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By Glenn Ahrens

For decades we have been dealing with flu viruses of all different kinds, occasionally one was more deadly than the others. The most common one I will refer to is the common influenza virus that hits in the fall/winter every year and has for decades. The strange thing is that other than an occasional advertisement for the vaccine we never heard anything about it, yet every year anywhere from 34,000 (2018-2019) to 61,000 (2017-2018) people died from the virus. Even with this large scale of deaths we never heard about social distancing, masks, or anything else. When the Covid-19 virus hit this country in early 2020 all of a sudden from almost the very first few deaths it was a big deal and became the primary topic of the White House, the media, and health professionals. For the last year it has dominated ninety percent of the airwaves and topics of discussion.

Now, in record time, with the mobilization of the government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and top experts in the field, we now seem to have a pretty good grip on the virus and how to prevent the spread. We have gone from total shutdowns and other draconian measures to allowing up to the individuals on common sense ongoing with the guidelines set up by the government and its experts. The irony of the whole thing is that those states that still have the draconian measures in place are experiencing the highest rate of virus spread whereas those states that allowing the individual citizens to use their common sense have fewer cases of Covid. Also despite the recommendations of the CDC and other government agencies that say it’s okay to get back to normal with certain precautions certain locations and states still prefer the lockdown status.

Now with the very wide spread availability of the vaccines and the increase of places to receive it, it is time for us to get back to living. Business and churches of all denominations need to open up. We now have a very good understanding of how this virus spreads and works. We also have effective vaccines and treatments for the virus that so far have proven themselves very effective. The constant worry and buzz over the Covid virus is getting stale. But we need to be cautious, follow the guidelines of the CDC and other experts in the field and move on. As the expression goes we need to put Covid-19 to bed and deal with and pray like we have never prayed before about some true issues that this country faces today.