Subway Art – Kaohsiung Taiwan

Health care workers are exhausted from the weight they have carried these past two years. Many are searching for work in non-hospital settings, weary with the never-ending flow of critically ill patients . . . Frustrated with the thousands who could have prevented serious illness, by simply being vaccinated. Vaccine wars have contributed to the near collapse of our hospitals.

Dr. Michael Osterholm is a frequent guest on one of my local radio stations. He is an epidemiologist and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Lately, he has been in demand by major media, because of his accurate prediction of the number of Covid deaths we were likely to see by the end of 2021, in the United States.

Recently, I caught the weekly interview with Dr. Osterholm.  He said someone had pointed out to him, the status of four conservative radio hosts, who the previous year had been lambasting him for his Covid polices. Each of the four had died of Covid.

Almost every day there is another person who has crusaded against Covid vaccines, begging from their ICU beds, that their friends get vaccinated. Skeptics and doubters are finding themselves, or loved ones, critically ill with a disease they didn’t believe was dangerous. It has been a painful process of seeing the truth . . . a long slow conversion, in seeing the world as it is.  Instead of what they had been led to believe, by those who would use a deadly disease to divide us for political gain.

We’ve lived in this land of Covid for two years now. We’ve learned a lot about the disease and treatments for it. We have a life saving vaccine, but it only works if people get vaccinated. We have evidence from critical care staff in hospitals that it is effective in preventing serious disease, for all but the most immune compromised people. Our overwhelmed staffs in hospitals need everyone to participate in reducing hospitalizations. As do all the other people whose serious medical needs have been delayed, in hospitals overflowing with Covid patients.    Preventing Covid for ourselves is life-giving.  Doing our part to keep hospitals open for our neighbors, with other serious diseases, is  a “Jesus”  thing to do. 

Truth is healing. Knowing the truth can guide us in our decisions, our conversations and the way we live in the world. Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32      In our covid-paralyzed world, knowing the truth leads to freedom, but only if act on it.