There are many types of poverty

It's been a bit of a tough weekend. The USA is in big trouble. COVID 19 is a run-away train in that country. With the present political state, the intense fear and confusion and the mixed messages coming from all levels of government, I don't see how they will control the virus until there is a vaccine.

I am deeply troubled. It would only take a matter of weeks before the same overwhelming number of new cases and deaths could happen in Canada. It wouldn't take much for us to lose the tight control of COVID 19 we presently have.

Drop our resolve for just a second.....

One in four children in America are now facing food insecurity.
I was shocked when I heard this tonight. In Lesotho, we support food insecure kids. They rely on us to provide them with a home, a parent and nutritious food. Kids can't learn if they don't eat. How can this be happening to our neighbours? I just can't get my head around it.

Bodies are being stored in refrigerated trucks and intensive care units are at capacity. What does it mean when an ICU is at capacity? It means that if your 54 year old husband or brother or father has a heart attack and they show up at a hospital with no ICU beds, they die in the emergency room. This is exactly why we needed and continue to need strict public health guidelines; this and the fact that allowing COVID 19 to race unchallenged through our population would result in health and economic chaos. You don't have to look far to see into that future.

There is a growing number of people buying into the idea that COVID 19 is not real and that it is part of a massive conspiracy being played out by the powerful and the rich to take complete control of our lives and force us to take a vaccine that will make the rich, richer. This is utter nonsense. Here is where I lose it. Take a deep breath, remain professional, calm and cool. A dead person is dead person. People die of COVID 19. I have this visceral emotional reaction to these theories. It is offensive and disrespectful to the dead and to the ill. I have seen and treated people infected with COVID 19. I have spent my adult life defending the ill, not just caring for them but defending them. The health care providers on the front lines of this pandemic are real. They are fighting a virus. The only way to beat this virus is to test, test and test some more. Quarantine the people who are positive, stay six feet apart, where a mask and follow the public health guidelines. We will be doing this until there is a vaccine. That's a lot of time to lose faith and give in. Don't. How we survive until there is a vaccine is completely up to us.

People are descending into poverty in America, at a rapid rate. But there is another kind of poverty that drives the chaos this virus can unleash; it is a poverty of trust, and goodness, decency and selflessness.

I wanted to dive into COVID Q and A part 3 tonight but I need to get the weight of the world off my shoulders first. I am hoping to sleep it off tonight.

I am a woman of prayer. Maybe the lack of faith in our society is the greatest poverty of all. My prayers go out to you America. I am praying for a miracle that supersedes science today so that you are a whole and intact country when science brings us it's miracle: A vaccine.

Anne-Marie

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