I don’t know who started calling the Covid 19 a war but we are over 100,000 deaths so I wondered how war’s battle deaths added up to Covid’s number. These eight wars totaled only 93,753 battle deaths or about the same number as early May: Revolutionary War – 4,435, War of 1812 – 2,360, Mexican War – 1,733, Spanish American War – 385, Vietnam War 47,434, Korean War – 33,739, Gulf War – 147, and Iraq War – 3,519.

The predictions for virus deaths by the election surpasses the Union deaths (140,144) during the Civil War. Another way to look at the prediction is to add the eight wars to World War I’s 53,402 or 147,155.

If we get a second attack, as suspected, this fall and winter, the total might go over World War II’s 291,557 battle deaths. If we can’t get vaccines that will protect us from this strain and those it is mutating into, we could surpass all of them combined!

Using the John Hopkins study as a basis, we now know a test from the most reliable product will give an average 38% false negative on the first day of symptoms. On the fourth day of symptoms false negatives are down to 20%. Many of the products are far less accurate. Some people actually died before they tested positive. We have some tests which give an answer in five minutes and some require days. Some will give as many false positives as false negatives.

People can have the virus, take a test, get a negative reading, then infect everybody who gets close to them because they were told they were free of the virus. People can be free and get infected minutes after having the test. Trump’s body guards and staff are required to have one of the rare five minute tests daily. He says anybody that wants a test can have one but that is absolutely not true!

The ultimate plan of the experts is to have enough tests to have all Americans tested in one ten day period this fall or early winter. It would mean testing about 200 million or 20 million a day. Otherwise negatives will become infected before any people are tested and quarantined.

The vaccine may be found and approved (Hope it is safe) and a couple of hundred million shots made by next spring. The number one chance is from Oxford in UK. Trump keeps saying we will only use one invented in American. American made ones are going to take longer.

I don’t know if testing is worth the effort unless we all get a quick test at the same time with 100% accuracy.

The President only cares about how he is perceived by the voters in November. He is reticent about continuing to damage the economy with a lockdown and against his picked experts’ advice by trying to get people to go back to work. If the economy is on the road to recovery, he thinks his chances will be far better than if it is bad. After fouling up the entire response, he must depend on a recovering economy. He repeatedly changed his mind and responsibilities, usually against his pandemic advisers’ advice.

Congress and the administration have run up a huge debt and Trump must have the economy going again, no matter how many people needlessly die. The government must get money to operate. America must work as soon as possible. Either open or save people. Trump is willing to exchange an additional 60,000 to 100,000 lives for the possibility of getting re-elected.

Governor Pritzker has decided to save people at the risk of destroying the state’s economy for years. Pritzker thinks his duty is to the people first. How to do both is the problem.

The problem is Trump can print as much money as he needs and the Federal Reserve will cause trillions to magically appear to help the economy. Pritzker can’t and started the year with a financial crisis and few ways to remedy the situation.

Both are faced with a similar problem but on a different scale and with different objectives. Trump is worried about re-election and Pritzker is worried about lives. Both are damned – whichever way it turns out – for good or bad. It may take a year or more to find out who was right.

I understand why ministers and preachers want their congregations back in the building. Churches are no different from social and service organizations. Most club and church memberships meet weekly and develop a friendship with others and a routine. Churches operate on donations at their services and service organizations often do the same.

Churches are different in one respect. Ministers, preachers, custodians and others are paid employees. The bigger the congregation, the bigger the payroll. Some large and mega churches spend over a million in salaries. Most don’t have enough tucked away to keep paying salaries for long. They need people in the pews putting checks, cash or electronic payments in the “baskets.”

The other reason is the routine and one I learned over twenty-eight years ago as president of a service club. People who attended every week formed a routine and enjoyed people who they would not normally see otherwise. When people miss a few meetings they lose the routine need and will often not return as often or not at all. Being out for six, eight, ten weeks will end a lot of organizations and give club members and congregation members a chance to stop going or to go someplace else.

Whichever is the reason for talking their congregation back into the pews, the people will be told it is “God’s Will” if they get sick or die.