Ill-informed Churches Responsible for Increasing the Death Toll from the Virus

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has been pleading for weeks with churches, synagogues, mosques and and other sites of worship to shut their doors to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.  In the face of resistance and public statements from pastors that they will not comply, Beshear has issued another executive order directing police to take down the license plates of those who attend services this weekend.  Those license plate numbers will be turned over to the local health departments who will then issue fourteen-day quarantines for those lucky recipients.  As expected, coronavirus-loving idiots Thomas Massie and Rand Paul went ballistic.

 

I should remind you that Rand Paul has been nicknamed "Typhoid Mary" after he deliberately exposed his fellow Senators in the Senate gym after he went to be tested for the coronavirus.   Massie forced a majority of Democrats to physically show up for a vote on that economic relief bill, exposing them to infection because physical distancing was impossible with that many people in the house chamber.  The ill-informed congressman felt that a voice vote was unconstitutional (even though it has been in use for most of the country's history).  After enough people showed up to make quorum, his attempt at a delay was shot down in less than a minute.

While we're on the topic of Kentucky, remember the church in western Kentucky that insisted on having a revival despite guidance from health officials about social distancing?   An infected church member carried the virus to the GE Aviation plant in Madisonville, where seven employees have tested positive. Another church member later died from the virus, and infected the first responder who assisted the resident.  Two cases in Muhlenberg County were later linked to the revival, as are an unknown number of cases in Warren and Clark counties, the latter of which is on the opposite side of the state.   By now, the death total from that Hopkins County revival meeting stands at six (and counting).  54 others have tested positive for the coronavirus.  It’s why Hopkins County has the highest infection rate in the state of Kentucky.

Assholes like Rand Paul and Thomas Massie (along with Moscow Mitch) should know better-- but are likely pandering to the fundamentalist vote in Kentucky.  Most Democrats try to avoid alienating fundamentalist churchgoers as well-- but Beshear is a Democrat who knows how to speak to religious voters, and it doesn’t hurt that Beshear has other ministers in the state who are supporting him in his efforts.  Beshear has been pleading for everyone to do the right thing, but we have some idiots who are hellbent to have their services during a pandemic that kills.