As the Covid pandemic spreads and affects ever-more people, it is touching the lives of more of us. Covid-19 had been largely something that has been rather impersonal for me. I knew a man in his 50s who tested positive and he never had any symptoms of any kind. He did have to quarantine in his home for 14 days. I also know a female who was quite sick for a couple weeks with covid but she recovered without having to go to a hospital. She is back at work, but having trouble recovering her sense of smell and taste (which seems to be a fairly common symptom of this disease).
However, covid has become much more personal to me recently. First, a good friend named Raymond Mills has served as the web-hosting and web-design person for my website for 13 years since it began in 2007. Indeed, Raymond was the person whose urgings led me to start a website to offer my material digitally on the internet and to begin a blog as well. Just weeks ago, Raymond and I had a lengthy conversation about biblical and prophetic matters which was very stimulating. A few days later, Raymond told me on the telephone he was starting to feel ill. Then he later called me sounding very hoarse to let me know he had just been admitted to the hospital with covid symptoms. Raymond said his oxygenation level had dropped to 80, but the staff had raised it to a 93 level and he was feeling better. A few days after that, I learned from a mutual friend that Raymond had died. In his case it happened very quickly. Raymond was in his 70s and had at least one co-morbidity so maybe that worsened his odds. Raymond was a man of strong faith who was very valuable to a variety of churches and ministries, as he set up and hosted their webinars, chat-rooms, church services, etc. The world has been lessened by his passing, but he was a very faithful believer who has gone to his reward. Thankfully, I called someone who had worked with Raymond on my website and that person was able to tell me that Raymond had transferred my website to a different and larger server/main frame during the time of the website’s last re-design. That will give my website some continuity and I also have a friend who can post to the blog going forward.
Locally, covid-19 has become more threatening as well. Some readers will recall that my daughter, Amy, works as a front-line worker in a congregate care facility for people with a variety of major disabilities and challenged immune systems. For a long time her employer had been able to seal off the facility from outside contacts and no covid positive results had been found within her facility. Then suddenly everything changed in a short period of time. Currently, all but one of the residents has become covid positive as have several staffers. Staffers are repeatedly tested as a precautionary measure, and Amy has tested negative each time she has been tested. Her employer has a dedicated location where covid-positive residents are treated and cared for, and Amy has been transferred to that location. She now works in full protective gear including a portable oxygen supply so she doesn’t breath the same air as the infected residents. She has to change clothes when she gets to her work site and then works in a mask, face-plate, scrubs and gown, gloves, foot-coverings and her portable breathing unit. She looks like she works in a haz-mat facility and I’ve included a photo of her in her work garb below this post. She really is one of the health-care heroes who take care of ill or very ill covid-19 patients. The patients she cares for were residents at her former congregate-care site so she knows them (and their particular needs) very well. She was tested for covid again a couple days ago, and she should be receiving her results any time now. She has no symptoms so, hopefully, it will be a negative result again.
If Amy tests positive, I’m not sure what the current state protocols are regarding my own situation. Do I get tested as well or do I have to self-quarantine also? As more people test positive, these protocols are subject to change as the health-care system is almost “maxed out” regarding how many people they can treat and process. I’m sure there are many readers who also have their own covid-19 situations where it has personally touched their lives as well.
To try and slow the spread of covid-19 infections, several cities in South Dakota have recently imposed various levels of mask-mandates although our state government has not imposed any such mandate. Most states have some kind of enforced mask-mandates and lock-down rules. In the future I’ll likely offer more thoughts on the covid-19 pandemic, but I would ask you to consider one obvious fact. With many nations, states, provinces, etc. adopting and imposing mask-mandates and lock-down rules, if the positive case numbers, hospitalizations and death totals still keep going up, it will be clear proof that wearing masks and locking-down economies have no effect on the spread of the virus! We tend to forget that in the Spring, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health-care experts warned that wearing face masks might not do any good and might only give “a false sense of security” (see link below).
As I have noted in previous posts, this covid-19 pandemic is certainly fulfilling the biblical prophecy in Matthew 24:7 that the latter days would witness “pestilences” along with wars, rumors of wars, earthquake activity, etc. This current covid-19 pestilence is a global one, and everyone is wondering if it will ever end and if life will get back to normal. Maybe a vaccine will work, but I will be among those reluctant to get it because any rushed-to-market vaccine will be an “experimental” one due to so many long-term trial periods being waived. There are many uncertainties ahead of us, and we are surely in the “perilous times” that the Apostle Paul foretold would characterize the latter days. If anyone needs convincing that we are, indeed, living in the prophesied “latter days” of our age, I invite you to read my article, Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?
Stay safe, everyone!
