In February of 2020 the news media began stories about COVID-19.   Words like COVID, pandemic, medicines,  sickness, world-wide, virus spread, “Center of Disease Control and Prevention” and the like were being talked about.  Experts were being brought into news stations to talk about virus spread, SARS-CoV-2 and such.  Many of those experts knew absolutely nothing about this virus.  

By March 2020, many business, churches and families began to restrict activity in their lives. Some churches and businesses completely shut down narrowing their activities to online only events.  In Florida , Governor Ron DeSantis gave an executive order that restricted all activities except for those considered “essential”.  People stayed in their homes and did not even go to their family members homes during this time for fear of disease spread. 

By September of 2020, many restrictions were rescinded, however the public was well aware of the possible dangers and in Florida, sought to manage within safety conditions.  DeSantis encouraged wise decision and allowed the people of Florida to live their lives while the Federal Government in many cases took liberty and freedoms from the people. 

Those who kept the records completely failed the American public,  counting those who had the actual sickness with those who were in the hospital with other conditions so we will never really know the extent of the number of cases.  The news media, particularly, CNN played eerie music  during their showing of virus cases, with a sidebar ticking away virus case numbers which were not even true numbers.  This proved to be a tactic that caused much fear among those watching these programs.

The Center of Disease Control pushed vaccines, and serious mask-wearing for even young children.  Certainly, a lot of the restrictions, school board decisions and business regulations were controversial.  Considering the numbers, which more than likely are not even correct, depending on who collected them and how, Florida choices during the pandemic proved to be more positive overall than others with complete lock downs. 

Now that the virus is considered under basic control,  there are a lot of businesses offering sale items of masks and other pandemic things.  We as a people are still all affected by this world-wide pandemic but we try to move forward.

In Jacksonville and I’m sure the world, the pandemic changed everything. I do believe every part of our lives were affected by this virus often called the “China Virus”. It is believed that the virus began in Wuhan, China.  

From the loss of seeing our family members for weeks and weeks and weeks,  to the loss of work which affected our financial situations, this sickness changed even our mind-set.  The way business is done, our personal actions and behaviors have been changed. 

Even the Church and the way the fellowship of believers meet has had an impact.  During the pandemic, the number of people were restricted as to how many could gather in a room affected membership roles.  Chairs were closed off and covered, ropes were places on designated areas for seating and online services were enhanced which even affected followers today.  There are some members who have not returned to church using the online programs as their church service.  For sure, the financial situation has been impacted at the fellowship with many do not see the importance of keeping open the doors of the church.

As we all rebuild after this horrible pandemic event, we observe many of the see-through plastic walls in front of registers come down, no masked faces and less hand sanitisers on counters.  We’re now over two years out and things seem to be getting more normal.  I say “more normal” because things will never be the same.  I wonder about your thoughts concerning the pandemic of 2020. 8-18-22

See you tomorrow,