01 June 2020

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.

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.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/catholic-bishop-trump-shrine_n_5ed6746bc5b68a110026b4fb

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.

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.

     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