Charles Horton, M.D., consults regularly for the Christian news magazine World. In the July 10 issue, he responded to someone who had challenged him to provide ten reasons to take the Coronavirus seriously. Here they are in brief. You can read his fuller discussion in the original article.1. Case counts can rise quickly where they were previously low or had declined.2. Supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) remains inadequate.3. Use of PPE where available is often inadequate.4. COVID-19's … [Read more...]
Prioritizing climate over pandemics
We need a full accounting of what was spent preparing for the ‘climate crisis’ versus COVID As of May 20, the United States had more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of Wuhan Coronavirus. US deaths related or attributed to the virus topped 92,000 (though many were really due to old age and related co-morbidities). Because of COVID, much of the US economy has been shut down since late March. More than 36 million American workers have now filed for unemployment insurance, while tens of … [Read more...]
UNPREPARED: Covid-19, Locusts, Refugees, Floods, and Climate Change
by G. Cornelis "Kees" van KootenI live on a Pacific Island off the coast of British Columbia (BC), Canada. Vancouver Island is about the same size as the Netherlands, but only has a population of about ¾ million (about 60% of whom live in the Victoria area) compared to 17 million in the Netherlands. As of April 8, 2020, BC had 1,291 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 43 deaths (mainly at long-term care homes), while the Island had 81 confirmed cases. The Netherlands had 20,682 confirmed cases and … [Read more...]
New York Times Ignores the Evidence to Slander Christians as Coronavirus Deniers
Katherine Stewart couldn’t be bothered to find out, as a good journalist would, what the Cornwall Alliance or plenty of other conservative, evangelical Christians think about the coronavirus. Slander sufficed.“Stop denying science!! … There is a special place in hell for you folks!! If any of your ilk get COVID-19 I hope you stick to your ‘non-science’ beliefs and let someone else have a ventilator ….”“This is on you, dumb [%@&]!”These are examples of messages the Cornwall Alliance for the … [Read more...]
50th Earth Day: Compassionate concern for humans and their habitat
A measured response to COVID-19 must balance health and economic needsFifty years of weather have passed since the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. This was the same year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established and the federal Clean Air Act was promulgated.Over the past five decades, since I rode my bike to school celebrating that inaugural day, the nation’s air quality has improved markedly. Particle and gaseous pollutants have been reduced tremendously, and … [Read more...]
Mutating virus panic into climate crisis scares
In the first several weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the media alternated between providing information on the scope and possible dreadful consequences of the contagion and vilifying President Trump over his supposed failures in managing the pandemic. Conspicuously absent from the coverage was any attempt to link the pandemic to man-made climate change. This was odd because nearly every tragedy over the last twenty or thirty years has somehow been connected by the media to global warming and … [Read more...]
Choosing the Economy over People’s Lives?
The current novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has stimulated all kinds of questions. As more and more people begin to demand that the more extreme measures to curb its spread---those that are shuttering a large part of our economy---come to an end, one of the most common is whether such thinking involves prioritizing the economy over lives. Is it not pro-life to insist that we continue the widespread shutdown of our economy in the name of saving lives?That's what drew this email from one … [Read more...]
How Many Uninfected People Will the “War on the Coronavirus” Kill?
Following is the text of Cornwall Alliance’s first “From the Stacks” livestream program with Founder and National Spokesman E. Calvin Beisner on Facebook, April 7, 2020. We post it here because Internet technical problems made some parts inaudible to viewers. Today, let’s talk about the novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19, and our governments’ responses to it. I’m going to argue that our governing authorities need to expand the sources from whom they seek advice about how to deal with this … [Read more...]
So, We’ve Rejected Science, Have We?
Occasionally we get hate mail. Here’s a recent example. I know who sent it but will hide his name to protect him.I hope your alliance members have a moment of reckoning. Don’t feel entitled to a vaccine, a ventilator, or the electric power it runs on. Those are the products of the same science that you have rejected and accused of lying and conspiracies.You’ve condemned the best tools we have to fight the pandemic and have misled many in subjects of prime concern to our survival. You … [Read more...]
What Is ‘Prudent Prudence’ in Response to the Coronavirus?
This is a long article. I hope you’ll read it all anyway. If you’re staying home to help reduce the spread of the new Coronavirus (COVID-19), you may have more time on your hands anyway!I’ve prayed and pondered long and hard what to say about the pandemic, wanting to encourage simultaneously both prudent care and fearless confidence.Unsurprisingly, many in the media and politics exaggerate the danger. Both have strong incentives to do so. The media incite fears to increase audience, which … [Read more...]
