The chart reveals the startling death toll in the top ten states exceeds 49,000 or 16 times the number of deaths on 9/11. I know some will interpret the following to be extraordinarily callous, but I do like the visual display of the quantitative information on the map. Look at New York!
“Patient Zero” (not my term) at New York’s ground zero returned from a European business trip to his Orthodox Jewish family and friends in New Rochelle, New York. He infected them, including his son who attended Yeshiva University, which caters to Orthodox Jewish students as it operates a separate school for women. Yeshiva qualified for the Division III playoffs, but after the campus closed due to the positive test, the basketball team stayed in Long Island and practiced at a high school gym. Isolated playoff games without fans prior to March 12, the day the NCAA ended the season.
In Chicago, according to the Chicago Tribune, the West Ridge neighborhood (Chicagoans, think Rogers Park/60646) has the highest rate of COVID-19 than any neighborhood in the state. The Tribune reported less than two weeks ago that Skokie, which is the northern suburb where I live, had the highest number of cases in the northern suburbs of Cook County. Both West Ridge and Skokie have disproportionate numbers of Orthodox Jews than their neighboring areas.
Last month, Trinity Foundation reported how American televangelists and so-called prophets downplayed the harm of the virus. What about televangelists/pastors in other nations?
According to Trinity (I donate to them as it roots out corruption in the Goddam* televangelist religious sector), “[by] using the same techniques pioneered by American televangelists, Nigerian preacher TB Joshua has built a church roughly the size of Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church. With more than 4 million followers on Facebook, TB Joshua Ministries has more followers than Benny Hinn Ministries.”
On March 12th, Joshua sent a letter to President Trump warning, “This travel ban on flights from Europe will cause a backlash.” The letter ended with a prophecy, “The noise of coronavirus will be silenced and before the end of this month – March 2020.”
In Brazil, the world’s wealthiest televangelist, Edir Macedo, claimed the coronavirus was harmless to Christians with faith. According to a Deutsche Welle news article, “… in a recent video, Pastor Edir Macedo called the COVID-19 pandemic Satan’s work, claiming incorrectly that the virus was powerless against those who were not afraid of it.”
I’ve also read about the religious zealots in America’s south touting they are safe because “God is on Our Side.” Bullshit, it does not work that way.
PEOPLE: WAKE UP and STOP CONGREGATING!!!!
– Mark Erickson
