Coronavirus Fears Increases

Last week The Dispatch published an article detailing the seriousness of the spreading coronavirus and the devastating effects that it is already having in some sections of the country. The states of Washington and California are having difficult times grappling with how to handle, if not contain the virus because as we can see, it has spread from the west coast to the east coast in just a matter of days. It is not just a China tragedy anymore, as Europe is being affected, parts of the Middle East and now America. There is widespread agreement among most in the U.S. that our government was not adequately prepared to handle the demands that would be placed on this nation’s medical infrastructure once the virus hit us. Hospitals are on standby, even as they treat an increasing amount of people on a regular basis. But an influx in the number of people that will contract the virus will only add to an overload of patients that will put an unbearable strain on those who are trained to work in the healthcare field. That does not even take into account the thousands of people that work in nursing care/assisted living centers. The Center of Disease Control(CDC) and other medical facilities whose specialty is communicable disease control are working overtime to create a vaccine to combat the virus, but even that is said to be at least a year away from development or even longer. An event called South By Southwest was cancelled in Texas because of fears that the virus could be spread from the mingling of a large crowd, as even the NBA has warned the league that it is possible that some of its games could be played in empty arenas.

Now we hear that Republican Sen. Rafael Cruz and Republicans Paul Gosar and Doug Collins will “self quarantine” themselves because they have come in contact with someone who has the virus, at a CPAC convention last month. Perhaps these congressmen will now push against President Trump’s rhetoric that the virus “is a hoax” by Democrats in an effort to keep him from being reelected. Perhaps they will join medical doctors across the nation for people who are sick, to stay home from their jobs, because that is exactly what they will be doing. Perhaps they will say that the president was wrong to tell people that “things are under control”, knowing that the situation will only get worse. But so many people in the workforce does not have access to sick leave where employers will pay their worker so they can maintain their current salary when sick. Louisiana is one of the states that prohibits local city/parish governments from requiring employers to offer sick leave. This happened back in 2012 under the Jindal led Republican legislature to enact the law. If the nation’s workforce is affected(virus) to a significant degree because millions of people go to work when they shouldn’t, the nation becomes sicker and the economy will suffer even more. While all of this is happening, there is according to media reports, that President Trump may also have shook hands with an individual who had shook hands with the infected person at CPAC. White House officials are downplaying the alleged incident, as the president said that he “is not worried”.

The silence from those religious leaders who had once compared President Trump to Old Testament King Cyrus as being the “Chosen One” has been awakened. We are not hearing them calling for calm, nor offering up prayers for the president/nation as they once proclaimed a “national day” of prayer for the president. But they are placing the blame(again) on the so called “homosexual lifestyle’ that they say is destroying the fabric of the family, and is responsible for all of the disasters that has led to suffering and loss of life. They have no problems saying the “end is near because…” when Democrats are in control, but President Trump is being seen as the true leader of the evangelical movement in the U.S. Very few of them refute anything the president say or does. Strong leadership is what maters now, as we see that the virus will strike the small and the great, rich and poor, black and white. They say that the opposite of fear is faith. An individual can be concerned about something, but not necessarily fear it. Trust in God is the most important thing that we can do. Use the three components that the scriptures teaches, the spirit of power, love and a sound mind, especially the “love” part, and stop the blame game. Remember, the world is watching. So is God.