{"id":8075,"date":"2020-10-27T07:19:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T12:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=8075"},"modified":"2020-10-22T10:40:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T15:40:59","slug":"november-1-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/november-1-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"November 1, 2020–"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jen Krausz–Bethlehem, PA<\/b><\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/b><\/p>\n

How do you make important decisions? What factors do you consider?<\/p>\n

Title<\/b><\/p>\n

According to articles by Foundation for Economic Education<\/a>, a libertarian think tank, and Fox New<\/a>s, The World Health Organization (WHO) has revised its position to say that countries around the world should not rely on lockdowns to stop outbreaks of the coronavirus. The advice comes as the number of new COVID-19 cases is rising in the United States and across Europe, with some leaders considering new lockdowns to bring the numbers down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,\u201d WHO envoy Dr. David Nabarro said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The organization said that lockdowns are causing global poverty to skyrocket. They also are believed to cause other problems like increases in mental health issues, addictions, and suicides. \u00a0\u201cThe only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we\u2019d rather not do it,\u201d Navarro said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The impact of previous lockdowns on tourism, nations’ economies, and other aspects of life continue to have huge global consequences, and some argue that renewed lockdowns would only interrupt the recoveries that many countries are seeing now. \u00a0It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cWe may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in March when lockdowns began, health experts thought the death toll from COVID-19 could be as high as 5%. Six months later, the rate is thought to be less than .5%, or 10 to 20 times lower than originally estimated.\u00a0 <\/span>Many, however, have argued that it was precisely lockdowns and mandatory masking which have prevented a much worse epidemic.<\/p>\n

Back in March, healthcare providers were very worried that hospitals would be overrun and that there would not be enough equipment like ventilators to treat people who needed it. Fewer hospitals than expected in the U.S. were overrun in the way that was feared. \u00a0Younger people who are now getting the virus are less likely to need hospital care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of changes like these, some suggest that lockdowns are less likely to be needed to keep COVID-19 under control. It\u2019s not that WHO or world leaders were necessarily wrong to lock down in March and April.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Some scientists believe the death estimate from COVID is still too low due to under-reporting. The WHO suggests that countries should bolster resources devoted to testing and contact tracing, as a means to avoid future lockdowns. \u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing any country needs is to open schools and businesses, only to be forced to close them again because of a resurgence,\u201d said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus .<\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/b><\/p>\n