COVID-19

 

We’ve been living with the threat of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 for the past 2 years. And even after over 5 million dead globally, and  nearly 800,000 dead here in the United States, there are still millions of people in America who either believe the coronavirus is a hoax, believe in some crazy QAnon conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 vaccines are deadly, preachers telling their church members that COVID-19 vaccines are  the Satanic Mark of the Beast, or those who refuse to be vaccinated. Many don’t even want to wear a mask to help stop spread the deadly virus! 

It sickens me to see how Republicans have politicized the virus. Had President Trump, Republicans in Congress and in state legislature, and Republican governors taken different actions and had they encouraged their followers to wear masks, social distance, and to, most importantly, be vaccinated then millions of American lives could have been saved. As a Conservative Christian this is outrageous and despicable behavior!

On social media,  talk radio, and cable news there are numerous voices who claim taking the vaccine is somehow an assault on their freedoms and is unpatriotic! This is nonsense. They make ridiculous assertions such as “The coronavirus is no deadlier than the flu.” and “The coronavirus vaccinated death rates are the same as the unvaccinated death rates.” Even though research has shown the coronavirus to be at least 10 times deadlier than the flu they persist in their delusions.

As the data from this paper shows, those who are unvaccinated have a significantly higher death rate, as well as having a more severe case of COVID-19 even if they don’t die.

In this past August, unvaccinated people had a 6.1 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 compare to the fully vaccinated and a 11.3 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19!

 

The risk of infection, hospitalization, and death are all much lower in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated people.People who are vaccinated have dramatically lower rates of hospitization compared to the unvaccinated.

The consensus of the scientific and medical communities is overwhelmingly in favor of people being vaccinated. The real science is clear that:

• The coronavirus is deadly and even if it doesn’t kill you can result in very serious and persistent medical problems known as Long COVID.
• That those vaccinated compared to unvaccinated have much fewer hospitalizations.
• That those vaccinated compared to unvaccinated have significantly fewer deaths.

Please encourage your friends and family to wear masks, practice social distancing, and most importantly to get vaccinated! And contrary to what some anti-vaxxers say, getting the coronavirus vaccines doesn’t mean we have given in to fear. God gave us science for the benefit of mankind. As a Christian it truly infuriates and disgusts me to see some preachers weaponizing theology to discourage their congregations from being vaccinated. Jesus said what you do the least of the brethren you do to Him. And His command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves would translate to us getting vaccinated and wearing masks for the sake of our neighbors! Jesus is pro-vaccines. If the people in America in the 1950s had resisted the Polio vaccine the way Americans now are resisting the coronavirus vaccine then Polio in America would never have been wiped out and would to this very day still be a problem. 

 

 IN THE TIME OF ANY COMMON PLAGUE OR SICKNESS

O Almighty God, who in your wrath sent a plague upon your own people in the wilderness for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and also in the time of King David, sent a plague of pestilence which killed seventy thousand, but remembering your mercy spared the rest: have pity upon us miserable sinners, who now are visited with great sickness and mortality; and in the same way that you then accepted an atonement and commanded the destroying Angel to cease from punishing: so it may now please you to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. – BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, 1662 (ENGLAND)