Coronavirus Taking Its Toll

Last updated on: March 18, 2020 at 7:02 pm by Kermit Zarley

Coronavirus Taking Its Toll 2020-03-18T19:02:29-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In only a few weeks, the coronavirus pandemic, called COVID-19, is taking its toll on the U.S. and nations throughout the world like nothing we have ever seen before. It started in China, and I intend to post something about that soon. Surprising to most of us Americans, this virus is now exposing the U.S. as being, contrary to what President Trump has been saying until this week, seriously inefficient in having a protective health system against viruses.

To make matters worse, in 2018 National Security Council Advisor John Bolton, who resigned or was fired last year, disbanded the leadership in the NSC’s office overseeing responses to pandemics and did not refill those positions, essentially shutting it down. When President Trump was asked about it last week in a press conference, he responded quite un-presidentially and perhaps untruthfully by saying, “Well, I just think it’s a nasty question. I don’t know anything about it. I mean, you say we did that. I don’t know anything about it. Disbanding, no, I don’t know anything about it.”

In previous weeks, President Trump dismissed COVID-19 as nothing serious and that it would soon be gone, “like a miracle.” At least this week he is looking presidential about the matter, listening to his aides and undertaking drastic measures, both health-wise and economically. But the U.S. lost precious time to control this COVID-19. It was because our elected representatives did not take it serious enough. Yet China was taking draconian measures that only such a Communistic state could take. In contrast, in a democracy like ours, you have to convince people and their elected representatives about a crisis, first, before they will even get the slow wheels of government moving.

Our main problem is still that we are way underserved with testing kits for this virus despite President Trump saying otherwise last week. That is a lack of preparation. But the main problem has been that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had the sole authority for creating test kits and sending them to hospitals so people could be tested. Worse yet, the kits they sent were faulty, and they didn’t even know it. Then it took many days before the federal government changed the rule so that state health departments could create their own test kits to be used in-state. Yet, if the CDC only would have used the test kits designed by the World Health Organization, this problem would not have occurred.

Things are developing every minute all over the world in an effort to control this virus and its hugely negative effects on national economies. Nations are closing their borders to outsiders, restricting airline travel internationally, and closing various types of business establishments such as movie theaters and restaurants in an effort to require people to remain in their homes except only to go to work (only at certain types of establishments) in order to create “social distancing.” Experts are now saying the world will enter into a financial recession, and some say it could be quite lasting.

One of the few positive developments is that the death rate from this coronavirus in China is now in substantial decline. China had bungled its early response, denying the crisis and even disciplining the young research doctor who first discovered this virus and alerted authorities, then contracted the virus, and died. Many Chinese citizens are outraged about it. But when China’s authorities finally came to their senses, they have undertaken drastic measures to contain the disease in the past 2.5 months.

The virus spread from China and around the world. The results so far have varied in different countries. COVID-19 is about twice as contagious as the common, seasonal flu; but it is way more deadly. In China, over 80,000 people so far have contracted the disease and over 4,000 people have died from it. The mortality rate of those contracting the virus in China has been about 3.5%. That is nearly 40 times higher than the mortality rate of the common flu, which is about 0.1%. Italy has been worse, largely because of an elderly population and a high rate of tobacco smoking. Italy has been by far the hardest hit of any European nation, with over 10,000 people having the virus and its mortality rate has been over 6%. Europe is now an epicenter of COVID-19.

Last year, I attended a luncheon at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature that was hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, centered in Washington, DC. (For CFR resources on COVID-19, visit cfr.org/coronavirus.) The topic discussed was religion and foreign policy. Yesterday, I listened to one of CFR’s livestream Religion and Foreign Policy conference calls that was about COVID-19 and how nations are dealing with it, especially in relation to religious communities. CFR’s Senior Fellow Thomas Bollyky was the speaker, with a Q&A that followed.

Bollysky said the main problem about the U.S. lack of testing kits was that the FDA has to approve of private labs creating their own test kits and that they finally did that last week. So, this life-threatening delay was due to government bureaucracy. Bollyky also said that the U.S. had not lagged behind like this during all previous virus epidemics, such as Ebola in 2014. Vice president Joe Biden was much involved in the federal government’s response to that virus. You can bet your bottom dollar that this Biden experience and Trump’s previous inept response to virus until this week will be huge issues in the campaign for president this year that will be between Biden and Trump.

I suspect that this U.S. lack of coronavirus test kits will result in the U.S. adopting measures in the future to prevent another health inefficiency like this. Another issue is the lack of respirators that attach to the head, especially for health workers treating patients with this virus. Another issue is the lack of proper face masks to help ward off contracting this virus. I can envision many future Americans having their own face mask or respirator or both in their home, ready to be used in such a health crisis as this.

Current Events

Politics

CORVID-19

Council on Religion and Foreign Relations

John Bolton

President Trump

Respirators Versus Masks

Thomas Bollyky

Previous Post

March 14, 2020

Mexico May Pay for the Wall after All!

Next Post

March 20, 2020 COVID-19 Part 1: Jewish Dietary Laws

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many days was Jesus dead before the resurrection?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ten One Three Seven

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »