Courage in the Crisis
CMDA and COVID-19
Care for the Frontline Healthcare Worker as the Coronavirus Progresses
Are you worried about spreading the disease to your family? Are you ramping up to fight the virus or being placed on standby because much of your work is elective or “noncritical?” Are you fearful for the future, whether your health, your finances or your job?
If you’re asking yourself these questions and more, remember that you are not alone! CMDA is here for you for such a time as this. As a ministry for Christians in healthcare, we stand ready to pray for you, to assist you in any way we can and to offer resources to help you sustain the onslaught of extra work.
We are going to be here with you every step of the way, so check back often for the latest information and resources to help you as you fight against COVID-19.
Finding Precedent, Perspective and Our Place in the “Unprecedented”
by Ian Jackson, MD
Renowned British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge once said: “All news is nothing more than new people experiencing old things.” Over the last weeks accumulating into months, the word “unprecedented” has quickly become a favorite and frequently used description of the COVID-19 times we are living in. Yet I find this word increasingly irritating and riddled with irony. There is, of course, nothing unprecedented when it comes to suffering and death, two undeniable factors inherent in the experience of humanity and life itself. History shows us a pattern of catastrophe. In actuality, what is novel amidst our current situation is merely our response to it this time.
What seems totally new to us, has actually happened recurrently in our world’s past: the Bubonic plague of the 1300s (225 million deaths), Spanish flu of 1918 (50 million deaths), smallpox, smatterings of cholera, diphtheria and typhoid, as well as even more recent diseases like HIV/AIDs starting in the 1970s/80s (20 to 40 million deaths to date). Yet, in the past, we have had less capacity to afford a response as drastic as what we are seeing today, with stay at home orders, business closures and the like, thereby subsidizing our response with unemployment assistance and writing ourselves checks. The lockdown of the “Land of the Free” is possibly the most unprecedented part of COVID-19.
The concept of freedom is interesting in itself and often misunderstood. There is always a balance or tension between individual and collective freedom, for often the freedoms of one person unchecked will impose upon the freedoms of another.
CMDA's Position on Mass Gatherings:
Romans 13: 1, 2 gives clear guidance in times like these. “1Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. Christian Medical & Dental Associations endorses the efforts of state and federal government authorities to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus by limiting large gatherings. We believe that churches that ignore those instructions are placing their congregants at increased exposure and risk of SARS-Co-V-2 (Covid-19) infection and therefore we cannot condone such decisions or actions by churches.
