FAULTY FOUNDATION (written in 2020)

I have been carefully noting the various arguments for and against the U.S. “re-opening for business,” right now, and while I understand the far-reaching economic ripple effects of the shutdown, there is one particular line of argument that I am compelled to address. 

Arguments for reopening that are based on minimizing the impact of COVID-19 by comparing it to other ways people die are inherently FAULTY.
Let us count the ways:

1. What we are dealing with is a novel or new Coronavirus. Unlike other well-established causes of death, the data collection and research surrounding COVID-19 are in the earliest stages. (By the way, “19” stands for the year the virus was first noticed. There is not a long series of variations of the virus.) We are in the MIDST of the crisis and the COVID-19 death toll is still being counted — and likely undercounted. It is impossible to have a full and final count of something that has not even completed its course. So, while the numbers are already significant, there can be no full comparison of COVID-19 to things with decades of conclusive research and data.

2. Some of the things people are using for comparison are not even things that are contagious. Enough said.

3. Some of the things people are using for comparison occur sporadically over time, not in a concentrated worldwide occurrence like COVID-19.

4. None of the things listed for comparison have simultaneously taxed our health care system, funeral homes, and morgues like the Coronavirus has. NOT ONE OF THEM.  How many of those other things listed for comparison have caused hospitals to simultaneously require an exponential increase in respirators to keep the death rate down? How many makeshift morgues and graves have had to be utilized here in the U.S. to handle an onslaught for ANY of those other deaths? The fact that these are now being utilized tells us we are dealing with something beyond the usual death statistics. 

5. Do we realize that politicizing, minimizing, and trivializing what we are facing is a direct assault on the heroes in healthcare and other heroes who don’t have the luxury of sitting around compiling faulty data to try and make this thing go away? They’re too busy saving lives and risking their own lives. I’m sure they would love for the rest of the country to get back to work so they can finally get a break—but not at the expense of taxing them further with the increased cases of infection and death that some consider merely “the price we have to pay.” Try sharing your Coronavirus-minimizing top ten death lists with all of the heroes. Let us know how it goes.

6. Denial is the first stage of grief. It is during this stage that we either outright deny what we’ve lost, or try in vain to minimize or explain it away. COVID-19 has led to worldwide grief, not only because of the unusual suffering and deaths of loved ones of all ages, but the death of our ways of life; the death of our routines; the death of our sense of (or illusion of) control. This pandemic is forcing us to place ellipses where we desperately want to place a period....The reality is there are no lists we can make, no laws we can break, no social distancing we can take that will erase the sobering reality of this pivotal time in history. We can, however, face it and see it for what it is and see ourselves for what we are in light of it. We can, however, exercise faith that God will never leave us or forsake us, and will enable us to RENEW (not necessarily RECOVER) spiritually, mentally, physically, and economically. We can, however, use this time not to deny, lie, or defy, but to “humble ourselves and pray, and turn from our wicked ways” in order to truly heal from ALL that ails us.  

7. While we await discoveries of medical treatments for the Coronavirus, there is hope for other healing. “And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness.” Matthew 9:35  And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. Luke 9:2