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| Ignorant and in denial -Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver |
People are still dying. In increasing numbers of late. Mostly from the inability to breath properly and get enough oxygen into their system. Which at some point becomes so critical that they have to be placed on a ventilator. Which is often a death sentence. A lot of people never get off of it.
But in very short order he was unable to breath properly, was hospitalized and was placed in an ICU. He was very close to being put on a vent but his breathing has begun to improve. Although not out of the woods yet - God willing he should keep improving, go home to his family, and recover quickly without any lasting effects.
This is a perfect example of the erratic nature of this disease. Statistically the elderly, immune-compromised, and people with underlying health conditions are the most vulnerable. But there are a lot of exceptions like the above mentioned Rebbe. The fact is that everyone is different with respect to this illness.
There are elderly and immune compromised people that survive quite nicely without suffering any serious symptoms. And there are young healthy people that get very sick – some of whom die or have long lasting effects. No one knows what their personal vulnerability is to this disease until they get it. I’m sure this Rebbe would never have dreamed that – even if he got infected - he would be going through what he is now.
It is true that we now know how to better deal with COVID patients. But that has not stopped the community spread. There is now an unprecedented increase in the number of people getting the virus. In what seems to be exponential numbers every week. The number of people dying from it is increasing too.
The reason it is spreading should by now be clear to anyone paying attention. Asymptomatic carriers of the virus are still contagious. They are unwittingly infecting others.
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a maskless person say, ‘Don’t worry. I don’t have it.’ Problem is – they don’t know that. Asymptomatic carriers that do not wear a mask are unknowingly spreading the disease to others. Who are in turn spreading it themselves to even more people. Making the spread exponential! Adding to this is the fact that colder weather results in more indoor congregating. The virus has a better chance of being spread indoors than it does outdoors,
I really don’t get it. I don’t understand why so many people are in denial. They think it’s a hoax. Or an exaggeration and not that serious. And that much like the flu, people that get sick will get over it quickly and get on with their lives. They deny what science is telling us about the disease and how to mitigate the spread. They accuse our best health prevention experts of politics or of having ulterior motives that are not in the best interests of the public. Or that they don’t really know what they are talking about! (If you can believe that.)
That is the reason why we are seeing the kinds of numbers we are now. Too many people are in denial. It doesn’t matter what their politics are or how religious they are (or aren’t). They just aren’t buying what the best experts on disease prevention in the country are telling us.
Well, here are some facts.
In Illinois, COVID-19 is currently the third most deadly disease. Only heart disease and cancer kill more people. We are recording increasing numbers of new cases each day. Over 250,000 people in the US have died as a result.
It doesn’t matter whether they were more vulnerable. Even if they were, they would be alive today if they had not been exposed and infected.
Hospitals all over the country are filled or almost flied to capacity and are running out of ICU beds. Some states have mobile morgues because of the overload of COVID corpses. Front line medical professionals are at the brink of collapse form their work overload. They are beginning to suffer shortages of medical personnel.
Meanwhile the most optimistic projections by experts is that it will be getting a lot worse if we do not change our behavior and practice mitigation more seriously.
The only thing that has even the slightest chance of succeeding on that level is if the entire country has a unified approach that includes strict adherence to all the mitigation recommendations suggested by public health officials. The best thing we can do is stay home. When it becomes necessary to leave the house then the next best thing is to stay as away from others as possible. There is universal agreement among disease prevention experts that wearing a mask when outside of your house will reduce the COVID positivity rate substantially if everyone does it.
That will require courage of our political leaders - specifically governors in every state to unite in common cause and implement a mask mandate that will have financial penalties. The infection rate can surely be significantly reduced all over the country if that happens. The mandate should remain in place until we have the vaccines that will begin to provide immunity to enough people so that herd immunity can take place. Only then will we finally begin to get back to normal.
Sadly, I’m afraid that this might never happen because of all the people in denial. An extreme example of which was published in Matzav. I don’t know Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver. I never met him. Never even heard of him. But he is a dangerous man. The views he expressed will surely contribute to the increasing numbers of sick and dying. His attempt at discrediting health experts will only cause more pain and sorrow in Klal Yisroel.
That said, I don’t think he means to cause anyone harm. I’m sure he believes in what he is saying. He probably believes he is helping people to live more meaningful lives.
Well, I’m sorry for being so harsh but that just makes him stupid and foolish. It’s hard to believe that there are people with the slightest bit of intelligence that don’t see the obvious. This fellow is perhaps the worst example of them. He denies the legitimacy of applying the Torah's requirement to guard ones life to this disease..
I don’t wish him any ill. But he should be completely ignored. In my view if he ever had any credibility in other areas, he has lost it. Ignorance combined with hubris exudes from his article. That should make his opinion on other matters suspect as well.
That Maztav gave him a platform to spew this nonsense is irresponsible and makes them complicit in any damage caused to people he has influenced. They too must be in denial. Even if they have published articles by people that are serious about the disease in the past, giving space to an article like can undo any good those articles may have done.
Instead of paying any attention to this foolish rabbi, I urge everyone to watch the video below produced in Chicago. It includes a variety of responsible rabbis from all segments of Orthodoxly in our area - as well as Orthodox public officials, health professionals, COVID survivors, the elderly, the immune compromised and others. All of whom urge everyone to wear masks. It’s about 12 minutes long and well worth watching every minute of it.
