed opioids to his patients, according to medical board documents. The board also fined Steven Arthur LaTulippe $10,000 on Sept. 2. (Forrest, 9/16)

Samantha Wendell could not wait for her wedding this summer. For nearly two years, the 29-year-old surgical technician had been meticulously planning every detail, from the seating chart to the Tiffany blue floral arrangements, her fiancé, Austin Eskew, said. Wendell and Eskew wanted to start a family as soon as they got married, Eskew, a correctional sergeant, said. The couple, of Grand Rivers, Kentucky, hoped to eventually have three, maybe four, children. So when the Covid-19 vaccines came out, and some of Wendell’s co-workers said the shots caused infertility — an unfounded claim that has gained ground despite top reproductive health groups refuting it — she “just kind of panicked,” Eskew, 29, said. (Chuck, 9/15)

After her husband was infected with the coronavirus and entered an intensive care unit this month, Angela Underwood pushed for the Louisville hospital that was treating him to administer ivermectin to her husband — the deworming drug some people have used to try to treat or prevent covid-19 in recent months. She sued Norton Brownsboro Hospital after it allegedly refused to administer the treatment to Lonnie Underwood, 58, without a court order and supervision by a doctor with the authority to do so. ... But a judge denied her emergency order request Wednesday in a scathing ruling that called out people who have promoted and supported ivermectin as an effective treatment for covid-19. (Bella, 9/16)

It’s not every day an elected county official accuses members of the public who testified against the county’s COVID vaccination effort of behaving like members of a cult. But that’s exactly what County Supervisor Steve Lavagnino did this Tuesday morning, after listening to more than 90 minutes of public comment from 20 militant anti-vaxxers who frequently compared the county’s proposed vaccination plans to something straight out of Nazi Germany.Lavagnino, it turns out, knows something about cults. He grew up in one, he declared from the supervisors’ dais. His parents divorced when he was a kid over religious differences; his mother moved into a religious cult in Northern Idaho, and Lavagnino went with her. The theology was all about “conspiracy, catastrophe, and persecution,” he recalled. At age 10, Lavagnino said he first encountered a barcode scanner while shopping at a supermarket. Church elders, he said, wasted no time denouncing this new technology as a “mark of the Beast.” Lavagnino said the same type of thinking was evident in the speakers at this meeting. (Welsh, 8/25)