What annoys me the most about this pandemic is the politicization of it and fake news about it, meaning, incomplete news.
There is an increase of cases because more tests are given. I've had a test and was negative although I was exposed to someone with it in close proximity to me. I and he were maskless and he shook my hand. We had about a 5 minute conversation up close and personal.
Many people with it have no symptoms and recover very well and thus have an immunity. We only hear of those who contract it and those who die but nothing about the overwhelming majority who recover from it and with strengthened immunity.
I have a 95 year old parishioner who broke his hip a week ago. He had successful surgery and is on the mend. He was diagnosed this past Friday with COVID-19. He has no symptoms as of today and they don't expect him to have them. In five days they can declare that he is over it and with an immunity.
The media is playing on the greatest fears of those who can't deal with sickness and death, theirs or others. They have made this class of citizens paranoid. Self righteous talk about wearing a mask in public to keep others calm is exactly that pandering and self-righeousness.
Here's what they are writing on Hilton Head Island about churches copies from the Island Packet Newspaper:
Congregations should have appointed by now pandemic committees that will look at everything from potential budget shortfalls to how to reopen and when, as well as what restrictions to place upon clergy and congregants in public worship until the time when it is safe to begin to open the doors.
One of the most important issues she discussed was choral singing.
She explained that this virus is spread by smaller than normal flu particles that remain suspended in the air in larger respiratory droplets in contrast to normal virus conditions. One singer on the pulpit may be tolerable, but a choir is a health hazard.
Let’s not forget that many houses of worship have Sunday schools for the children. Educators, clergy and their committees have to figure out different models, depending on the current situation of spiked infection rates, to spread out children and protect faculty in order to have classes. Dr. Bell recommended that all Sunday school classes refer to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control protocols on educational settings for more specific instructions.
Another important point she raised was that it was not the role or responsibility of the congregation to take temperatures or determine who is physically fit to enter services.
The role of the house of worship is to set up strict and clearly-defined procedures and protocols for managing traffic flow into the church or synagogue, have supervision to make sure that parishioners follow them, and to make sure that the facility is properly disinfected before and after the services.
Nightmare scenario
Dr. Bell said that clergy and their congregational leadership should be more proactive in providing direction to our community, both inside our congregations and to the community at-large.Moreover, she seemed to advocate a more aggressive posture toward those organizations and businesses that violate longstanding rules of social distancing and wearing masks.
In other words, I took from this conference call that Dr. Bell wants the religion community to consider not patronizing public places, including businesses, that disregard these protocols that are intended to save human lives.
Clearly this is a problem that DHEC is struggling with as it engages different communities throughout the state.
Finally, her greatest concern was anticipating the nightmare scenario this fall when the normal flu season arrives combined with the resurgence of COVID-19.
We all need to make sure we get flu shots as soon as is possible.
The silver lining I see is that technology today gives us lots of options that aren’t perfect but are effective in connecting our congregations in public worship and education.
This is a time to think outside the box. It is a time to think what is possible and to experiment with ways to engage congregants in services like Livestream and Zoom.
If possible, it is time to spend the money to provide resources in a new way. The challenge, especially for folks who are not computer literate, is to work with them to do what we can to make sure that our congregants know we are thinking of them and doing what we can to stay in touch — and to bring as much as is possible of our congregational family to them.
Rabbi Brad Bloom of Hilton Head Island writes on matters of faith.
41 comments:
End of the world!! End of the world!!! Blacks and minorities hit the hardest...
"There is an increase of cases because more tests are given."
There is an increase of cases NOT because more tests are given. Testing someone does NOT cause Covid-19.
There is an increase of cases because more people are being exposed to the virus. The tests are revealing this.
"Many people with it have no symptoms and recover very well and thus have an immunity."
No. This is far from a certainty. JAMA 11 <May 2020: "However, whether immunity occurs among individuals after they have recovered from COVID-19 is uncertain. Many human infections with other viral pathogens, such as influenza virus, do not produce a durable immune response."
CDC 4 June 2020: "The immune response, including duration of immunity, to SARS-CoV-2 infection is not yet understood. Patients with MERS-CoV are unlikely to be re-infected shortly after they recover, but it is not yet known whether similar immune protection will be observed for patients with COVID-19."
Dallas Morning News, 23 June 20202: AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott sternly warned Texans of “rampant” spread of coronavirus that took the state to a new high Tuesday of more than 5,000 new cases in a single day.
