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<\/a><\/p>\nOur state, Oklahoma, is \u201copening up\u201d from the coronavirus shutdown so we were able to go to church for the first time in seven weeks!<\/p>\n
We still had to be socially distanced, which was awkward.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t sing, since that activity projects droplets from the lungs.\u00a0 The liturgy was somewhat truncated and it had to be spoken, not chanted.<\/p>\n
But how good it was to be there!\u00a0 To be absolved!\u00a0 To receive the Sacrament of Christ\u2019s Body and Blood!\u00a0 To be immersed in God\u2019s Word!\u00a0 To see everyone again, though at a distance!<\/p>\n
Though we had been bearing up well during the quarantine, going to church was a big boost to our mood, our morale, and our sense of well-being.<\/p>\n
I had mentioned here that our county was hard hit by the coronavirus.\u00a0 A few weeks ago, Oklahoma released a more detailed breakdown of the cases by city.\u00a0 It turns out, nearly all of our county\u2019s cases were concentrated in a much larger municipality, which has had a total of 48 cases and 7 deaths.\u00a0 But our little community has had only 2 confirmed cases, no deaths, and 2 recoveries.\u00a0 Even though we had drive-through testing at our hospital, that number has not changed for weeks.\u00a0 In fact, our county total has just gone up by one over that time.<\/p>\n
Still, we are social distancing, wearing masks, not going out, and sheltering in place.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting how our country, indeed most countries, is approaching this pandemic.\u00a0 Instead of identifying the sick people and putting them in quarantine\u2013the usual practice through the centuries\u2013we are putting everyone<\/em> in quarantine, the well along with the sick.\u00a0 We treat everyone the same, with our restrictions and our bailouts, regardless of how they are affected by the virus.<\/p>\n Our governor, Kevin Stitt, is getting criticized in some circles for relaxing the restrictions too early.\u00a0 He and the other governors who are trying to get their states going again are not really following President Trump\u2019s guidelines<\/a> of waiting for two weeks of downward epidemic numbers before starting phased re-openings.\u00a0 Gov. Stitt made his decision based on the drop-off of the demand for hospital facilities.\u00a0 We have plenty of Intensive Care Units.\u00a0 Putting it that way sounds kind of grim, but it\u2019s pragmatic.<\/p>\n Since increased testing means more discoveries of cases, and since death reporting varies so much from place to place\u2013with some counting only tested COVID-19 mortalities, some counting \u201cpresumed\u201d cases, some adding deaths from related causes and some not, and some adding into the total deaths from weeks ago that have been re-classified as COVID-related\u2013it\u2019s hard to know where we stand with this epidemic.<\/p>\n Already the media is trumpeting increases in new cases as evidence that the states relaxing their restrictions have made a deadly mistake.\u00a0 But, as\u00a0A. G. Hamilton<\/a> points out, the data they cite is highly misleading:<\/p>\n (1) Given the\u00a0incubation period<\/a>\u00a0and a lag in testing, new cases that are identified on a certain day are unlikely to have any relationship to policies implemented days earlier.<\/p>\n (2) \u201cNew cases\u201d is a very misleading metric because it does not account for increases in testing. The rate of positive tests in Texas has\u00a0declined<\/a>\u00a0significantly.<\/p>\n Mainstream outlets have attempted to tie new cases and deaths to recent re-opening actions in\u00a0Florida<\/a>,\u00a0Georgia<\/a>, and\u00a0Texas<\/a>, despite it being clear that any spike in cases or deaths would not be apparent for weeks after such policy changes. Such actions could lead to a spike in new cases, but trying to tie them to those seen right now is clearly incorrect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n More revealing is the percentage of tests that turn out to be positive for COVID-19, and Hamilton cites data and gives a chart showing that those numbers are<\/em> going down.<\/p>\n But we\u2019ll have to see.\u00a0 Maybe Oklahoma and these other states are opening too soon.\u00a0 But we cannot keep the economy shut down for long.\u00a0 Just these seven weeks have been catastrophic.\u00a0 At some point, we\u2019ll have to give up the effort and accept the consequences.<\/p>\n We cannot afford to wait the year or 18 months or more until we have a vaccine.\u00a0 We may not ever<\/em> get a vaccine.\u00a0 The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that \u201cthere is no evidence<\/a>\u201d that having antibodies for the virus confers immunity.\u00a0 \u201cNo evidence\u201d simply means that science has come to no determination one way or the other, another example of how little we know about this virus.\u00a0 There have reportedly been cases of re-infection, with some individuals testing positive, then negative, then positive again.\u00a0 But that might be due to the inaccuracy of the tests, which is another reason why we cannot look to testing as the pre-requisite for removing the restrictions.\u00a0 The point is, if antibodies do not confer immunity to COVID-19 and since vaccines work by causing the body to produce antibodies, doesn\u2019t that mean that a COVID-19 vaccine would be impossible?\u00a0 (Someone please correct me if I\u2019m wrong.\u00a0 Please!\u00a0 I hope I am!)<\/p>\n We may just have to learn how to live with\u2013and die with\u2013the coronavirus.<\/p>\n Being able to go to church will help with that.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0\u00a0Church Is Open<\/b><\/em> \u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our state, Oklahoma, is “opening up” from the coronavirus shutdown so we were able to go to church for the first time in seven weeks. Despite the social distancing protocols, it was wonderful. Relaxing the restrictions is controversial, but we may have to learn to live–or die–with the virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":49135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,30,34],"tags":[9437,9380,9596,9602,9599],"class_list":["post-49130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-economics","category-medicine","category-personal","tag-coronavirus-and-the-church","tag-coronavirus-epidemic","tag-coronavirus-restrictions","tag-covid-19-vaccine","tag-ending-covid-19-shutdown"],"yoast_head":"\n
\ncc-by-sa\/2.0<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 \u00a9\u00a0Keith Evans<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0geograph.org.uk\/p\/4297841<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n