According to the New York Times worst-case estimates for USA COVID-19 deaths are between 200,000 and 1.7 million people.[1] Needless to say, this is a disturbing number of people who could potentially die.
All deaths, no matter the cause, are tragic. The thought of so many Americans dying from COVID-19 is horrendous. However, these numbers need to be put into perspective. In 2018, 380,000 people died from Malaria in Africa.[2] What is more stagering is that 1.5 million people died from Malaria in Africa in 2004; over 1 million of these where children under the age of five.[3]
In Africa when 1.5 million people died from Malaria in 2004 life went on as normal. Dying from Malaria was, and is still, a tragic part of everyday life in Africa. Year after year hundreds of thousands of people die from Malaria in Africa.
Now that the USA is facing the loss of hundreds of thousands, Americans are keenly aware of how a disease can wreck havoc with the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Welcome to the world of disease in developing nations.
Maybe God will use COVID-19 to make America a little more sensitive to the diseases the rest of the world faces.[4]
Footnotes
[1] Fink, Sheri. “Worst-Case Estimates for U.S. Coronavirus Deaths.” New York Times, 13 March 2020. accessed 2 Apr 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/coronavirus-deaths-estimate.html.
[2] World Health Organization. World Malaria Report 2019. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2019. accessed 2 Apr 2020. https://www.who.int/malaria/publications/world-malaria-report-2019/en/. 9.
[3] Murray, Christopher J L, Lisa C Rosenfeld, Stephen S Lim, Kathryn G Andrews, Kyle J Foreman, Diana Haring, Nancy Fullman, et al. “Global Malaria Mortality between 1980 and 2010: A Systematic Analysis.” The Lancet, no. 379 (2012): 413-431. Published electronically 4 Feb 2012. accessed 2 Apr 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60034-8. 415, 421.
[4] The USA (as a whole) has been indifferent to the loss of millions of lives in Africa to Malaria, with two notable exceptions. However, most Americans are unaware of these two. One, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave 750 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2012. (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “Foundation Commits $750 Million to Global Fund,” news release, 2012, accessed 2 Apr 2020, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2012/01/Foundation-Commits-$750-Million-to-Global-Fund.) Two, the President’s Malaria Initiative which was started in 2005 and in 2018 gave 723 million dollars to help fight Malaria. (President’s Malaria Initiative. “About.” President’s Malaria Initiative, accessed 2 Apr 2020, https://www.pmi.gov/about. see Funding Tab.) While the above mentioned amounts are significant, they are a drop in the bucket compared to the 2 trillion dollar stimulus package for COVID-19.
I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, so I rarely make determinations on the things for which God brings judgement. The fault of Job’s three friends (which incurred the wrath of God) was not that they spoke theological falsehood, but rather that their theology was wrongly applied to Job’s character. Hence I now move forward with caution less I tumble into the same pit as Job’s friends. Failure to care for and help the poor, weak and sick has brought about God’s judgement in the Biblical text. Perhaps one should ask if it is possible that God is using COVID-19 as part of His judgement on America’s indifference to Malaria in Africa and other diseases in the developing world?