Exposed but not infected

Image: Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Mass. (ca. 1905-1920)

“In an attempt to approximate field conditions, ten of the [healthy] volunteers were taken to the influenza wards of the Naval Hospital in Chelsea, where each one was exposed to a deluge of respiratory disease organisms. Each of the ten shook hands with, sat by the bed of, talked with, and, at a distance of two inches, inhaled the normal exhalations and then the coughed exhalations of ten separate flu patients. Only one of the ten volunteers so exposed developed any kind of respiratory illness, and that was mild and probably not influenza.”

Alfred W. Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic (p. 267) 

Laws framed by man are either just or unjust

Image: Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Laws framed by man are either just or unjust. If they be just, they have the power of binding in conscience, from the eternal law whence they are derived, according to Proverbs 8:15: "By Me kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things." Now laws are said to be just, both from the end, when, to wit, they are ordained to the common good—and from their author, that is to say, when the law that is made does not exceed the power of the lawgiver—and from their form, when, to wit, burdens are laid on the subjects, according to an equality of proportion and with a view to the common good. For, since one man is a part of the community, each man in all that he is and has, belongs to the community; just as a part, in all that it is, belongs to the whole; wherefore nature inflicts a loss on the part, in order to save the whole: so that on this account, such laws as these, which impose proportionate burdens, are just and binding in conscience, and are legal laws.

On the other hand laws may be unjust in two ways: first, by being contrary to human good, through being opposed to the things mentioned above—either in respect of the end, as when an authority imposes on his subjects burdensome laws, conducive, not to the common good, but rather to his own cupidity or vainglory—or in respect of the author, as when a man makes a law that goes beyond the power committed to him—or in respect of the form, as when burdens are imposed unequally on the community, although with a view to the common good. The like are acts of violence rather than laws; because, as Augustine says (De Lib. Arb. i, 5), "a law that is not just, seems to be no law at all." Wherefore such laws do not bind in conscience, except perhaps in order to avoid scandal or disturbance, for which cause a man should even yield his right, according to Matthew 5:40-41: "If a man . . . take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him; and whosoever will force thee one mile, go with him other two."

Secondly, laws may be unjust through being opposed to the Divine good: such are the laws of tyrants inducing to idolatry, or to anything else contrary to the Divine law: and laws of this kind must nowise be observed, because, as stated in Acts 5:29, "we ought to obey God rather than man."

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica ((I-II, Question 96, Article 4)

Fear had been diluted by experience

Image: California 1918

 

Fear had been the chief enforcer of the Board of Health’s policies in the fall; now there wasn’t so much fear, and fear had been diluted by experience. Were the Board of Health’s policies really worth the effort to implement them? On December 20 a letter appeared in the Chronicle telling of a man who had himself and his whole family innoculated with Leary’s vaccine, and who wore a mask faithfully, and yet had come down with the flu and was at the moment in the hospital with pneumonia. The letter was signed, “What’s the use?”

Ninety percent of San Franciscans ignored Mayor Rolf’s call for the voluntary readoption of masks. The general run of people claimed no special qualification for passing judgement on recondite medical controversies, but knew from experience that masks were inconvenient and unpleasant… Specific opponents of masking included, as one might expect, Christian Scientists. They had complied, albeit reluctantly, with the fall masking ordinance, but now opposed any revival of that regulation as “subversive of personal liberty and constitutional rights.” Civil libertarians, whose sensitivity on the subject of tyranny exceeded their fear of flu, agreed: “If the Board of Health can force people to wear masks, then it can force them to submit to inoculation, or any experiment or indignity.”

Attacks by medical professionals were most damaging to the pro-masking forces… Dr. F. L. Kelly of the University of California’s bacteriological laboratory issued the bleak declaration that “we don’t know any more about the disease than we did a hundred years ago. There is no known cure or preventative.”

