In the last few days, the arrival of the dreaded coronavirus in America has gone from “it’s going to happen” to “it’s here.” The mindset of the average American, at least here in the West, has gone from “I guess I’ll wash my hands more often” to “OMG! Let’s go to Costco and buy hand sanitizer and toilet paper like there’s no tomorrow!” Seattle stores look like Florida one day before a big hurricane. I’m fairly confident this will, in the end, turn out to be more like a bad seasonal flu epidemic rather than The End of the World As We Know It, but it is still important for individuals, communities, companies, and the government to take prudent and even in some cases extreme measures to protect the public. Which brings us to the Church, which is more vulnerable to adverse impact than most organizations, given the missionaries we have scattered all over Asia and the weekly germ-fest gathering we call Sacrament Meeting.
The Perfect Viral Storm
If you were an evil viral demon intent on spreading the coronavirus rather than suppressing it, here’s what you would do. Make 200 people of all ages come together in one room for one hour once a week. Make people feel a duty to attend this meeting even if they are sick and coughing. Make people sit shoulder to shoulder, so at least a dozen people are in that six-foot viral transmission radius. Encourage people to transmit the virus by shaking hands with ten or twenty people before and after the meeting. Then, in case these measures aren’t sufficient to successfully transmit the virus to all in attendance, have young boys pass five or six open trays with a community handle (all must touch) with bread and water (all must eat and drink). At least there are individual cups these days. As a final measure, all morsels of bread are touched by the hands of teenage boys who wash their hands prior to the service at least one-third of the time. Boys will be boys.
Prudent Measures
Okay, that’s a little overstated. But only slightly. In recent news releases at the Newsroom, emails to the general membership, and stories at the Deseret News, the Church has announced measures it is taking, such as removing all missionaries from Hong Kong, sending some out-of-country missionaries in other areas home a bit early and delaying the arrival of new missionaries, and directing missionaries who return to, say, Utah to self-quarantine for 14 days as directed by the Centers for Disease Control. The Church is also closing temples in Japan and South Korea, and closing all church buildings (no church meetings at all) in the entire country of Japan. These are significant but, in the circumstances, quite reasonable measure for the Church to take.
Meanwhile, at church …
Here’s the question for readers: What happened in your ward and stake this last Sunday and what will happen in the next week or two? Church meetings were held as usual in the Seattle area two days ago, but public schools started to close yesterday (Monday). I’m thinking there is a good chance some LDS church units in the Seattle area will suspend meetings for a couple of weeks starting next Sunday. Given the sudden spike of serious discussion by officials and panic thinking by citizens the past two days, a lot can change in the five days between now and this coming Sunday. Given that dozens or even hundreds of LDS missionaries from at-risk overseas areas are now returning to Utah, I expect there will soon be active cases there. Good thing Utah Mormons have barrels of wheat and water stored in their basements and garages — no panic buying in Zion next week.
I’m no doctor, but I do follow the news. Prudent measures you and your kin should take include washing hands more and minimizing visits to public places where you and other people touch things a lot (grocery stores, airplanes, churches). Avoid sick people. Shake hands less or not at all. Put off that trip to Milan you had planned for next week. This applies even more emphatically for at-risk demographic groups such as those who are older and those with an underlying health condition.
Let’s pool the hive mind in the comments. What is happening in your ward, stake, or town? Any emails from your local leaders? Any hand sanitizer still on the shelves at your favorite grocery story? Any missionaries you know affected by recent measures the Church has taken? Let’s hope everyone stays healthy or, if ill, recovers fully.
Note: I’m having a hard time posting links this morning, so readers who want to post links to relevant LDS Newsroom announcements, Deseret News articles, or local media stories are welcome to do so.
Wheat & Tares 
We had Stake conference this last weekend. They sent out an email and pisted 9n the Stake FB page that if you are sick, if anyone in your house is sick, stay home. And then, once we got there, the Stake preidency was doing elbow bumps instead of handshaking. They announced in the meetings that they will gladly shake the hand of someone who extends it, but dont be offended if someone doesnt offer first. And we havent had a confirmed case in our county, or any surrounding counties. My daughter did have a nasty flu for 2 weeks that doubtless came home from school with one of her kids. So thats going around.
