Fragments, Fallout, and Freedom--Part 10

Trust

How does the Corona Virus (also known as Covid 19) have anything to do with Christians and government or politics?  Below, I will post some Facebook comments that help establish this link.  Before that, I'll offer my perspective, as uncertain as it is.

I have limited confidence that this will simply blow over quickly with little effect on people in the US.  Although I am 67 years old and in good health as far as I know, I am not cavalier about contracting Covid 19.  That's not the same as saying I will stay at home till summer, cowering in fear of inadvertently being exposed to this kind of flu. I do have confidence that many workers in the health care field are competent but am unsure whether they will have the tools they need to do what is best.  Disabling of the Predict government program in 2018 and failing to renew funding for other Centers for Disease Control pandemic projects in cooperation with other countries--China among them--seems now like an uncommonly unwise government move.  Predict was a pandemic preparedness program created under the Bush administration.

Trump has put Vice President Pence in charge of addressing the Corona Virus, claiming that he did an outstanding job in addressing an HIV crisis in Indiana earlier.  Suffice it to say that this is not a unanimous opinion.  One source cited his actions as an example of disastrous mismanagement.  I think Pence is basically a decent man and I expect him to do as good a job as he can, but I seriously doubt that he is the best qualified person to lead this effort.

Hiromi is taking the precaution of laying in a supply of N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), which he has heard might reduce the severity of all kinds of flu.  In some of the materials he's been listening to online, I caught the name of Bupleurum as one of the protective substances that some people take.  This caught my ear because it's a kind of cutflower filler that I have had zero success in starting from seed, and I'm frustrated by that.  I will happily take the NAC as soon as Hiromi brings it home from Walmart (100 pills for around $13.00), since it's not very expensive and I don't think it could hurt me.  If Bupleurum shows up anywhere near me in a form I can easily take, I might take that too, and I'm certainly not ready to give up on growing it.  I also picked up somewhere that a lack of sufficient protein in the diet can interfere with the body's ability to counter a viral invader such as the Corona virus (this suggests that people who are especially susceptible to serious illness from Corona may be so partly because of this dietary insufficiency).  For this reason I won't look longingly at a vegetarian diet anytime soon.

This morning the Fed (Federal Reserve [U.S. central bank]) lowered interest rates by 1/2 % in an effort to stabilize financial markets.  In the past week or so, the stock market has taken some worrying dives, seemingly in direct response to fears about the Corona Virus.  Supply chains have been interrupted because of quarantines and other containment measures in China, and the ripples are being felt wherever Chinese products are shipped.  2008 was the last time the interest rate was cut this sharply--after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.  We all know something of what happened after this--a very long hard slog toward recovery with many casualties along the way.  The current situation is different in some respects from how it was in 2008.  Some of those differences are cause for increased concern this time around.  Goods and travel are far more of an issue this time.  Lack of confidence in financial markets (present now also) wasn't as directly linked to these things in 2008.

My sense is that President Trump is very concerned about Corona Virus' effect on the economy.  I wish I were confident that this concern is entirely altruistic.  The political fallout of an economic downturn on Trump's watch would almost certainly worry Trump, but I don't expect to hear anything but reassurance from him that we're all fine and we'll all be fine and no one should worry--because we have the best people and the best methods and we're on top of this and it'll all be over in a month and everything is under control.  Talk like this does not reassure me.

By contrast, the following comments seem to me to be truthful and wise, and I hope they will provide some balance between the "not to worry" and the "sky is falling" perspectives.  Most of all, I hope we remember that our trust is safely placed in God, and not in anyone or anything in place of God.  For each of us, clarity on the best course of action will come from God as is needed for our situation.  Right now, for me, there is peace and rest in this confidence.

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All of the following comments were written by different people in a thread on an original post by my Facebook friend who is currently living in SE Asia.  She believes that hysteria over Corona Virus (also known as Covid 19) is misplaced. 

Comment #1  In the US, there is a crisis of "credibility and competence" in the current administration. At my age (65) more and more of my friends have chronic age related health conditions, so it's not ok to me that this virus is mostly only deadly for older people or those with concurrent underlying medical conditions. In the entire US only about 450 people have been tested for this highly contagious virus because we were unprepared and test kits still aren't widely available. So, a person who goes to an ER, doctor's office, or walk in clinic with non-life threatening flu like symptoms, is likely to infect the health care workers, and other patients without being screened for Corona virus. The latest community transmitted case in Oregon is a person who worked at an elementary school which is now closed. Maybe kids who get it will have only cold symptoms, but their grandparents are at much higher risk for serious consequences. So, don't freak out, but expect your government to provide science based epidemiologic[al] information.

Comment #2 (Response to comment #1) _________ you totally nailed it .
I’m 58 and with cancer so yes it scares me .
Actually Jeffrey asked me today when the last pandemic happened . I told him it was 2009 when the H1N1 struck . His reaction was ‘Oh- I don’t remember anyone talking about it much ‘
True! I was 48 , my kids were teens and I trusted my government to tell me what to do. That year we traveled every other month to different countries. This time it is so different . Both my son and I have lower immunity and we feel we can’t trust a word of what this president utters .

Comment #3   I think the distrust level regarding the government is the biggest problem we are facing here in the USA. If we trusted them to be honest with us, and we trusted them to do everything in their power to react appropriately, I don't think this would be that big of a deal.

The fact that they have politicized this and they are actively gaslighting and spreading propaganda makes it so hard to know what to do.


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This article, which I read after writing the above, is outstanding.  I hope you take time to read it.  It addresses something I told Hiromi yesterday:  The Corona Virus is one thing that Trump can't blame on people who don't like him.  This article suggests that I underestimated what Trump can do, but the fact remains that this is a new kind of challenge for him.