My wife and I just finished going through COVID-19. We have served our time in quarantine and are now free to go out and about. But, we have found out that it may not be as simple as that. You see, there is a lot of misinformation about COVID-19. Sadly, most of the information is politically motivated and does not fit actual known medical data.
The misinformation is such that it affects those who have had COVID-19. Like the lepers of the medieval ages, there is a tendency to be scared and believe the worst and least accurate of the headlines. Why you can have COVID-19 several times. A person who has caught COVID-19 may be infectious for weeks. Worse are those headlines that imply that the CDC, the WHO, and all state health departments are lying to you. When you see a gathering of bikers in South Dakota, the 2020 Sturgis Rally, you see a gathering of people that have decided that everyone is lying to them.
But, what is more common is a state of fear. Thus, I was scheduled to be a supply priest at a parish in the southeast in a couple of weeks. I correctly notified them that my wife and I had had COVID-19 and I correctly notified them when my quarantine period was over. Nevertheless, I received a telephone call. The Parish Council had decided to simply do morning prayer and not have the Divine Liturgy rather than have me present. Frankly, it does not affect me much, as it simply means that we decided to go visit some grandchildren early. But, it does point out that there is a climate of fear that is unwilling to listen to established authorities and much more willing to listen to every oddball who has a new theory that it is worse than we think.
Well, sort of worse than we think. When people talk to me about me, there is a tendency to adopt a keep-away attitude. But, some of these same people post on Facebook about how if we only used hydrochloroquine, everything would be solved, and how the death rate is overstated, and how it is not so bad. So, people talk about the “lies” of the government (well, not Trump, somehow) while at the same time talking about the danger of having someone who has had COVID-19 visit your parish.
This is what I call the leper syndrome. It is great to talk about leprosy, provided one does not have to deal with a leper. Sigh!
Are you familiar with the Facebook group Survivor Corp? It’s all about survivors and their experiences.