March 9, 2020 – Click here to listen
It seems the media has found something new to write about daily. They have effectively panicked much of the world with the fear of the Corona Virus. I’m not trying to make light of the pain of grieving families who have lost family members to it, but I think we should all take a step back and look at the facts and put it in perspective.
For example if the media reported each year about the flu, the entire country and the world economy would come to a halt every year. Here are the statistics from the common flu over the past three years taken off the CDC website:
Flu – 2019 – 2020 season:
32 million infections
310,000 hospitalizations
18,000 deaths
Flu – 2018 – 2019 season:
35.5 million infections
490,600 hospitalizations
34,200 deaths
Flu – 2017 – 2018 season:
45 million infections
810,000 hospitalizations
61,000 deaths
So to put it in context as of six hours ago here in the United States there are 539 cases across 34 states and 22 deaths attributed to the Corona Virus.
There is so much inaccurate information about the virus, the W.H.O. (World Health Organization) has said it was confronting an “infodemic.” Misinformation spread by the media is fanning the flames and has included rumors that have led to hysteria and irrational thinking. This has resulted in what I term “Corona sheep syndrome.” These people have been whipped into full panic mode by the media and are buying up and actually having fistfights over toilet paper; buying bottled water. Have they ever heard of a faucet? And even making a run on bread and other essentials. The stock market is tanking in many areas, but companies that make hand sanitizer, testing kits, and the like are rising through the roof.
Flu season is upon us and usually dissipates beginning in April. I suppose the media will return to full scale Trump bashing when it does, and Corona Virus runs its course and ends for the year. In Daniel 12:4 the Bible speaks to the information age. It states that information will increase in the final days as will travel, ‘But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.’
When a country that has approximately 350 million people living in it learns of 22 deaths and it prompts the citizens without thinking it through to stampede and reach full scale pandemonium mode over it in a matter of a couple of weeks I would say that we have reached a state of T.M.I. (Too much information.) It’s a case of T.M.I. for “Corona sheep” in my estimate. All information is not good, especially when we receive bad news and little to any good on a worldwide basis.
Okay bombard me with letters telling me I shouldn’t diminish the threat if you like, but if the media decides to report the common flu in the same manner we will stop functioning as a country or as a globe. God is in control of this country and yes, we should be sanitary and avoid sick people and don’t fly or travel on a cruise when sick, don’t cough on people or sneeze on them, and wash our hands often. It’s not the middle ages where those people didn’t know how germs spread. It is common sense.
I would also submit that we shouldn’t drive drunk, swim with sharks, text and drive, stand in a field in a lightning storm, or run with the bulls in Pamplona. God gave us a brain and we should use it. I hope I don’t get the Corona Virus and I really don’t want to get cancer or have a heart attack. I don’t know how or when I’m going to die but God does, and no amount of worry can stop it or change it one second. It is no secret that everyone on earth will physically die at some point. Although as Christians we already possess eternal life, we also know that our mortal bodies will one day fail, and we will be absent from our body and be present with the Lord. I look forward to that day we reconcile no matter how I die. I think the Lord does too.
Psalm 116:15
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.