January Thoughts After the Worst Year Ever?

The author’s cat, trying to look hopeful headed for somewhere.

Starting a new year, I try to evaluate my habits, including time spent in prayer. Over the past weeks, my husband and I have discussed many aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on our health, our elderly relatives, our adult children and their families, and Phil’s job as a teacher. We take the virus seriously as we do any illness, but we are more concerned about a growing web of deceit that must be addressed with fervent prayer. 

First, as pandemics go, this isn’t one. The virus can be vicious. I have lost friends and relatives to it. A couple of missionary friends were hospitalized for weeks and are still recovering. But the numbers just aren’t there in terms of all-cause mortality. Some people have even contested a loved one’s death certificate since cancer or heart disease was the problem and Covid just happened to hasten the end. And what happened to “seasonal flu?” 

Then there’s shutdowns. Friends in Branson shows have had less work. Others are navigating government paperwork to keep a small business afloat. Virtual schooling is a disaster; I sympathize with administrators making tough decisions. The tentacles of Google now reach further into people’s homes and lives (quit kidding yourself if you don’t think Chromebooks spy on you). Parents juggle learning online platforms and supervising their kids while working at home themselves, or finding childcare if they must go to work. Rates of suicide, domestic violence, and alcohol and drug abuse have skyrocketed, along with physical effects of stress and isolation. Not to mention the inconsistency. How is it okay for sweating kids to be in one another’s face playing basketball, yet somehow deadly to play an instrument while marching outdoors in a Veteran’s Day parade? My husband has twice been quarantined because students who tested positive with no symptoms weren’t wearing masks in band class. He didn’t get sick either time, but it’s hard to keep students motivated. 

The effects on kids are horrible. First-graders who should be enjoying playgrounds together are instead blaming one another about masks. School dances or hanging out in the cafeteria are taboo. Homecomings and reunions have been canceled. My husband cannot take the band to parades or competitions. Long-term mental health and social consequences haven’t been explored.  

My sister-in-law hosted Thanksgiving, with about two dozen of us present. We had a nice time, and Phil’s dad was able to join us for the meal and a little TV football. He died two weeks later. Had we not gathered for the holiday, he would have spent it in his room. If you were 85 and dying from cancer, which would you prefer? Oh, and nobody got sick. 

Look up the science about masks. Just be sure to use DuckDuckGo, because Google will filter what you find (yes, I’ve compared). There is no proof masks work; many Covid patients wore one regularly. The facility where my dad lives is careful about masking, yet a couple of staff and several residents tested positive. (They all, including my dad and others in their 80s and 90s, had mild symptoms and recovered.) About 6 weeks into the shutdowns, Dad had an anxiety attack at his previous facility, which confined residents in their rooms even for meals. The anxiety was much scarier than his case of Covid. I was allowed a “compassion visit” because the nurses thought he was dying, but after several hours of holding his hand and singing hymns, he settled down enough to rest and recovered. Thank God for the timely opening at his current residence which has better socialization. 

When I had cancer 12 years ago, my oncologist, trained in a country where nutrition is taught in medical school, recommended Dr. Joseph Mercola’s newsletter. Mercola cites peer-reviewed research and provides links to sources, yet somehow Facebook labels him as “false information about Covid-19.” Why? Every suggestion I’ve tried from the newsletter has improved my health. Other good sources include Children’s Health Defense and Organic Consumers Association, but you have to subscribe since they rarely make it past the social media police. 

A few weeks ago, I met a Vietnam veteran whose specialty in the Army was personal protective gear. Using a gas mask from a display, he proceeded to demonstrate the filtration needed for a mask to be effective and the stupidity of expecting a little piece of cloth to help much. I am so over being mumbled at, having to yell my food order, not being able to smile, and breathing my own recycled CO2. If I wear a mask for more than a few minutes, I get clogged sinuses and a cough. The darn things are germy if not changed every time you touch them; many doctors report seeing non-Covid respiratory infections due to fungal growth in people’s lungs and bronchial tubes!  

