There is good news about the coronavirus. Although there is a good bit of uncertainty, the predominant trend is that the virus is not the killer plague so many are worried about. The Center for Disease Control has issued a simple fact sheet, which includes this statement:
What we do know about the virus is that the vast majority of people who get the virus will suffer only minor symptoms. Furthermore, 98% of people who contract the virus will survive it. Most fatalities are among people with underlying health issues, and the authorities have had time to put containment and treatment programs in place. Countries with good infrastructure and health care systems will cope.
Despite the scary headlines, there is plenty of information out there to indicate that the coronavirus is not going to be the Black Death of our times. So why all the panic? One of my colleagues has a friend who works as an airline steward, and she said the flight from New York to London had 60 people on a plane that normally seats 300. Stories circulate about panic buying of water, bleach, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, soap and there are stupid rumors going around that to prevent getting sick and dying you should gargle with bleach.
Really.
Now, this is what really interests me. Not so much the coronavirus, but our reaction to it. What we are witnessing is a huge global wake-up call. All of us have been in our affluent little cocoons for so long with everything going our way that suddenly when we are faced with our mortality we get spooked. Big time.
Let’s face it, in the Western developed countries (and especially the USA) those who are moderately well off live a plastic little Disneyland existence. Everything is controlled by our cool technology. We have health care. We have iPhones. We have all the food we want. We have air conditioning. As someone has pointed out, the average middle class American takes for granted a life of luxury that would make a Roman emperor blush.
The result of this is that it feeds our conviction that things will continue on just the same. We shall not grow old. We shall continue our life of pleasure. We have plastic surgery and Viagra. We have Netflix and a large screen TV. We have it all.
Then a flu bug comes along and we get scared and dash about screaming like eighth graders in a spook house.
That’s because we have ignored the reality of death, and when the guy in the robe and scythe comes knocking our knees start knocking.
The coronavirus has therefore sparked an apocalyptic panic, and you know what? I think everyone is enjoying it. Their boring lives suddenly have some drama. In the midst of their superficial materialism they are faced with the great beyond, the other country, the brief puff of smoke that is this life and the possibility of an afterlife for which they have not prepared.
And what’s with the panic buying of water, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and soap? Yes, they tell us to wash our hands, but washing our hands is not only good to prevent the illness, there’s something significant about it. Think Lady Macbeth. “Out, out damned spot!” Think of the poor sad people who suffer from some obsession and spend all day washing their hands until they are raw and bleeding.
It is all a vain and panicked attempt by a huge chunk of the population to cleanse themselves. Not even conscious of their guilt, they dwell in a miasma of guilt all the time. Usually that guilt is deadened by drugs or alcohol or deflect by denial and blaming others or they distract themselves through mindless entertainment–day by day never thinking about their guilt and never facing their unclean ness.
But the coronavirus has not only awakened them to the reality of death. Once being awakened to the reality of death they are also immediately made aware of their unclean-ness: their lack of preparation for death and a judgment that they feel must surely follow.
Not conscious of their spiritual condition because their souls are so dull and deadened, they respond instinctively to the deep awareness of their uncleanness and rush out to the stores–in a moment of materialistic madness–to buy cleansing agents: water, toilet paper, wipes, hand sanitizer, bleach and soap. The materialistic solution has always seemed to work before: “when you are unhappy go buy something.” It should work again for this inner anxiety no?
What we are witnessing therefore in this moment of apocalyptic panic is a symptom of Western man’s spiritual malaise. Poor lost souls with no direction, no faith, no wisdom, no place to turn in a crisis.
People of faith, on the other hand, do not panic. We can sing “He’s got the whole world in his hands…so I know he’s watching me.” People of faith read the psalms with their constant refrain of trusting in God through the plagues and problems of life. People of faith have a fear of hell and a hope of heaven and have lived that way for a long time. People of faith have faced death squarely and quote the poem with a jaunty air…
Death, be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrowDie not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,And soonest our best men with thee do go,Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,And poppy or charms can make us sleep as wellAnd better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?One short sleep past, we wake eternallyAnd death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
Republished with gracious permission of the author from dwightlongenecker.com.
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Basic piety, whether biblical or pagan (Socrates and Cicero are exemplary), suffices for us not to melt before the shadow of death. The spiritual/mental fragility of today’s nations is a sign of basic impiety, which is masked today as the highest piety, the fullest dedication to the discourse of World Media bowed to as consummate institution.
Great post. Two of the finest novels have an inspiring bout with plague – Kristin Lavransdatter (Undset) and the Betrothed (Manzoni).
