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| Staff MOGC Washington DC 02 June 2020 |
FEAST OF THE UGANDAN MARTYRS
03 JUNE 2020
Today we remember 22 young Ugandan men who gave their lives in 1886 rather than submit to the immoral demands of the Kabaka who was the Baganda King. Living in Illinois, I can only report on peaceful active resistance by the staff of Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns (MOGC) in Washington D.C. Wishing I could be with them, I share these stories. MOGC staff participated in a faith-based solidarity vigil held Tueday evening in a multi-cultural neighborhood two miles from the White House.
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| St. John Paul II Shrine |
As quoted in HuffPost... "Susan Gunn, director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, a Catholic ministry, helped to organize a prayer vigil outside the (St. John Paul II National) shrine. After watching videos of what had happened at St. John’s Church the night before, Gunn said the vigil was planned to be “far enough away that we felt safe from overly aggressive police tactics to move a crowd and yet close enough to see the presidential motorcade.” “We wanted to pray for healing for those who are grieving and for our fractured communities, and we wanted to share our message of solidarity and love in a public way,” Gunn said of the vigil.
Let's draw on the strength and courage of those martyrs we remember today to live the Gospel more faithfully and fan destructive flames into peaceful tongues of flame of the Holy Spirit.
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| Minneapolis fires |
FLAMES
01 JUNE 2020
Here in the USA it seems like everything is going wrong. Our cities are burning and people are dying from violence rather than the Covid 19 virus that has caused so much fear this past month. Yesterday, the Governor of Illinois relaxed restrictions on opening houses of worship after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ordered Illinois to respond to three lawsuits brought by churches. The Governor's plan for 5 phases to reopen the state has been amended to only suggest guidelines for opening houses of worship. These will not be mandatory.01 JUNE 2020
Meanwhile, our County of Champaign is battling 27 outbreaks and we know that with re-openings of churches and other public spaces the virus will spread and put people like my 87 year old mother and myself more at risk. We will continue to follow evidence based guidelines which is what I used to develop the public health principles below. Up until now, I relied on the CDC as a site for credible guidance. However, the guidelines that the CDC gave for houses of worship last week have been changed by the White House. That site has been censored and now carries less accurate information. Even the National Institute of Health is under the review of the White House and can also be censored. I am searching for an evidenced based source of information to guide our future progress during the pandemic.
COVID 19
PANDEMIC
THE BASICS OF
PUBLIC HEALTH
JUNE 1, 2020
This summary of
primary principles is to help each of us prepare to serve the common good as
this pandemic unfolds. New information
will become available with time and the one website to follow is https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
1.
YOU MAY BE AN ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIER. PROTECT OTHERS FROM TRANSMISSION
·
Masks are far more effective than previously
realized. Wear one whenever you are inside with people you don’t
live with. It shows that you don’t want
to unknowingly infect others. https://masks4all.co/
·
Those of us who must be in contact with people
whom we don’t live with are more likely to be silent spreaders. That includes all health care workers, first
responders such as police, ambulance or other vehicle drivers, and service
personnel like grocery store clerks, vendors, receptionists and faith leaders.
2.
KNOW THE SYMPTOMS OF COVID 19 - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html
·
Cough, shortness of breath, difficulty
breathing, Fever
·
Chills, muscle pain, new loss of sense of taste
or smell, sore throat
·
In addition to the OFFICAL symptoms above there
are other symptoms like fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
3.
CALL 911 or YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER IF
YOU HAVE SERIOUS SYMPTOMS LIKE
·
Trouble breathing
·
Persistent pain or chest pressure
·
Confusion
·
Bluish lips
·
Inability to awaken or stay awake
4.
IF YOU ARE IN A COMMUNITY THAT IS NOT
DOING PHYSICAL DISTANCING AND YOU HAVE A COMORBID OR VULNERABLE CONDITION AVOID
THE FOLLOWING OR TAKE SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS - https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them
·
HOME – If you live with a person who is
vulnerable and you frequent the places listed below you can bring the infection
to the home where transmission is the highest.
·
Places of worship – a confined space and singing
encourages transmission
·
Public transport
·
Funerals, Weddings, parties of any kind
·
Restaurants
·
Work places – especially meat packing plants,
call centers
·
Indoor sports – especially in cool environments
·
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.04.20053058v1
- There is only 1 documented outbreak in an outside environment involving 2
persons
5.
IDENTIFICATION – testing is lacking
in most places in the world
·
If your health care provider gives you a
clinical diagnosis OR
·
If you can get a test and it is positive - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing/index.html
·
you must isolate yourself at home. ISOLATION
separates people who are infected from people who are not known to be infected
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html
·
If you do not have a health care provider, there
is a self-checker for both inside and outside the USA to help you make the
diagnosis at this site https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html
6.
CONTACT TRACING – the isolated person
must identify all persons contacted 48 hours before the onset of symptoms or
the positive test to include the following
·
People with whom they spent more than 15 minutes
(Singapore) or 30 minutes (USA)
·
At a distance of less than 6 feet = 2 metres
·
All contacts must be tested or interviewed for
symptoms
·
If the contact tests positive or is given a
clinical diagnosis the contact must be ISOLATED. The purpose of isolation is to prevent
transmission from an infected person to those who are not yet known to be
infected.
·
If the contact is not diagnosed, they
must be QUARANTINED. The purpose of
quarantine is to keep someone who has been EXPOSED away from others before they
show signs of illness to stop transmission of the virus https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine-isolation.html
7.
IDENTIFICATION, ISOLATION, CONTACT
TRACING AND QUARANTINE
·
These are the pillars of proceeding through a
pandemic while there is no effective treatment or a vaccine.
·
The Infection Rate (IR) or the Reproductive Rate
(Ro) is an indication of the transmissibility of a virus. It tells you how many people an infected
person can infect on average. If it is
> 1 the infection is increasing. An
IR of 1.1 indicates an outbreak. The IR
of Covid is estimated to be 3.28 and that is why it is called a super spreader.
https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/27/2/taaa021/5735319
·
Isolation and contact tracing work well at the
beginning or end of an outbreak. It
requires many people or clever use of technology to perform. When an outbreak gets out of control the
health care system is overwhelmed.
·
Mitigation is then used to slow down spread,
protect the most vulnerable people from becoming infected and avoid
overwhelming the health care system. This
includes Stay At Home (SAH), limited movement and limited activities.
8.
ENDPOINT OF THE PANDEMIC
·
When herd or community immunity is reached. At this point at least 80% of the population
is immune to the virus, thereby protecting the remaining 20% that are still
vulnerable. This can be achieved by
allowing the community to become infected and develop natural immunity (Sweden
model) but many people will become so sick that they die in the process.
·
An effective vaccine that penetrates the
population by providing 83-94% immunity will protect the remaining 6-17% of the
population who are still vulnerable. The
earliest a vaccine will be available for production is most likely January
2021. 7 billion people will need
vaccination and production and administration will take many resources and time
to implement.
·
Successful progress to the endpoint requires
o
Education with honest facts supported by good
quality medical science
o
Good leadership at all levels – political,
religious, and cultural.
o
The public must trust leadership, follow
directives and work for the common good.
Sn:01June2020
This is the library of the HOPE (Helping Orphans Purse Education) Project in Mombasa Kenya. These children take their shoes off before they enter the library which is always crowded. Perhaps we could learn something from their example.
THIS PENTECOST MAY YOU BE iNFLAMED WITH THE PEACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