They aren’t going to be canceling church meetings on a wide scale in the Seattle area any time soon.
I live near Tacoma and work in Seattle. The school closings in the area have been in response to specific known cases of possible transmission (i.e. someone who was exposed to someone known to be infected). They target only individual schools, not whole school systems. The virus has only killed 6 people in the US so far. All of them were in Washington State, and the bulk of them (4) were all from the same assisted living center that has formed the epicenter of the local infections. The virus mainly impacts the elderly and the immuno-compromised , which is why it has been so deadly in the assisted living center.
In my city, there was a minor “scare” yesterday where they closed two schools, an elementary and a junior high, while the junior high students were already on the bus. A family notified the school that they had a relative who had tested positive for the virus, and the school reacted before consulting with the State Department of Health or the CDC. Both schools are open again today.
Our family has taken a few minor precautions. We had Stake Conference on Sunday, and because 2 of the kids were sick (not coronavirus) we stayed home. We were already due to restock some of our staples in the food storage this week, so we made sure that we have enough supplies to last for 2 weeks if needed without tapping into our long-term food storage. But those are things that we do regularly anyways.
There’s generally a sense of unease, but nothing like the panic I used to see before snow storms in the DC area.
I live in Olympia, WA and made the mistake of going to Costco on Monday. Monday is my usual shopping day and I hadn’t put two and two together yet, so….. It was pretty chaotic. Saw the missionaries there buying a couple of flats of water. Our bishop emailed out that we shouldn’t panic but should get supplies ready. I find the emphasis on buying water a little strange – are we expecting the public utilities to stop working? I mean, we always are at risk for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions here so a water supply is a good idea, but I don’t think that is as crucial to this situation. One guy had a cart filled to the top with beer and battered fish – I think he might be the “fun” guy if we are all stuck at home for a while.
Regardless of covid-19, I think the communal sacrament trays are problematic during flu season and we should be reconsidering that. We try to sit near the front of the sacrament room to cut down on the number of people who have touched the trays (or the bread or spilled leftover water from their sacrament cup into other cups – eww), but we are the third ward to meet in the building and I would be very surprised if the trays are washed between sacrament meetings.
I’m with Observer – nothing here is like the DC panic before a snowstorm. Sure, it might be difficult to get toilet paper here right now, but I can still buy eggs, milk, and bread (which brings up the unrelated question of does everyone in Northern Virginia make french toast when it snows?).
Immer,
What I really want to know is why people buy so much toilet paper before a snowstorm. Milk, eggs, and bread I can understand because they are perishable. But toilet paper? We’re a family of 7, 5 .5 of whom are potty trained (and the remaining 1.5 like to make messes with toilet paper). One large pack from Costco will last us at least 1-2 months. I understand the desire not to run out, but do people really not keep a modest supply of toilet paper on hand that they need to panic buy it before a storm?
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
Here is the latest statement from the Church, with information on the Hong Kong mission and various temple closures:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-updates
Given the age demographic of temple workers, and the amount of hand shaking that occurs there, I anticipate that we’ll see temple closures across the U.S. in the coming months.
Hand sanitizer is unavailable in North Idaho, but most other stuff is widely available. There are no reported cases in this state (yet) but Spokane is the regional hub, and Washington is the epicenter for the U.S.
Also, the “Chinese Flu” is such a more accurate and descriptive name than COVID-19 or whatever the politically correct term is we’re supposed to use.
Why is “Chinese” flu “more correct” when every official health advisory refers to “Covid-19” or “novel coronavirus”?
The Other Clark: And what is “politically correct” about COVID-19? Since when is using a scientific term “political correctness”? I’m really curious why you would advocate for saying “Chinese flu” (is this even a term people are using? I haven’t heard it at all)—especially with your apparent assumption that this may be offensive to some people. Your whole comment is just weird.
AND… it’s not even a flu!
AND…it’s not even a flu!