Saying Texans should stay home unless they have a good reason to venture out, Abbott even hinted he may give local officials more powers to limit public gatherings during the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.
“Statewide, there’s going to be an all-time record set today in the number of people testing positive of over 5,000,” he told KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi in a live appearance via satellite from Austin.
If you doubt the veracity of the testing numbers, look at hospitalizations. THAT'S not a "fluke" due to increased testing.
WABE Atlanta, 299 June 2020: "The number of people hospitalized in Georgia because of COVID-19 rose to 1,000 Monday, erasing a month’s worth of progress and showing that an accompanying increase in confirmed infections is leading to serious illness. Coronavirus infections have been rising throughout June and are now at the highest level since the pandemic began. Georgia has averaged 1,073 infections reported daily over the last seven days, according to figures kept by The Associated Press. Since Friday, the average has been higher than the previous peak of 857 set on April 13."
In a pandemic people die but most survive. Yes there is an increase because we are doing more tests and more are being tested. We did not do the type of testing earlier in March because we didn't have tests, but certainly those not tested had it. We just did not know they had it.
Why is there no reporting on those who have recovered, only on those who get it and those who die.
More people are recovering because we know more people have it now. That's good news.
I don't doubt there are more in the hospital and younger people are being diagnosed. That's what happens in a pandemic. How many are getting well and being released.
No news on that. I wonder why.
"Yes there is an increase because we are doing more tests and more are being tested."
No. That's the equivalent of saying "There is an increase of traffic accidents because they are being investigated traffic accidents more thoroughly." NO! The investigations are merely revealing what is already there. Tests don't cause Covid 19.
There is CONSTANT reporting on those who survive. Google "Covid 19 Survivors." Here's what comes up:
"Over 370,000 People Have Survived COVID-19." - Science Alert
"New Evidence Suggests COVID-19 Patients On Ventilators Usually Survive" - NPR
"Study Reveals Most Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19 Survive with Standard Treatment" - Massachusetts General Hospital
"Most people recover from Covid-19. Here's why it's hard to pinpoint exactly how many" - CNN
The hyperbole is from people who say, wrongly, "They're not reporting on people who recover."
They are. Constantly.
When you do more testing numbers go up because you know more about those that have or have had the virus. If we tested for the flu, some of us would be shocked by numbers.
This virus is different in a number of ways. In the typical flu season, almost everyone knows of someone personally that either came down with it, or came down with something that might have been it. I've been asking people I know if they know anyone personally that has come down with this thing, All of them so far have answered in the negative.
There was one (only one) elderly person at my church that came down with and ended up dying in the hospital. This was not a person I nor anyone I regularly associate with knew.
"Gray Lives Matter.
Gray Matter Matters."
Paul Musial.
On the WSJ coronavirus-latest-news page, a graph shows that the 7-day rolling average daily-reported Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. steadily declining from around April 19 through yesterday (June 22). This trend is in contrast to the graph of reported cases, which shows the number of cases increasing since around May 28.
John Nolan,
I am being censored by Father McDonald’s minions. You may be next so I am contacting the papal nuncio. I will report all of Father K’s fake catholic posts. You and Bee are wasting your time here. Good luck
I completely agree about the fake news and politics but aren't there more cases because there are more cases? If we test more for the more bubonic plague we shouldn't see a huge difference in results. I hope. To be honest as a conservative Texan who now lives in Nova Scotia with Canadian problems instead of the bipartisan ones I grew up with I don't get the freak out about covid. It was obvious to anyone living here back in March things were going to be way worse down there then here because no one was taking it seriously enough. We actually don't want the border open to let Americans in anytime soon up here.
We keep testing actually a really absurd amount in Nova Scotia and we have been case free for almost two weeks so to me this argument of more tests which President Trump also recently tweeted and then claimed to be joking doesn't hold up. Also I don't get it, there really are younger people dying from this too even if it's ok for younger asymptomatic people to go around infecting older people which I don't think it is. This virus seems to see lots of recovery but also some unexpected deaths. Anyway, pray for us we are only getting 50 people Masses this weekend for the first time. We've been watching down there with upset at our own bishops because we also wonder was so this really necessary, but also surprise that everyone just one day declared covid was over down there and went back to normal. Of course you're having more cases because they're more people being infected. You stopped the behavior that was keeping infections from spreading more and went back to too much regular too soon while there were still a lot of infected people walking around now spreading it. Well at least you're not afraid and living life. Who knows which way is more right. But Not testing just means more infected people you don't label as covid which I'm sure was always already happening.
