COVID-19: Facts, Effects, & Reflections

Most diseases have been around for a long time: since the fall of man, in fact. So, people already have immunities for most of the diseases in their area. However, in December 2019, in Wuhan, China, a new disease appeared that no one had immunities for. People called it COVID-19, or Coronavirus.

So, first of all, what is COVID-19? Simply put, it is a virus like the flu that can get up to several times stronger than the common flu. Like the flu, it affects different people differently: some people hardly show any symptoms at all! Strangely enough, though a normal flu affects worst small children and elderly, the coronavirus seems to only seriously affect older people over 60 or 65 (and people whose immune systems are already compromised).

There is one more pivotal difference between COVID-19 and the flu: symptoms do not show themselves until up to 2 weeks after someone gets the disease, thus they spread the disease everywhere they go, because neither they nor anyone else knows that they have it. And, basically all of those people get the disease, because it’s new, and absolutely no one has immunities for it.

As I said before, this started in China, and for several months was very bad there, because there was nothing to prevent the entire population from getting sick at the same time, and the hospitals were severely overloaded. Then, because of the amount of travel that takes place in this 21st century, and because nobody knows that they have it until they’ve had it for up to 2 weeks, it soon spread to other countries, including Spain and Italy. These two countries did not act very wisely, allowing it to spread through almost the entire country before taking action, and have been the example for other countries of what not to do.

In Texas, officials have limited gathering sizes and closed down public schools, but other than that, not much has been done. A lot of people just don’t understand what’s the big deal with a flu.

In Ecuador, I think the governing officials have been very wise and proactive; they don’t have a good enough health care system for the nation to get a bad case of this, and they know it. The borders are closed and the country is in lockdown. Everyone is supposed to stay “hermetically” (!) in their house, and only allowed on the streets if it’s your “day”: (your “day” is determined by what number your cédula/social security number ends in). Even if it is your day to be allowed out, the police and/or the military will fine you and send you back home if you don’t have a legitimate reason! (“Legitimate reason” means something to do with either medicine, food, banks, or communication systems.) There is also a 2:00 pm curfew.

Now, this is a good way to drastically slow the spread of the virus, but it isn’t very good economically. Guayaquil, the city that currently has it the worst, normally sustains 70% of the country’s economy, and if a country can’t trade either with other countries or with itself, it can’t make money. Aside from that, there are lots of individual families whose dads can’t work, so how do they buy food? Both the Ecuadorian government and the Christian community have been putting together packages of food, and distributing them to people that need them the most.

So, how does all this affect our family? Mostly, it’s just plain annoying. Bible studies and Sunday morning meetings are cancelled, the boys basketball practice, Sunday night basketball games, and Dan’s violin lessons are also cancelled, and I won’t be able to go see Georgia for the next month. Bummer. So, we do other things, things that don’t require going outside, like going on “runs to nowhere”, I’ve finished my dress, and have been writing with Georgia quite a bit.

Papa’s day to go shopping is Monday, and he goes out and buys food for us and other people. When he comes back, the stuff he brings is either washed, or left locked up in the car for 2 days in order to let the virus die, if there was a virus on it. We are also washing our hands really well!

Now, what about an eternal perspective on all this? As for Satan’s side of the affair, I think it quite likely that the primary function of the weapon is not sickness and death, but all the worry and fear that this COVID-19 has caused, especially when he can get Christians to worry over it, showing disbelief in God. However, I think that God is also using this time: using it as a wake-up call to a self-confident world, both to His children and to unbelievers. To His children, as a reminder that He is in control, and is still our Provider, and as a time to step away from all the busyness of normal life and spend time with our families and with Him!

But how is God using this disease in the case of unbelievers, you ask? C.S. Lewis once wrote,* “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world,” and that’s what I think God is doing with COVID-19. He’s put something into the world that nothing an unbeliever has can fix: position, money, popularity, etc. Let us pray that they will realize their helplessness and run to the One who controls all things, who waits for them with open arms.

“…That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” -Philippians 2:11

-Glory H

*The Problem of Pain, Ch. 6*