I live in Okinawa Japan and attend a military branch. There are only 3 cases on the island but all church meetings are cancelled and church buildings are closed “until further notice”. Local schools are closed but the schools on base remain open. Cancelling church seemed like overkill to me, but m y skeptical self thought “Oh, I bet church leaders have been itching for a reason to cancel church after implementing the “home centered study”. And I bet that in General Conference we hear a lot about how the church has prepared for this very moment.”
I would expect widespread church cancellations.
I read somewhere that the coronavirus can’t attach to the right hand so if you take the sacrament with the proper hand, as instructed in the new handbook, you should be immune to the bug. Not sure where I read that, M* maybe. Seems legit.
The 1918 Flu Pandemic that killed one million Americans was known as the Spanish Flu. Do we need to expunge the huge number of references to that term, for crying out loud?
From places where I have lived:
1. In the 1960s, when many US troops were stationed in West Germany, the common, socially-preferred term for an African-American was the word “Negro.” The proper German translation for that word is “Neger.” Many people mis-heard, thought they were being subjected to a racial insult, and fights ensued over a word used with no ill intent whatsoever. It got to the point that this issued had to be raised in local culture briefings for new US troops arriving in Germany.
2. One of the Chinese terms for “foreigner” is “laowai” 佬外. It can both be a term of endearment and a minor slur. But it is commonly used, usually with affection, and and many non-Chinese, including myself, like to refer to themselves with this term.
3. The Thai language refers to mixed-race children as luuk khryng ลูก ครื่ง. Literally, the half-breed child. I don’t care for the term, but it is fine in the Thai language, and is commonly used without ill-will.
I have heard references more commonly to Coronavirus and to COVID-19, but why the outrage over “Chinese Flu?” I think that the person who used the term was matter-of-factly referring to its country of origin, and not trying to make racially derogatory cracks.
Can we please retract the hair-trigger antenna and outrage just a bit, and actually deal with the issue of the virus? My daughter lives in Guangzhou, and got stranded in Thailand while on Chinese New Year’s break (sorry, LUNAR New Year!). I am concerned for her. I started reading this post and it’s comments with interest, but have been turned off by the childish outrage over terms. Fights are being picked over small issues, and larger issues like how to deal with the virus are being ignored.
Could we please get back to an important topic?
Sorry, Taiwan Missionary. Choosing designating it “Chinese flu” in preference for the specific scientific designation is simply stupid and does have the flavor of blaming. Why is that necessary when there’s an established widely held specific name for this strain of virus? And what was “politically correct” about adopting the same name as every established health agency world wide? That’s merely clear communication as far as I can see.
I can agree with you, though, that introducing that new term has derailed the discussion. So what do you think is more important to add to it to get it back on track?
Alice:
While I appreciate your reply, your use of the phrase “simply stupid” seems designed to squelch discussion, rather than encourage it. I confess I do not see a place for it in civil discussion. I also think life goes better if we do not so quickly and emphatically take offense. I agree that the phrase “Chinese Flu” CAN have a flavor of blaming—the Chinese did it!—, but only, I would suggest, to people who are predisposed to find fault, to begin with? Perhaps a poor choice of words? (would The common use of the term Spanish Flu for the 1918 pandemic in your view also be blaming?) I prefer to default to a more charitable view.
FWIW, this is My perspective as a man who lived in Asia for 14 years and was routinely subjected to casual language about me, by people who did not know I spoke the language, and was often physically felt up by people who meant no harm, because of my blond-hair, blue-eyes, arm and leg hair, and the stubble on my face. These people were reacting to an unusual sight (me) and did not share my Western concepts of private space. I was a wonderful zoo exhibit! I could have taken offense—who likes their hair being grabbed and felt through—, but chose not to. It was even worse with my red-headed children.
In response to the original post and your suggestion that we return to the issue at hand. My thought s::
(1) there is a big difference between sensible precaution and panic. Shel’s and Immer’s comments well illustrate that. TP panic buying in Hawaii.
(2) I think the Church might do well to consider different methods of taking the Sacrament. Tongs? And I think that Primary will need to be vigilant about letting Ill children attend.
