Living during the Coronavirus 'Divide'

My finances have not been affected directly by COVID-19 (the coronavirus) because I am retired. But some folk are experiencing tough times.  
  
“I heard that we are all in the same boat, but it’s not like that,” someone said. “We are in the same storm, but not in the same boat. … For some, quarantine is optimal. A moment of reflection, of re-connection, easy in flip flops [taking life easy], … for others, this is a desperate financial and family crisis.”
   
We’re not in the same boat, the writer said,  because the coronavirus stay at home policy causes many that live alone to face more loneliness while others have family with them.
   
“Some want to return to work because they don’t qualify for unemployment and are running out of money,” the writer said. “Others want to kill those who break the quarantine.
  
“Some are at home, spending 2-3 hours/day helping their child with online schooling while others are spending 2-3 hours/day to educate their children on top of a 10-12 hour workday.”
  
Some have died from coronavirus; some don’t seem to think it’s a big deal, the writer said. Some have faith in God and miracles. Others say the worst is yet to come.
  
The writer concluded, “So, friends, we are not in the same boat. … We are all on different ships during this storm, experiencing a very different journey. Realize that and be kind.”
  
An animation shows Buggs Bunny wearing a medical mask and Daffy Duck without a mask. Buggs puts a poster on a tree. The poster reads “Shut it down.” Daffy Duck slaps a poster over it. Daffy’s poster reads “Open it up.”
  
That’s how many feel about reopening businesses labeled “nonessential.”
  
America is suffering a “great divide” over the coronavirus, a virus discovered only months ago. Scientists work feverishly on a vaccine to protect against what some call The Corona.
  
Some say keeping healthy people “locked down” prevents development of an immune response needed to establish nationwide immunity to coronavirus.
  
That idea is based on what happens when a disease attacks a herd of animals. To develop a “natural herd immunity,” one lets a virus attack the herd. Some animals die, but others develop immunity to the disease.
  
Drs. Carl T. Bergstrom and Natalie Dean say, “The coronavirus moved so rapidly across the globe partly because no one had prior immunity to it. Failure to check its spread will result in a catastrophic loss of lives. Yet some … are advising that the most practical course of action is to manage infections while allowing so-called herd immunity to build.”
  
Those doctors advise against letting “herd immunity” build because many people may die while the herd builds immunity. They indicate that social distancing and staying at home are good, at this time.
  
Developing immunity against coronavirus requires actually being infected with it. “Prior infection has to confer immunity against future infection,” Bergstrom and Dean say.
  
On the other hand, Dr. Lee Templeton, a Christian dentist, says many die each year during flu season.
  
“All medically knowledgeable people realize this is an almost annual occurrence,” Templeton says. “Fear has replaced faith and commonsense. … The news media foments fear using death numbers. … If flu deaths were always on the news, it is likely that panic would result from that too. The Christian worldview has taken a hit in the last 50-75 years. That view holds that faith in God casts out fear.”
  
How can we exhibit Christian faith during the coronavirus epidemic?  
  
The Rev. Dr. Christian Hofreiter of Austria writes, “In the Old Testament we find very strict quarantine regulations for those suffering of infectious diseases (see Leviticus 13). So, when Christians follow government and medical advice to, say, drastically reduce all social contacts, this is not an expression of unbelief (as though God did not have the power to protect or heal us). Rather, it is a demand of wisdom and, especially, of neighbourly love. The equation is simple and sobering: The flatter the rate of viral infection progresses, the smaller the number of vulnerable people who will die. Wherever we can contribute to that outcome, we should!”
  
Hofreiter continues, “One of the best things we can do is remember just how great, how good, how strong and mighty, how faithful our God truly is. … Personally, I find it most helpful in such situations to meditate on verses of Scripture that I know by heart, that I think through, pray through, feel through, chew through, carry in my heart, and digest inwardly. For example, the 23rd Psalm. Do you know it by heart yet?”
  
“The Lord is my shepherd … I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (from Psalm 23, KJV).