“The media is playing on the greatest fears of those who can't deal with sickness and death, theirs or others. They have made this class of citizens paranoid. Self righteous talk about wearing a mask in public to keep others calm is exactly that pandering and self-righteousness.”
Father, either I’m confused or something is missing here. Wearing a mask is actually done protect others from me, not to pander or keep others calm. It is a reasonable personal medical decision that Dr. Fauci just today reiterated was one of the two things we could still do to help lower risk. He said social distancing was still key, but wear a mask if you must go out in crowds or can’t maintain social distancing. Our local head of Infectious Disease continues to publically agree with him whenever asked. Neither of these men are self-righteous types in the least. Their concerns are purely medical, not political. Do you disagree with their advice?
Fr. McDonald - I am sorry to hear you have minions! You can rub a little apple cider vinegar on them and they'll be gone in three days.
Here's the nuncio's address:
Archbishop Cristophe Pierre
3339 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008
I think the jury is still out on the effectiveness of most masks apart from what medical personnel use and use effectively. Homemade masks are questionable, people constantly touch them to readjust and I’d a person is infected, a higher concentration of the virus is on the mask they keep touching.
Fr. McD:
"As everyone knows, my perspective on COVID-19 is that it is quite serious and something not experienced since 1918."
No, SARSCoVid-2 is not "quite" serious. It is dangerous only to a very small segment of the population, those with compromised immune systems, which almost always means the elderly with several serious underlying health issues. But this has always been the case with any upper respiratory virus spread to people at their end life phase. In a bad year of the flu, 2.5 million are said to die of it worldwide. Moreover, the 1918 Spanish influenza is said to have killed 500 million worldwide. After 6 months of Covid-19, we have about .5 million. At this rate, we can worst-case project 500 million Covid-19 deaths in about 10 years...highly improbable death figure with this virus in any case.
It is a catastrophe that Western governments were so incompetent in responding to this coronavirus. They knew already in February who the vulnerable were. Yet, elderly diagnosed with COVID-19 at hospitals were sent back to their old folks homes to recover, pretty well assuring the death sentence to others living there. Too bad governors and their medical advisors, like in NY, cannot be prosecuted for criminal negligence.
As for testing, Dr, Ionnadis of Stanford was highly critical months ago of what governments were doing, putting his renown reputation on the line, since they were testing those with symptoms instead of random testing the whole population to get an idea of spread. That is still continuing. Yet, the more people with symptoms you test the more you will find are infected, so as Dr Gupta of Oxford has pointed out recently, confirmed-cases is not an important statistic at all. Moreover if you have it, there is not much that can be done other than letting God's gift of natural immunisation take its course...ie prayer, something that seems to be lost today in all this, appealing to faith in science instead of God. The more important figures in all this are the current death and hospitalisation rates, which are plummeting in the Western world.
Over here the government has announced that restrictions will be lifted from 4 July as follows:
Social distancing reduced to 1 metre (39 inches).
Pubs and restaurants to open.
Hotels etc. to open (not youth hostels)
Libraries and museums to open.
Church services to resume (but no singing).
For the time being you need a face-covering on public transport (this is less for medical reasons than to encourage people to travel to work).
The fact remains that for those under 50 the chances of dying from COVID-19 were lower than those of being killed in an accident.
The fact also reamins that in not a few locations in the US and other countries hospitals were overwhelmed, mortuaries parked refrigerated trucks in their parking lots to keep the corpses from rotting, manufacturers of PPE for medical personnel could not meet the demand, and one's chances of dying of COVID-19 are lower than those of being killed in an accident is scant comfort to the grieving.
Imagine what the scenario would have been had not drastic measures been taken.
Actually testing in the US has NOT increased - that is just Trump propaganda not supported by the empirical evidence. The number of tests conducted daily has remained the same at a steady rate but what has changed is that the percentage of positive results has increased significantly. The evidence suggests that the first wave in the US continues to rise and has not yet spiked. Don’t even think about a second winter spike yet because you haven’t flat-lined the first.
Also if you look at the statistical breakdown by state it very clearly evidences that those states where face coverings are mandated have a lower infection rate and they have slowed down spread. Conversely the states with the highest infection rates (eg Miami, California and Texas) are the states who eased lockdown restrictions the fastest and have lower face covering rates.
QED
'Imagine what the scenario would have been had not drastic measures been taken'.
The trouble with statements like this is that imagination is no substitute for proof. In the UK drastic measures were imposed across the board, so we shall never know to what extent they were necessary in the first place.