(2) avoid hysteria and blaming. There was a distressing incident a few days ago in which a group of native Dutch thugs cornered a Chinese expat woman and taunted her, and beat her up because of the virus. We need to remind ourselves that we are children of God. Ukrainians also attacking bus loads of fellow Ukrainians being repatriated back from China, because they fear they had the virus.
(3) washing of hands, limiting of hand-shaking (I have seen pictures of the clever “Wuhan Shake”).
(4) China is gradually returning back to life; a state of lockdown emergency can continue for only so long.
Taiwan Missionary, I don’t have any problem calling the Spanish Flu the Spanish Flu, and I’ve never heard of any Spanish people being offended by it. My problem with Other Clark’s comment was that calling this illness COVID-19 has nothing to do with political correctness, and I find it baffling that he thinks that and that he even brought up PC at all in this context. It’s also baffling that he claims the term “Chinese Flu” is more accurate: it’s not a flu, for one thing, which matters in the current climate where people are confusing the two illnesses. I suppose I went straight to the “Chinese” part because it was the only connection I could fathom to PC. Again, my objection is entirely based on his claim that the term Chinese Flu is more accurate and COVID-19 should be avoided because it’s PC gone crazy. It’s just not true (I’ll give him points for it being more descriptive), and it seems to me we should stick to facts on this as much as possible.
The Spanish Flu struck more than 100 years ago. It’s been know as the Spanish Flu for all that time. To my knowledge there hasn’t been a scientific classification for the virus that caused it. And if there is, I don’t believe it’s common enough knowlegde that people would know we were discussing the same event if such a thing were used in preference to Spanish Flu.
That stands in stark contrast to rejecting a clear specific well-established name for the novel coronavirus.
Defend The Other Clark’s argument if you like based on your personal experiences which have to do with living in Asia and having been subjected to pointed language, as opposed to experience with this pandemic but it really sounds more like a bit of tit for tat than a sensible approach to nomenclature for this virus to me.
That said, I’m finished. Let’s return to the discussion of hand washing and self-isolation strategies.
Taiwan Missionary:
Just stop. It’s not called the Chinese flu. Living in Asia for 14 years doesn’t give you street cred as a scientist.
My initial reaction to hearing it called Chinese flu was that it was slang to blame the Chinese. So I guess I am pre-disposed to find fault, by your definition. Thanks for the internet diagnosis, WebMD. THIS, folks, is the perfect example of gas lighting (to piggyback off a previous post). You say something offensive, I take offense at it, and you claim I’m the bad guy because only crazy people get offended at offensive words. Seriously, just stop.
I live in Southern California. I keep hearing rumors of Costco posting signs it’s running out of things. The #1 item: bottled water. I’m trying to decide in what world we would let this pandemic allow us to stop sending public utility workers to the water treatment plant. Rational minds to not prevail in these situations.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
I’m sticking with “the coronavirus” for now. If another one rolls around next year, it will be “the latest coronavirus.” COVID-19 sounds a little to technical for normal conversation and “Chinese flu” won’t work — it isn’t the flu and it’s not really Chinese, at least in the way that, for example, Chinese food is Chinese. In any case, ascribing diseases or epidemics to one country (as that naming practice suggests) is now generally disfavored.
The latest headline from Seattle businesses: “Seattle feels like a ghost town.” Microsoft just cancelled a big developer’s conference there, and I think Google did the same a few days ago. So I’d say better than even odds that some stakes will suspend meetings for a couple of weeks, starting this coming Sunday.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/seattle-ghost-town-residents-face-040500149.html
OK, so it’s not just the Seattle area. Monday night I wanted to make cookies, but we were out of flour. I thought that I would just go to the store and get a bag of flour and all would be good. I had not been paying attention to any of the news or hysteria, and when I went to Walmart in the southwest corner of the Salt Lake valley, there was literally not one bag of flour on 4 shelves that were over 8 feet long. Just a lot of flour dust. The next aisle over, not one case of bottled water! I then started putting things together and realized what was happening. I then checked TP. Nearly gone. I went to a Smith’s grocery next, with almost the same result. There was some “self-rising flour” (whatever that is) and a few bags of whole wheat flour. They were also out of water. I spoke with a woman who worked there and she told me how absolutely crazy this past weekend was with people just jamming shopping carts full of those items. She mentioned that they were also almost out of TP, and feminine products.
