The Virus with a Personality

 

Who Is Corona?

2020 was a tumultuous year, no doubt. The COVID-19 virus, officially known as SARS-CoV-2,  dominated the world stage in a big way. It killed half a million people in the United States alone, ravaged untold lives, and reshaped society. Many Americans have either had the virus, lost a loved one to it, or known someone who's been ill. The pandemic destroyed jobs, businesses, homes, schools, and friendships. Around the world, nations grappled with its vast effects.

A force this powerful has, understandably, elicited strong emotions in our culture as we fight to understand and defeat this threat in 2021. 

SARS-CoV-2 is now such a part of our lives that we have made it into a sentient being, endowing it with our own perspectives, fears, and personal worldview. The tendency to attach human traits to inanimate objects and animals is called personification. With COVID-19, we've remade a virus into our own image. 

How is COVID-19 human?

Sometimes it's polite.

A popular Christian speaker who flies a lot notes that the virus is very polite. That makes it possible, according to the airlines, for passengers to remove their masks while they eat. This assumes that the virus understands our need for sustenance and will keep proper distance in the cramped quarters of an airplane.

Oddly, this virus doesn't extend the same courtesy to those eating in a restaurant.

It respects boundaries and can do math.

By now, most of us are familiar with the designations on the floor marking out a six-foot space between you and the next person in line. At outdoor events, chairs are carefully spaced with that same six-foot bubble for you to enter. That's because the virus clearly understands its boundaries. It especially cringes when it sees a folding chair placed within a carefully drawn circle. It may be able to span oceans, but it knows a six-foot barrier when it sees it. Beware, though, because it can clearly measure and lurks just beyond that magic number.

It's a political animal.

Normally, it isn't a great idea to rub shoulders with a lot of strangers during a pandemic. You don't know where they've been and what they're incubating. But we learned in 2020 if you have a protest or political rally to attend, know that you have the blessing of COVID-19. It loves a righteous cause. If you are sincere enough, it will pass you by to find some dispassionate dude to infect. 

It hates churches.

Just don't try to attend church. COVID-19 is a Godless infiltrator, and the only answer is to shutter the doors and arrest or fine any group trying to worship together. 

It's a different story if you own a liquor store. Then the magical 6-foot rule applies, because unlike spiritual refreshment, booze is essential. 

It loves sports.

It loves sports so much, it ensures that on the field (floor, ring, bowling lane), participants can spit, yell, jump, hug, and hit each other with impunity. But the moment the big game is over, the virus is waiting to pounce. So hurry and get that mask back on.

It's a closet homeschooler and family man.

Give it some credit here. COVID-19 accomplished what generations of passionate home educators' associations couldn't: force people to find out what their kids are learning. Throw in a year of coerced togetherness, and we understand why the virus is keeping the liquor stores open. 

It knows we are trying to kill it.

Recently, scientists announced the virus is mutating, something viruses regularly do. Scientists explain this evolution is the virus' response to masks and handwashing. 

Wait.

Are they suggesting that the virus knows we're attempting to kill it and is changing its makeup to outwit us?

Depending on your background, politics, religion or lack thereof, COVID-19 subscribes to one or more of the following ideologies:

Socialist propaganda. COVID-19 wants world domination, which it has nearly accomplished.

Right-wing propaganda. COVID-19 wants world domination, which it has nearly accomplished.

Racist propaganda. It hates some people more than others.

Ageist. See above.

Media propaganda. The virus has a great public relations program to keep people cognizant of its ability to help them mold society. 

Mask haters international. The virus laughs at those foolish enough to incorporate a device used by medical professionals for decades to inhibit the spread of disease. Anyone spotted using one is labeled a liberal socialist sheep. In fact, COVID-19 has convinced some people they will actually get sicker by wearing a mask. This explains why doctors and nurses always look so tired and ill.

