Faith Works 4-17-21
Jeff Gill
Beyond COVID, within reason
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We're on the upslope out of the valley, I think we can say, from the worst of COVID's impact on our community. It's a long journey up unstable footing which is very much the old "three steps forward, two steps back," which is a weary way to travel, but if you think about it, it is progress.
As we're slipping and stumbling forward with a great deal of backsliding (who knows what new complications will come up by the time you read this after I've written it), the vaccines that are available, which people are getting, are making a measurable impact on hospitalizations and deaths. This is good.
How we all should behave, I don't have a simple template to share. Some of you have pointed out that I've not said much about what all churches should do, and that's true. Because I think architecture and demographics and capacities mean that different churches can embrace different models of return to gathered worship. Some did drive-in worship, and it worked well. For others, it just didn't work. Some are back in worship centers in ways that make sense to me, and others are putting people together in ways I think are reckless even if legal. But I don't have a good formula for "this is good" and "that is bad."
What I do welcome is the clear indication that there are ways to be together in groups that can be healthy and health promoting. Outside is idea, distancing between unrelated household groups is still going to make sense for a while, and face coverings too, unpopular though they are with some. Yes, vaccinations seem to not only protect but keep people from transmitting viruses. Yet as long as we're below fifty percent coverage, and we're not using vaccine passports to check, I think people who've been vaccinated will be helping out the overall process by wearing their masks so we can simplify this and just expect everyone, when we're indoors and moving around within a few feet of others from time to time, to wear them regardless of vaccine status.
I realize that last statement will make a certain number of people irritably turn the page, or click on to the next story. Fine. I can defend my case at length, but there's my view in brief. Let's keep wearing them for most indoor group settings, whether the law requires it or not. If you don't like that idea, you'll hate the rest of this column.
Because another worry I hear voiced about how things have been handled is "how long are we going to keep doing all this COVID stuff?" There's an assumption that it's all mostly disproved because some guidance has changed. Which is not quite right.
Handwashing and sanitizing, for instance, is no longer seen as a COVID-necessary provision. Right, but my problem is that it was not only a good idea, but a public health need in any group gathering setting LONG before coronavirus was a thing. Seasonal flu, norovirus, C.diff., E coli . . . these are all contagious agents that, if you ran summer camps let alone had church leadership responsibilities, you long ago learned were real issues in crowd management and event planning. Fleas, bedbugs, roaches: if you work with people in groups, you deal with those aspects of their lives in your workspace or worship center.
So I think we need to be very careful about laughing off "we don't have to sanitize door handles and railings anymore" when it might well be something we should have been doing better before. And masks? Look, seasonal flu may have a case mortality of .1% (that should come out in print as point-one-percent!) while COVID may be 1.5% or higher, but for those other infectious agents I mentioned above? You may not have the same speed and ease of transmission, but their impact and mortality may be higher than COVID. Worse for vulnerable elderly, seasonal flu included. If you visit hospitals in flu season, you already knew this. Cloth masks are better than oxygen masks.
And for many of us in pastoral care, we've seen people be hospitalized and even die because of folks who insist they need to be in church even though they're clearly sick. The challenge moving forward isn't how fast we can cast aside face coverings: the question will be how we can affirm the importance of being together in faith, while still using the tools we've learned to apply this past year to let people with infectious illness know they can and should stay home.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's still not delighted to preach to his laptop screen, but it's clearly a useful option. Tell him how you've learned to adapt your faith life at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
