For the past couple of weeks I’ve been thinking about a letter I might have to write regarding this latest coronavirus.
First and foremost, I think it is important to acknowledge that this virus is spreading, but also it is vitally important not to give way to rampant fear and disinformation about it. As of yesterday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are nearly 110,000 patients who’ve contracted Covid19 to date. Outside of China there have been 267 fatalities. Also, yesterday afternoon 3 confirmed cases of Covid19 were discovered in Cuyahoga County.
There are approximately 7.7 billion people in the world. The total number of fatalities from Covid19, including those in China. With 110,000 reported cases, this represents 0.0001423% of the world’s population. Of the 110,000 cases, 3.5% have been fatal.
With so much media being focused on this issue, by the time I even publish this letter, some of the information will be out of date. The Center for Disease Control promises to have up to date information. You can find that here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
There have been some standard preventative suggestions, which include frequent hand washing, and not touching one’s face. Another thought is this: when you do not have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve.
Last week Allan Georgia, Mike Carney and I sat together to discuss ways in which we might still offer a way to keep connected to your spiritual home and practices should the need arise.
We already offer Facebook Live Stream of our services, and we are making plans to put services up on youtube.com, which will be linked from our uucleveland.org webpage for those who for whatever reason, are not able to be with us in person on any given Sunday. Some people may wish to avoid large public gatherings for a while, for example, and some people travel a great deal for work. This would allow everyone to see our services. There will be further updates about this development.
As we each follow the development of the Covid19 story, let us try to keep close at heart the lessons that our faith teaches us, especially the first and seventh principles: Every person has inherent worth and deserves to be treated with dignity, and we are all connected through an interdependent web.
Your minister,Rev. Joe