Four weeks ago, on March 21, a few days after an official declaration of state of emergency, I plotted three graphs on the number of active COVID-19 cases in Asia, America and Europe. Updated graphs indicate changes in the past four weeks: In Europe, Ireland, Spain and Belgium have overtaken Italy in terms of active cases per 10,000 population; In Asia, Singapore and Turkey have seen dramatic increase in the number of active cases. By contrast, Australia has effectively contained the spread of the disease since early April; In North America, the United States have caught up with Europe. The state of New York accounts for one third of the total number of confirmed cases in the country, and has become the new epicenter of COVID-19.
In the past four weeks, there were 1.98 million newly confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world, out of a total of 2.32 million since the beginning of the disease; there were 145 thousand COVID-19 deaths, out of a total of 160 thousand.[1]. There are many caveats when considering these numbers. For instance, the number of confirmed cases is limited by the number of tests performed. As for the number of deaths, we don’t know whether they are from or with COVID-19. What the stats show is that people with underlying health conditions are more likely to die from the disease.
People die. It’s a fact of life. What am I supposed to do about it?
Dignity of the Person in a Pandemic
Many people have questioned, and even protested, the public health measures that have put almost the entire world in lockdown. Is it right to destroy the livelihoods, not to mention infringing upon the freedom, of millions upon millions, in order to avoid the deaths of thousands, who could have died from other diseases, and will inevitably die one way or another?
Personally, I think it is worth limiting the physical freedom, and even lowering standard of living, of a million people, if it can save a single human being. I say this because I believe in the dignity of the person, which does not consist in physical freedom or standard of living. A person confined to a prison, a penniless beggar, can have dignity, whereas one who enjoys freedom, health and wealth may yet live without dignity.
On the other hand, I don’t see why COVID-19 should be treated differently from other types of diseases. The wide-spread public panic about the disease is perhaps a sad reflection of the times: we instinctively fear the virus, because it forces us to face our mortality, and the realization that there is nothing of enduring value in our life which would transcend our physical survival. It is a tragedy that the world has nothing better than a virus on which to focus its time and energy.
On Stockpiling
Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
— Luke 12:18-20
Many people (myself included) have followed the advice of public health officials on stockpiling enough food to last at least two weeks, in order to abide by the lockdown rules. But the situation reminded me of the Parable of the Rich Fool.
The lockdown has given each of us a rare opportunity to pause our busyness, and take stock of our life. Let us not miss the profit of our calamity, as Augustine exhorts his fellow citizens after the Sack of Rome. May you stockpile everlasting riches in this historic time.
Notes:
- ^1. Data on COVID-19 active cases and deaths are taken from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering’s dashboard; The population data is taken from United Nations’ World Population Prospects 2019. https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/Standard/Population
Interesting thoughts, Nemo and thanks for the statistics and some clarification. The news keeps focusing on the number of cases which is so misleading. There are probably millions more “cases” that haven’t been diagnosed/tested. I would be more interested in the hospitalized, the critical, the number of deaths, the median age of the deaths and whether they had any underlying conditions (including obesity). If they reported more in this manner I think it would stop some of the panic. I know healthy younger people who are terrified that they going to die from it because of the “spin” on some of the reporting.
I was disappointed to hear that some places are calling all respiratory deaths, COVID. How can they accurately assess a situation without collecting as accurate data as possible? 😳
The pandemic raises so many ethical questions, doesn’t it? I was reading the other day that a doctor was saying he was worried about the numbers of deaths caused because of the lockdowns. He said he used to get 30 patients per week who needed to be assessed for cancer; he is now getting 3. The number of heart patients have reduced by half. He was concerned that the people with health problems outside of COVID are not getting help (and therefore there would be more deaths) because they are afraid to come to hospitals or put off being checked because of the difficulties. So if there are people who are being saved because of the lockdown and deaths being caused because of the lockdown, what does one do with that?
An 83 year-old pastor I know said he would be more concerned if younger people were dying. He said older people have lowered immune systems and conditions because that’s the way God made it. He was surprisingly pragmatic about the whole thing.
In any case, I’m just adding some other perspectives. I still haven’t worked out for myself what I believe is the best way forward. And whatever is happening in our own areas definitely colours our perspective. B.C., the province where I live, announced stats the other day and one of them was that the mean age of the deaths here is 86 years old. When you read that, you feel rather safe, right?
“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7
Take care, Nemo! I appreciate your posts!
Hi Cleo,
It’s so nice to hear from you, and thank you so much for providing valuable perspectives.
I also read about cancer patients worried about their treatments being delayed by a healthcare system struggling with the pandemic. By and large, the lockdown itself shouldn’t increase the death rate of cancer patients, if they have been regularly monitored by healthcare professionals up till now. What is more dangerous is if people avoid hospital visits for fear of contracting COVID-19, when they have acute cancers that require diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.The latter case can be avoided if public health officials properly educate/inform the public.
BC has done well in terms of managing the number of COVID-19 patients being hospitalized (which never exceeded 150) and in ICU, although there were two or three reported cases in which people died from COVID-19 in their homes, which I think is an unfortunate side-effect of the lockdown measures.
I agree with you that the pandemic raises many ethical questions, some of which I’ve been thinking about lately, but haven’t been able to articulate. Speaking of perspective, it is one thing to discuss questions raised by the pandemic in our leisure, quite another to be the ones gasping for breath because of the disease.
Thank you for the encouraging verse. I’ll reciprocate with Phil 4.6-8.
Nemo