The bulk of the economically productive sector of the community consists of those under 50 on whom the COVID-19 virus has little effect. What will have a long-term and devastating effect on the younger generations are the economic consequences, not of the virus, but of the 'drastic measures' imposed by the UK government in March, supposedly in order to combat it.
To condemn the nation's youth to a future of unemployment and blighted prospects in order to delay the deaths of elderly people makes no sense, either economically or morally. The debate has already started and is gathering momentum.
In the event the National Health Service never came close to being overwhelmed. However, by fixating on COVID other treatments were cancelled, and premature and avoidable deaths from cancer are expected to outnumber those from the coronavirus.
John you are exactly right. I have just finished watching the local and national news. In our neck of the woods there is a spike in cases. However the vast majority testing positive have mild cases and are recovering at home. In Savannah, one hospital has 18 patients, the Catholic one, 18 and a third, one. The local expert said there are way fewer deaths of those hospitalized and almost none on ventilators.
The CBS national news sensationalized the cases in the various states with major spikes, listing the number Testing positive, making conjectures on others who are positive but not trusted and no numbers of those in the hospital, at home and the recovered. They spoke of two elderly who died as though this is the outcome, but no statistics on deaths compared to the initial situation leading to the shut down.
The press, talking head experts and politicians are all irresponsible and report emotions not news.
Regarding 4 July which will see pubs re-opening in England (our Independence Day!), there are still some fussy little guidelines. One of the silliest asks customers to supply contact details, so should any case of COVID-19 be detected on the premises, they will be informed and expected to self-isolate.
In the unlikely event of my exhibiting symptoms of the said disease I shall of course stay at home. But I am not going to do so on the strength of a call, text or e-mail. And given that nothing is private these days, should buying a pint be contingent on supplying personal information, I shall have no hesitation in assuming a bogus identity.
"The trouble with statements like this is that imagination is no substitute for proof."
Wrong.
Statistical modeling is a tried and true method. Also, experience teaches us a great deal. If you think it is not, stop taking medications, stop listening to any weather forecasts, stop putting any money in a bank, stop paying for any insurance - health, property, life, etc.
Because thay are ALL dependent on statistical modeling and past experience.
Yes, we do know what would have happened had drastic measures not been put in place to slow the infection rate due to coronavirus. It would have continued on its devastating way through the population.
Can you imagine what would happen to a person if he severed an artery and the flow of blood is not stanched? Yes, that person, short of a miracle, will die. WHAT?
You have no proof, only imagination!
Actually, we have far more than imagination. We have experience with severed arteries and with people who dies from loss of blood due to severed arteries.
Anonymous
More long-winded inconsequential crap from you (no surprises there). I was attempting to enlighten readers about opinions here in the UK as there may be parallels in the US. No more, no less.
You are constantly wittering on about 'post hoc ergo propter hoc', misusing a logical principle to deny cause and effect, yet you gaily abandon it when it could actually be applied.
'Yes, we do know what would have happened if ...' No you don't. Nobody does. Even the scientists admit that. Statistical modelling on climate change produced some absurd predictions which had to be modified. And if you believe one model you presumably have to believe all models, even when they are mutually contradictory.
But you don't. You decide to pin your faith on the model that suits you. Either that, or you believe that the future can be accurately predicted, which even someone as intellectually challenged as you are might balk at.
The apparent truth is that we belong to a web of creation in which nothing, absolutely nothing is inconsequential.
The Luminous Web
Barbara Brown Taylor
"'Yes, we do know what would have happened if ...' No you don't. Nobody does."
Yes, we do.
We know how viruses function, we know how they spread, we know that, if unchecked, viruses like coronavirus can spread very rapidly.
It does not take any imagination to understand the epidemiology of viruses since we have experience.
You can go on defending your indefensible, "... so we shall never know to what extent they were necessary in the first place" as long as you want. If you don't know, it is because you choose to be ignorant. All your eloquence and erudition isn't worth a fart when you choose to be ignorant.
AMEN to that!
The fact that my post of 10:16 has elicited responses from the same person pretending to be three different people does not negate my argument; if anything it reinforces it.
No, John, you get no reinforcement.
HEADLINE: "As U.S. coronavirus cases spike, country will ‘be seeing more deaths,’ Dr. Fauci says."
WHAT? He has no evidence! He can't say what will happen! He hasn't a crystal ball, no entrails to read, no oracles to consult!
So what if he has decades of knowledge and experience studying infection diseases and epidemics?