There are too many thoughts on this to adequately cover, but I wonder why TP is such a concern? And if there’s no water (apparantly, since people stocked up like there wasn’t going to be), how are you going to flush? And how much do you need for a couple of weeks? If you have 6 people in a house, wouldn’t about 12 rolls keep you for a couple of weeks?
People also don’t seem to take in the whole idea of what you’re going to do with all that flour. Do you have yeast? Water? Oil? Butter? Salt? Baking powder or soda? Do you have electricity or gas to cook with? Do you have a generateor? Fuel? Living independent typically requires some infrastructure that people never consider and probably most wouldn’t be able to do very well.
Anyway, the preppers are just super happy now!
MTodd, kidding, right?
The virus isn’t in my community yet, so nothing is shutting down or canceling. Yet. I need to make it two more weeks before we cancel church so I can get the damn Relief Society Birthday Dinner over with. I’ve put too much work into this to cancel at the last minute and I am not going to redo it. This is the last activity I have to plan before my release and I want. it. over. with.
I am happy to say it appears there was a run on hand soap at my local Walmart. At least that makes sense.
And, fun fact about the weird naming tangent this thread took, the Spanish Flu didn’t originate in Spain. It probably came from China with Chinese workers shipped in by France and Britain to help with the war effort. It was running rampant in the trenches in France. But war censorship rules prevented any news of the flu being in France from being reported. But cases in Spain could be reported. A rose is a rose. It doesn’t matter what we call it.
On coronaviruses and H1N1 viruses:
The CDC is calling this Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Coronavirus is a general term for a crown shaped zoonotic virus. There are several strains that have caused diseases in humans.
The WHO:
“Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. “
“Coronavirus particles are surrounded by a fatty outer layer called an envelope and usually appear spherical, as seen under an electron microscope, with a crown or “corona” of club-shaped spikes on their surface.”
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/term/coronavirus/#ixzz6Fk8CKh1J
“Common human coronaviruses, including types 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1, usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. Most people get infected with one or more of these viruses at some point in their lives. This information applies to common human coronaviruses and should not be confused with coronavirus disease 2019 (formerly referred to as 2019 Novel Coronavirus).”
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/general-information.html
Official naming is interesting. This one is not being identified by the country where it presumably originated. A different strain was identified by its region (MERS, above).
I’ve usually heard the flu pandemic a hundred years ago called “the 1918 flu epidemic”. Spanish flu is a colloquial term (Wikipedia). Biologists describe it as an “influenza A virus of the H1N1 subtype”. It’s sometimes called a swine flu, but the 1918 one is believed to have an avian source.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180813/#S1title
ncbi is National Center for Biotechnology Information
nlm is National Library of Medicine
nih is National Institute of Health
pmc is PubMed Central
The 2009 pandemic was also caused by an H1N1 virus, but it was new, or “a novel influenza A (H1N1) virus”.
“ The 2009 H1N1 Pandemic: A New Flu Virus Emerges
The (H1N1)pdm09 virus was very different from H1N1 viruses that were circulating at the time of the pandemic. Few young people had any existing immunity (as detected by antibody response) to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus, but nearly one-third of people over 60 years old had antibodies against this virus, likely from exposure to an older H1N1 virus earlier in their lives.”
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html
I only have a basic understanding of microbiology, but deep fascination.
Call it what you want to, make sure you wash your hands, wipe down high-touch surfaces, and try not to touch your face.
What will happen in the next week? Stake conference with a visiting apostle. We rarely get to see apostles around here so I expect this event to be packed and therefore a pretty big germ-fest. Most of the cases we have here in Ontario are from Iran. We have quite a few Iranian members of the church. One ward even has a Farsi Sunday School class. I’m really torn about whether I will go.
So the Spanish flu originated in China, as did SARS, the swine flu, bird flu, and coronavirus. Or is it the coronavirus.