Just another wake-up call that our longevity is not long.
Nice write up.
Father Longenecker has given us a good look at ourselves. The highest cause of accidental death in the USA is medical error, about 150,000 people a year, according to Just Facts .org. So where is the panic of seeing a doctor? Seeing doctors gives us the illusion of control of life and death, but they end our lives pre-maturely every day and every night. Yet, we perceive it otherwise. This is the greatest(farce) or illusion of our age. No?
The other thing driving the irrational response to the Covid-19 (“Corona”) virus is recency. We respond most dramatically to what is newest and what is receiving the most breathless hype in our overly connected electronic universe of instant “viral” communication.
Fear of the unexpected, the ultimate “diversity”. What an irony in an age dominated by a discourse of radical diversity, not to speak of fear of sameness! Now, imagine if this corona 19 were indeed the plague… Edgar Poe’s Red Death ?
Echoes of Cohen’s “Everybody Knows”: And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that it’s moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/03/masque-of-the-red-death-edgar-allan-poe.html
Poe’s tale is what should be replacing current “newscasts”–not because the corona is the plague, of course, but because the tale mirrors so strikingly the media-mediated popular attitude (Italy today is a perfect example). What we have is a mad reversal of the sane conduct we find in Boccaccio’s Decameron, where a group of decent people “flee” to poetry and philosophical reflection. There, the plague stands as occasion for rediscovering the Good Life, whereas today, via a global-scale social engineering experiment, an agressive flu stands as occasion for further alienation from the Good Life.
To downplay this virus without knowing any facts that are material is deeply irresponsible.
It is a fact that 66% of all adult Americans have at least one characteristic (emphasis on at least one) that makes them vulnerable to the risk of increased mortality.
This is an unalterable fact. It will not go away with a more relaxed, bordering on quietism, attitude to death.
Another fact is most families live pay check to paycheck. If they or a loved one have to self isolate, what will they do? You assume all have easy access to food and supplies and all services will work smoothly without interruption.
The final fact is that less than 5000 people had been tested in the US so we do not know the scale scope or severity of the outbreak, yet we do know it was in at leas 35 States by that point based on victims, not testing but people already ill and demonstrably so. The goal of the testing and quick response is to protect the weak and vulnerable.
In effect your post, by saying that 98% might survive writes off the weak and vulnerable so 2% of 300 million is around 6 million people. I suppose we are back to something before Christ. The strong do as they will, the weak do as they must. I never thought I would hear that from a priest, but here we are. That Thucydides has more to teach us about America than Christ does seems to be the author’s message.
Unalterable fact? Your source for this? As a retired nurse with a master’s degree, I have never heard this “fact” you present here.
And people demonstrably ill most probably includes those ill with influenza and the common cold. It is flu season, after all. This virus apparently causes the same symptoms as the flu and, excluding the fever, the common cold. I have also read several testimonies from people who have “survived” the coronavirus, stating how minor their illness actually was.
The 98% mentioned in this post is a quote from the CDC. I think I will listen to them. They are experts in virology, bacteriology, and immunology.
Not everyone needs to be “tested.” The Mayo Clinic just developed a test – mayoclinic.org.
I would assume (my theory) that testing, so far, is checking a temperature since it appears obvious that this virus is new and Mayo has just developed a test. Why would they dedicate resources to that end if a test already existed?
Your comment has not aged well. My claim regarding 66% of American adults is footnote 4 here
https://lawrenceserewicz.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/america-is-not-ready-for-whats-coming-with-the-covid-19/
P.S. concerning Mr. Serewicz’s alarmist post: it looks like at least a dozen million people have been “infected” in Italy, alone, and already prior to any quarantine. The vast majority would then be asymptomatic.
Quarantines may be shown to have overall deleterious effects insofar as they constitute an immediate health hazard, while serving as strategic instruments of government / corporations control over nations.
This misunderstands the point of quarantine vs stay at home orders. The virus had already spread deeply and widely within Italy before the lockdown. By then it was too late.
The rates of death are like 3x the official numbers because they are only counting the dead in the hospital confirmed with a test not those who died at home or without a test.
In an average month 30k people die in Italy. Now they had that amount in just over a month. Yet, the suggestion this is an undue panic or to serve the corporations is nonsense.
No sane political or religious leader would consider this scale of deaths as anything less than severe. Remember this is with their best efforts to intervene and with a relatively fit and healthy population not suffering any other deprivations ie famine or war or economic depression.
Finally even those who recover from a serious case are sarred for life. From the damage to their lungs.