Mask lovers anonymous. The virus loves it when people don the mask, constantly adjust it all day with dirty hands, roll it up into their jeans pocket, and toss it on the kitchen counter to use the next day. Let the people think the mask is magical. Germs will not stick to it, just like wearing the same pair of gloves through a store keeps germs from sticking to our hands.

The Truth Is...

The pandemic has profoundly impacted our society. It has revealed our inadequacies, prejudices, and intolerance. It has also lifted up the best in us, reminding us of what is, and is not, important. The greatest thing we can learn from the virus is that life is a precious and fragile gift. 

Never take it for granted.

Look at that. COVID-19 is a teacher, too.

The Safest DIY Facemasks May Need This

The current SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic has brought many people to a place they thought they'd never be: wearing a facemask as part of their daily routine. The shortage of medical masks has sparked a movement to create do-it-yourself masks. Volunteers and entrepreneurs have sprung up on social media sites offering to sew masks for medical facilities and the general public.

Homemade masks vary greatly in style and construction. According to Reuters Health, the best facemasks may require layers of different fabrics. Results of a recently published study indicated that the most effective masks are those constructed of a high-thread-count cotton combined with layers of natural silk or chiffon. Those masks were found to be 80% to 99% effective in blocking particles.

Research scientist Supratik Guha and his colleagues found that cotton combined with polyester spandex chiffon created static electricity that might help stop aerosolized particles from reaching the nose. Researchers also discovered that quilted material also was an effective material for masks, perhaps due to the tangled nature of the batting fibers.

Guha stressed that the best fabric isn't good enough if the fit of the mask is poor. It's important to ensure that the gaps around the face are minimized, although still allowing for the release of exhaled air.

Ideal DIY Facemask May Require Multiple Layers of Different Fabrics - Medscape - Apr 27, 2020.

God's Rest for Uncertain Days

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has now blown America from complacency into full-blown panic. At special risk are senior citizens and those with medical conditions that compromise their immunity.

Like many caregiving families, we have struggled to keep ourselves and loved ones safe without giving in to the fear. Our household consists of a vulnerable adult who is being cared for by two at-risk seniors. We recognized the risks early on and quickly ensured that we were as ready as possible for a serious outbreak of this virus.

No, we didn't hoard toilet paper.

Yes, we bought the proper medical supplies and household needs for a few weeks of possible isolation. We already had most of this in place before the crisis hit.

At this time, we are instituting our own policy of social isolation that we will evaluate on a week-by-week basis until the course of the virus appears to be waning. We use stringent infection control measures in our home. We've done all we can for now.

Still, the uncertainty has cast a pall upon our home as the seriousness of this pandemic is commanding the airwaves. We worry about our loved ones around the country. Our beloved granddaughter is facing the very real possibility of having to postpone her much-anticipated wedding. From serious illness to financial strain to personal loss, people are experiencing trials on many levels.

In the midst of anxiety, there is one place we can run.

When I read this Psalm, the image that comes to my mind is that of a hen sheltering her chicks under her wings. I remember fondly the little banty hens we had when I was growing up. The chicks always knew to run to their mamas if they were threatened. The hens spread their wings over their babies and pecked anyone who got near. There was something so comforting in watching the little ones sleeping under their mothers' wings.

In some Bible versions, the word abide in verse one is translated as "rest." When trouble descends upon us, we can rest in God's shelter. It's supposed to be the place we live. God is strong and mighty and a loving Father. He is our deliverer and the keeper of our souls.

So as we live out a long, hard winter, we can do two things:
Exercise infection control  
Live in rest.


PSALM 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”

3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day;

6 Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.

7 A thousand may fall at your side
And ten thousand at your right hand,
But it shall not approach you.

8 You will only look on with your eyes
And see the recompense of the wicked.

9 For you have made the Lord, my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place.

10 No evil will befall you,
Nor will any plague come near your [c]tent.

11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.

12 They will bear you up in their hands,
That you do not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

14 “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.

15 “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;

I will rescue him and honor him.

16 “With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation.”

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+91&version=NASB