I’m also tired of the daily “new cases” report. It’s one thing to report those who actually are sick, even though many have underlying conditions, but it’s another thing entirely to report cases based on PCR tests, with inconsistent amplification, administered to healthy people. The newest research indicates no evidence that asymptomatic people transfer the virus. I may actually have had Covid last February, when I missed a couple days of work with a fever, cough and extreme exhaustion, following contact with a first-grader who had the same symptoms. If I had a PCR test now, I might test positive due to greatly amplified antibodies, even though I’m fine. Common sense has served me well for decades: If I feel feverish, I stay home. If I need to cough or sneeze, I cover my nose and mouth and wash my hands.  

Now we have a vaccine, developed and tested much more quickly than usual. I’m not a complete “anti-vaxxer.” But I don’t believe in chasing down every mutation of every virus with a vaccine, and certainly not in forcing people to take them. Prior to the anxiety attack, my last scary incident with Dad was severe pneumonia, shortly after he received the “new” pneumonia vaccine last year. My own last case of flu, the worst in my life, was years ago right after a flu shot (also my last). Why are we just now hearing more about stuff like Vitamin D to boost immunity, information my oncologist and another doctor friend told me years ago?  

Oh, and does anybody question Bill Gates’ qualifications for speaking into the entire vaccine question, other than being heavily invested in the companies producing it? If you have any college degree at all, you are better educated than Bill Gates. Google him, and you will find “He has several honorary degrees in medicine and law.” Wow. If honorary degrees impress you, maybe somebody with an honorary degree can operate on you if you need surgery. 

 Gates isn’t the only one profiting. Over 160,000 small business have closed in the U.S. since last spring. Businesses that paid bills for families, some for decades. And many were owned by blacks—did those lives matter? Meanwhile, big stores got busier and billionaires got richer. With sincere apologies to friends with real health reasons to shop online, does Jeff Bezos need your $50 or $100? To a local business, enough people spending that amount might have enabled them to stay open. 

 Anyway, now that Gates is well on the way to having his vaccine required for travel, have you heard about his latest project? He’s going to fix the sun. Seriously. He thinks blasting particles to deflect the sun’s rays will fix global warming. Never mind that time in the sun is the best way to get Vitamin D. (I’m sure he never thought of that, right?) He is also backing lab-created “food” to get rid of agriculture as we know it, with the supposed intent of eliminating hunger and improving the environment. Never mind that animals and organic gardens return nutrients to the soil and have been self-sustaining for centuries.   

 Regardless of who is President and whether the election was tampered with (I believe it was), this virus is being used as a fast lane to social control. Sources like The Epoch Times cite well-researched evidence that China is behind much of this, with a plan to take down America once their pawn is in place. Once we all get used to doing what we’re told, we’ll be given just enough privileges and occasional rewards ($600?) to depend on the government as our savior; we won’t notice when prison camps for dissenters start popping up, or maybe we’ll just be brainwashed to think those people deserved it. 

 If you’ve bothered to read this far, maybe you agree with me. This is not something any one of us can fix. We can collectively decide we’re just done with masks or hiding at home; they can’t possibly put all of us in jail. We can support constitutional sheriffs who refuse to invade our privacy enforcing this stuff.  We can quit buying crap made in China. The bottom line, though, is that this is a spiritual battle. 

 Whether you’re concerned about election fraud, lack of personal contact, shuttered small businesses, or social control via a vaccine, every single thing I’ve ranted against is part of a huge web of deceit. I’m challenging friends to join me in praying against it. God’s Word promises light will expose deeds done in darkness. God will not be mocked, and people will reap what they sow. The world as we know it is destined to wind down on God’s timetable, but it is foolish to give up freedom without a fight while there is work to be done and people who need Christ. Please, join Phil and me in praying earnestly that deceit will be exposed.