Alfred W. Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic (pp. 108-109)

Dr. White's vaccine helps to calm nerves

Image: Police in Seattle (1918)

“In fact, the influenza situation never looked better. The medical profession now had a flu vaccine to offer, and with it the hope that influenza would soon be as much under control as smallpox… It was distributed free to hundreds of doctors, who began to innoculate thousands of Philadelphians immediately. Newspapers reported that the theory underlying this vaccine was the same as that of a vaccine used in a recent epidemic of polio in the city.

There was to be no effective vaccine against polio for another generation, and a really effective vaccine against influenza is still to be produced, but Doctor White’s vaccine served another purpose… it helped to calm nerves..”     

Alfred W. Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic (p. 84)

Flatten the curve of traffic deaths

“We are extremely troubled by the increasing number of deaths and cases across our country related to COVID-19. Doctors, scientists, and public health professionals are all searching for a cure or a vaccine to eliminate this virus as quickly as possible. At the NTSB, we’re incredibly grateful for all those professionals—including those transporting vital supplies around the country. If Americans can choose to stay home to help slow the spread of COVID-19, imagine the impact we could have if everyone chose to make the safest driving choices for ourselves and our fellow road users. We have the power to flatten the curve of traffic deaths by making safe choices every day.”

Read more: Flatten the Curve Beyond COVID-19 https://safetycompass.wordpress.com/2020/04/13/flatten-the-curve-beyond-covid-19/ via @NTSB

For the orthodox, the text must be perfect...

“For the orthodox, the text must be perfect, and therefore if errors exist, its perfect state
must be restorable. God’s providence is the causal nexus that ensures this end. But there remains a hint of anxiety in Turretin’s emphatic response to this problem:

‘Unless unimpaired integrity is attributed to Scripture, it cannot be regarded as the sole rule of faith and practice, and a wide door is opened to atheists, libertines, enthusiasts, and others of that sort of profane people to undermine its authority and overthrow the foundation of salvation. Since error cannot be part of the faith, how can a Scripture which is weakened by contradictions and corruptions be regarded as authentic and divine? Nor should it be said that these corruptions are only in matters of little significance, which do not affect the fundamentals of faith. For as soon as the authenticity of Scripture has been found wanting, even if it be in a single corruption [of the text] that cannot be corrected, how can our faith any longer be sustained? If corruption is conceded in matters of little importance, why not also in others of more significance?’

All error must be uprooted, else Scripture loses its ‘unimpaired integrity.’ Atheists and libertines are at the door, and not a single unremedied textual corruption can be conceded. Turretin’s orthodoxy requires an inerrant text. If it cannot be achieved, then chaos ensues. In this weighty formulation of Reformed orthodoxy, textual criticism carries a heavy load. It must be hedged by divine providence in order to reproduce a perfect text.”

Ron Hendel, The Dream of a Perfect Text: Textual Criticism and Biblical Inerrancy in Early Modern Europe (In Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls: John Collins at Seventy Volume 1 (p. 538)

Read more: The Dream of a Perfect Text: Textual Criticism and Biblical Inerrancy in Early Modern Europe https://www.academia.edu/29482523/The_Dream_of_a_Perfect_Text_Textual_Criticism_and_Biblical_Inerrancy_in_Early_Modern_Europe

There is no island of escape in time of plague

Image: Albert Camus (1913-1960)

At this point Father Paneloux evoked the august figure of Bishop Belzunce during the Marseille plague. He reminded his hearers how, toward the close of the epidemic, the Bishop, having done all that it behooved him, shut himself up in his palace, behind high walls, after laying in a stock of food and drink. With a sudden revulsion of feeling, such as often comes in times of extreme tribulation, the inhabitants of Marseille, who had idolized him hitherto, now turned against him, piled up corpses round his house in order to infect it, and even flung bodies over the walls to make sure of his death. Thus in a moment of weakness the Bishop had proposed to isolate himself from the outside world—and, lo and behold, corpses rained down on his head! This had a lesson for us all; we must convince ourselves that there is no island of escape in time of plague. No, there is no middle course. We must accept the dilemma and choose either to hate God or to love God. And who would dare to hate Him?

Albert Camus, The Plague