Anyway there seems to be a pattern there.
In my Western European country there have been few cases discovered, no deaths, some panicked shoppers, no church or school cancellations, but a conference I was supposed to attend yesterday was cancelled and business are dialing back travel.
I have used more hand sanitizer in the last two weeks than I have previously on my entire life.
And I have pollen allergies, causing me to sneeze frequently and freak the —- out of everyone around me. I just apologize and say my trip to northern Italy was still great 🙂
Even if we don’t cancel church it would be wise to limit it to one hour, or at least close the nurseries since constant sanitizing of toys really isn’t possible.
The nursery can facilitate ward-to-ward transmission of COVID-19 through the nursery children, as children from one ward leave germs that are picked up by children in wards that meet later in the day. Some of these children are immune compromised but will still be left at the nursery by parents worried about filling their callings There’s pressure to keep the nursery open so long as primary teachers and other members need to be able to do their church jobs. Limiting church to one hour really would be a wise interim step until a reliable vaccine can be developed. This also would take pressure off of sick members to attend so they can teach their classes, and off of parents of medically vulnerable children to likewise attend, even at risk of exposing their children to a potentially fatal virus.
I know from experience the pressure placed on young parents to attend church so that they can fulfill their callings even when it’s unwise for valid medical reasons to do so. This is something we really do need to change.
The Spanish Flu may have started in Kansas according to new research. “May”.
A lot of folk were still shaking hands and hugging last Sunday. The rate of infection in the country has risen a lot in a week, so I’m not sure what thisSunday will bring. Just 11 confirmed cases nationally last Sunday, 115 as of Thursday evening. So still low but climbing, and several cases where contact with a previous known case can’t be identified, so the level of minor infections could be… On the one hand there have been several racist attacks in the country, which alarms me, not least because my husband and children may be at risk if that kind of thing gets worse. On the other hand the population in general does not appear to be unduly alarmed. Its mostly carry on as normal from what I can see when out grocery shopping yesterday. But our city isn’t one of those listed as having patients identified as infected.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
About the Church response: the Church seems to be taking reasonable precautions, including cancelling meetings (as in all meetings in Japan cancelled until further notice) and limiting missionary exposure in affected coutnries (either by transfer or by restricting them to their apartments). Locally in Seattle, I have heard that one stake has advised its membership there will be no church meetings on this coming Sunday, but other stakes have advised the membership to attend regular meetings. I’m guessing that in a week or two there will be an announcement that attendance at the Conference Center for General Conference will be suspended for April, but I imagine they will still broadcast talks. Overall, the Church response is quite reasonable, neither overreacting nor ignoring the situation.
I live in a Bellevue, just east of Seatte, and our stake has cancelled meetings for this weekend through next Friday. The area presidency has advised local leaders to make decisions on a week-by-week basis. The temple is closed, as well.
I love how individual wards respond on a local level.
This Sunday the Priests wore latex gloves so they didn’t touch the bread at any point.
The Deacons also wore latex gloves and the bishopric removed every other pew so that the Deacon could walk between the pew so they can hand the bread to you.
No one touched the tray, noone rummaged through the bread.
I must say, it was quite bizarre but no transmission possible.
Any similar responses?
If YOU people would control yourself with the essential items from the store, the virus may not stay long, let it take its course. It does not help to see people hogging the necessary items for everyone. Think logically, buy what you need. You can help the virus to be a shorter duration by not hogging essential items at the stores. THINK PEOPLE! Quit thinking so much of yourselves! Everyone need these essential items to HELP the virus to hopefully love a shorter stay. We all have to live through this time TOGETHER, not only by ourselves.
Going to the grocery stores this past week for our essential weekly items has been extremely difficult. It is so SAD and discussing as to how people are behaving with their shopping.
As for church curbing meetings is good common sense. I recall the Utah governor asked for people meeting over 100 people, the event to be cancelled. What about the choir and speakers, etc..for conference, that is over a 100 people, right? Choir should be cancelled as well. Not my call but only a common sense situation for people in the choir and others.