That's doesn't mean anything! I, with my self-proclaimed eloquence and erudition, I'm the one who knows what viruses do, how they spread, how infection rates increase. Why, I can even command the virus in my eloquent and erudite way and it will obey!
You live in a fantasy, dear John...
From what I've read, Fauci is a controversial figure whose predictions are widely regarded as grotesquely alarmist. The UK equivalent was Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London, who talked the government into imposing a drastic lockdown, before revising his figures downwards, and then having to resign after breaking his own lockdown rules.
Meanwhile another study by Oxford University cast serious doubts on Imperial's model, but HMG decided to go for the worst-case option. Staunching a severed artery is one thing; curing a headache by decapitation is quite another.
Living a fantasy can be a dangerous thing when you are putting other lives at risk besides your own. No reinforcement for you John....only pity.....
Citizen said:
“From what I've read, Fauci is a controversial figure whose predictions are widely regarded as grotesquely alarmist.”
John where did you read this? The source of this kind of information is important, so please cite the source/sources? Thank you.
Anonymous, Good morning, And everybody, Not a clone (are you sure about that?)
An ellipsis has three dots, not four. Or are you trying to emphasize your four-way split personality?
On closer inspection the second ellipsis has no fewer than five dots. You must be preparing us for yet another alias. You've nothing of substance to say, so you have to amuse yourself somehow ...
Dr. Fauci is hardly "controversial" or "alarmist."
"Dr. Fauci has advised six presidents on HIV/AIDS and many other domestic and global health issues. He was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that has saved millions of lives throughout the developing world."
"Dr. Fauci has delivered major lectures all over the world and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest honor given to a civilian by the President of the United States), the National Medal of Science, the George M. Kober Medal of the Association of American Physicians, the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service, the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the Robert Koch Gold Medal, the Prince Mahidol Award, and the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award. He also has received 45 honorary doctoral degrees from universities in the United States and abroad."
In interviews during the current pandemic, he has given level-headed advice, spoken calmly, and backed up his suggestions with his 40+ years of clinical experience.
His words are here - read them and discover he is no "alarmist."
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/director-in-the-news
Agreed Father. Back to John's tantrum because people disagree with him and he must be right at all costs. Even if his beliefs are reckless.
John, I’m still hoping you will cite your source for your comment at 6:53 about Dr. Fauci? I’ve not read anything like that, so would appreciate your citation.
Thank you.
Citizen - You can find right wingers like Laura Ingraham who have criticized Fauci, all without citing a single source for providing any data to support their negative views.
Fauci has become the latest target in right-wing conspiracy but case circles. Ingraham went on to say Fauci is part of the "medical deep state," again with no evidence whatsoever.
It goes beyond the sane: "The most extreme of these accusations have the lunatic zeal of fantasy, an inventiveness and complexity that read like science fiction. Fauci, these awakened skeptics believe, fabricated COVID as a means to annihilate the American economy and pave the way for China to supplant the U.S. as the leading global superpower. He’s been working in league with Bill Gates, an avowed covert war criminal, as well as the Centers for Disease Control, the official Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Deborah Birx, the Clinton family, Barack Obama, George Soros, and according to one helpful infographic , Bono." - Cape Breton Post, 10 June 2020
ON the other hand you can cite the SIX presidents under whom Fauci has worked, the scores of honorary degrees he has been awarded, and the good, solid, clinical work he has done.
Or you can go with Republican Senators:
“I don’t think he’s alarmist,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va). “He’s talking like a scientist who knows the spread can happen.”
Dr Fauci's high profile may have generated some controversy but I was wrong to compare him with some of his counterparts over here who have been advising the government and gave rise to a situation wherein politicians were covering themselves by claiming to be 'guided by the science' and scientists were covering themselves in case their forecasts proved to be too optimistic. After all, they were not primarily concerned with economic and social consequences.
The result was a strange paralysis, made worse by the fact that the PM himself was out of action for some weeks thanks to the virus. Eventually, pitting a certainty (economic and social collapse) against a risk (a second wave) forced the politicians to opt for the only sane course.
Fauci's prediction of the number of COVID deaths was not wide of the mark and his view that a 'second wave' is not inevitable is borne out by studies of pandemics over the past 150 years carried out at Oxford University. I suspect that in the UK he would be criticized for not being alarmist enough. In short, his advice is as sound as can be expected, given what we know (and don't know) regarding this particular virus.
John,
Thanks for correcting your earlier comment.
The correction is appreciated and admirable. Thank you.
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