Coronavirus Pandemic 2020

WASH HANDS, PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING, DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS . . .

COVID-19, otherwise known as the Wuhan virus, continues to run its course, as yet another, in a long list of viruses, that spreads around the world and will ultimately take its place in medical journals and history books. The difference in this particular virus is that it has taken on strong political overtones in our country, rhetoric that has been conspicuously absent in years past.

The numbers published by the media on an almost minute-by-minute basis generate nauseatingly false milestones and dread among those who fail to recognize, unwittingly or unwillingly, that the Wuhan Virus is within the natural and reasonable range of outcomes as compared to other recent or distant outbreaks that have occurred throughout the centuries. Our government’s response has been nothing short of draconian (see https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/486989-coronavirus-raises-legal-issue-of-public-safety-or-personal-liberty for an excellent article regarding the legal issue between public safety and personal responsibility), mainly because as a population we have failed to discipline ourselves in practicing good hygiene and self control as follows: WASH HANDS, PRACTICE SELF DISTANCING, DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS, simple but effective means of control. How so one might ask?

Epidemiologist Dr. Neil Ferguson, whose British research paper has been widely circulated by the press about the number of deaths in the United States, confidently predicted 2.2 million would die from the Wuhan virus. While the media latched on to that number, the good doctor himself admitted that although those horrifying numbers got a lot of attention,” they were never plausible,” as his research paper itself said, because they were based on the clearly unrealistic premise that “nothing” is done to contain, suppress, or mitigate the epidemic.

That 2.2 million number was based on no introduction of variables such as control measures like social distancing. Dr Ferguson relied on the 1918 Spanish flu as his measuring stick when no real controls, public or private, were instituted.

This one simple control dropped the number of deaths from 2.2 million to roughly 200,000, with only one variable applied.

More variables reduce the number of cases to a range approximately equal to the common flu. Time will tell whether we go from 3,000 deaths at the end of March to 100,000 by May 1. (It is really difficult to see that multiplier, especially if you look at the Italian statistics, which already show the incidents of the virus beginning to trail downward. The second world “epicenter” has reached its peak according to Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization with the imposed lockdown of a couple of weeks ago bearing fruit).

For a detailed explanation of how numbers help build hysteria go to reason.com, the Volokh Conspiracy.

Almost as a pre April fool’s joke, former president O’Bama stated on 3-31 in a Twitter, “We've seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” we can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”

Really? How about N1H1 under O’Bama’s administration in 2009, or the ongoing polio battle, which has been around since the Egyptians, or consider the Spanish Flu that killed 700,000 Americans in 1918. Even Shakespeare wrote about the black plague (bacteria born) in his plays that decimated London in 1563 killing a quarter of the city’s population and throughout Europe killing upwards of 200 million people.

Man-made climate change had and has nothing to do with this outbreak. Nor does climate change have any thing to do with the decision by Virginia’s (D) Governor Northam to impose a stay at home order to run through June 10, one day after the state Republican Party election. The date could cripple Virginia’s economy and dissuade Republican voter turnout on down ballot races that could be detrimental to the state and party.

In Alabama, as of March 31, the Wuhan Virus numbers indicate about 1,000 people infected, with approximately 15 deaths. In comparison, approximately 1,000 Alabamians die by traffic accidents annually, 10,000 by cancer and 12,000 by heart related problems while the overall population in Alabama is 4.5 million citizens.

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The above numbers are revealing but impersonal. Many of us know someone who either has been exposed to the Wuhan Virus or has it. Our family knows this fact all too well.

Our uncle, George Kelly, originally from Evergreen, Alabama, has contracted the Wuhan virus. George is 94 years old. George and his wife Jain have lived in New York City for over sixty years in the same small apartment on the upper eastside. Back in the 60's my father and mother would load us up in the Chevy II at midnight to make the long trek to the Big Apple.

George, my mother's youngest of four brothers, travelled a different path. He served as an airman in Alaska during WW II. After graduating from Northwestern University and attending UPenn and Alabama, he spent years in India and came back to cofound a successful kite business and Cookbook Shop in New York that he later sold. George worked as a journalist for several U.S. newspapers in IL, NJ, and PA as well as the Associated Press. My father thought of him as a beatnik (precursor to hippy), but my mom and I saw him as a great adventurer. Back in the 60's the neighborhood was almost exclusively Puerto Rican. The apartment had no air conditioner. George did not own, drive or want a car. The neighborhood improved a bit when a police precinct was built at 94th and 2nd adjacent to his four story building that as far as anyone could tell has been kept alive by a strong roof and layers of yellow paint.

He walked everywhere. His small frame and modest living habits proved to be healthy decisions compared to his siblings who died much earlier in their sixties and seventies.

After his marriage to Jain and the birth of their child, George determined to conduct a more traditional lifestyle. He sold commercial real estate, went to a nearby church and began writing children's books to include: What Does the ToothFairy Do with All Those Teeth?, Georgette's Biovortex Theory of the Universe, and Santa Christina and Her Sled Dogs. George did an autograph session at Capitol Book and News in Montgomery. He also served as the Public Relations Director for the Children Museum of New York.

He now is in a NY hospital on a ventilator. George had some very serious underlying health issues when he contracted COVID-19. Jain and Georgette may not visit him. Just like many others in this predicament he is alone. We pray for George and all who are suffering, to find and comfort and peace and rest that only Christ can give.

Please share your story of your loved one who has COVID-19.

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Put a beautiful face on this ugly disease.

by Sam Adams