As cities and states continue to fight the coronavirus pandemic, one California county is being accused of taking it too far.
Mendocino County, a coastal county with a population of 86,000, banned churches from singing while recording online worship services, unless the individuals sang from home.
The order was issued on Good Friday, just days before Easter Sunday, and extends through May 10.
Four individuals only were allowed to record from one place and “no singing or use of wind instruments, harmonicas or other instruments that could spread COVID-19 through projected droplets shall be permitted unless the recording of the event is done at one’s residence,” according to the county order that also applies to concert halls, auditoriums, temples and playhouses.
Full story at Fox News.
Over doing it a bit?
Why is the Catholic leadership so passive in defending religious worship in public places? I realize there is a balancing of public health v public worship, but when will St. Peter’s come forth to defend our faith in the public? Where are the courageous disciples of Christ?
Jim , ” Where are the courageous disciples of Christ?” it is us my friend the laity , read about other abuses of the faithful across the country , this is who some government personnel are really like , they don’t fear us or respect us . As far as our passive leadership , they seek the approval of men , they have no supernatural faith , moral authority or even the desire to fight for the faithful or be examples of as they are ordained to do in times such as these . If this was an Mosque with the call to prayer over loudspeakers , the city would not dare say or do a thing against them , they have the courage of their convictions , once upon a time we had brave pius men as our shepherds , we do have some good priests and bishops , but it is up to the laity to save the church. BTW even money says that the push for donations, tithes , etc will increase don’t give anything !.
My 90-year-old father used to tell me that people in jail weren’t there for singing too loudly in church. Tragically, government overreach in this time of the coronavirus may prove him wrong.
Harmonica enthusiasts unite! Little local bureaucrats have gotten a taste for power and they are drunk with it. And of course, they came for the Christians first.
Kristin, Do you think we’ll have our hobo harps in heaven? Of course, let’s strive to get there. And, pray for Bob Dylan and Neil Young. We might have quite the mouth organ section there!
Catholics should educate themselves as to the difficult facts of Public Health.
Go online, and find the website for the accepted Government Agency, the Center for Disease Control, the CDC.
Find the table there, Disease Burden of Influenza, which provides a summary of Flu Hospitalizations and Flu Deaths,
from 2010 to 2019.
The table shows seasonal yearly Flu deaths over this period range from about 20,000, to 60,000.
The data also shows 400,000 were hospitalized for Flu, in 2019, and similar hospitalizations in the other years.
Deaths: From the table, 60,000 died in 2019 from the flu
Question: Why are we shutting down our jobs and business now, with 35,000 deaths in 2020, when we didn’t do this last year, with 60,000 deaths?
Yes, its tough to think about death. Yes, its tough to continue working in a flu epidemic.
Unfortunately, flu epidemics happen every single year! Sometimes they are named, liked coronavirus, or H1N1, but there
are now 5 or 6 flu types, with variants. Flu epidemics will continue, they will not stop…Every Year! Next year! And Years after!!
This is a very serious problem, with thousands dying each year, but we have no choice, work must go on!
We must continue working! We did it in the past, so why are we halting the economy this year?
And why is New York fabricating cv flu deaths, in an attempt to inflate the data, and so extend the shutdown?
And most important, We need to go to Mass, regardless.
Educate yourself! Get back to work! Go back to Mass!
Anonymous, I don’t doubt your numbers or your premise , this appears to be something that we were not prepared for , though with a knowledge of history , we were due for. The tough part is waiting until it is over and then see where , things went wrong , in the past most everyone had living memory or had direct experience with these events. The hierarchy in the past had the moral gravitas to direct and comfort and direct the faithful , our current leaders with have no idea it seems beyond seeking the approval of men, to make the case for some mix of precaution and serving the faithful, they have failed us.
I believe some numbers cited are ‘full year’ numbers. Even the government experts say this situation is well short of a ‘full year’
Does God require us to go to Mass when there are serious health risks from being in close physical proximity?
A seasonal flu year consists of the cold winter months, starting Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, so it encompasses two calendar years. And if, like this year, there is a later cold season, it can continue on through April. When the heat of summer comes, viral flu occurrence drops much lower, tending down to zero. So here’s a question for you: New York has been claiming a flu death rate of around 750 a day, while the California rate is around 25-50 a day. California has twice the population of New York state, but has only 1/30 the flu rate. Look at the statistics for Orange County, for example. Why is this?
It is too easy to look at statistics about apples and oranges and then draw inaccurate conclusions. COVID-19 is not the flu, and can’t be compared to the seasonal flu that we experience each year. We know a lot about the normal flu and vaccines to cure it. We don’t know about the current virus, which is not a normal virus. That is why it is called a novelvirus. This kind of pandemic we do know is transmitted from person to person at a more efficient rate than the seasonal flu. Public health practices say that when you keep people isolated from each other you can reduce contagion and deaths. If you breathe on someone you could pass the virus, so no breathing on someone or playing an instrument that can pass the virus several scores of feet. Stay inside, wash your hands, don’t let anyone in your house who doesn’t live there, and have a disinfection station outside your home to clean the food you have delivered. There!
No, period, No, Bob one. Let’s end this. We don’t shut down the country because of cancer or heart disease. Also, there are 40,000 traffic deaths each year, but we don’t shut down the country. And, coronavirus so far, has all the behavior of a viral flu, for example, and lets emphasize this, once again, how do you explain that California has only 50 or so cv daily deaths compared to New York’s 700? (again, no reason, no explanation, let’s just shut down our economy and also our Churches). What are we going to do next year, if there is another flu? And there will be one, there is one every year, and people die of the flu, every year….And no,”Apples and Oranges” does not cut, it, CDC is the authority, and not you. It’s very tough reading about death, and understanding we have to die someday. That’s life, sorry if it is too tough for you. But for the future of our country, and for young people, let’s end this shutdown, Now!.
Tell me you are kidding! As of today, there are 36,000 deaths recorded because of the virus, in just a few weeks. Deaths are going up not down. Contagion is going up not down. There is no cure for this virus as there is for regular flu. California shut down quickly, required social distancing and sheltering in place. Had they not done this, the numbers would likely be similar to New York. When the economy opens, soon I hope, don’t expect it to be the same. You will still have to stay six feet apart, wear a mask if you are smart, go to restaurants that take your temperature before you enter. Schools will be much different, churches will be much different, sporting events are a ways away. Decades of public health practices show that distancing is the best way to fight this kind of virus. Stay safe by staying away from other people until a cure is found, enough testing is done to show the severity of the virus.
Flu vaccines are largely useless because they’re based on last year’s flu, which won’t get you immunity from this year’s flu. And what good is a vaccine which fails to keep up to 60-thousand people from dying during a flu season?
Kinda agree with the harmonica part…now if we can only convince some politician that tambourines spread covid…….
I thot dey was chill in mendocino
Today, as I was walking, a woman wearing a mask, asked me please not to come any closer. I was four feet away,
and she wanted the six foot clearance. So I asked, “There are 40 million people in California. How many died of
coronavirus today? Was it 6000? Maybe 7000?” She nodded. My comment: “NO!! Only ONE person died of cv in
California today, 4/18/20! Most people do not understand statistics, and are very uncomfortable talking about them.
So they do not know, that in an average normal year, 900 to 1000 people die EVERY day in California, and about 8000
per day in the US. Yes, it’s very uncomfortable talking about death, but we must look directly at it. A death rate of
hundreds dying each day of the flu is not at all unusual. It often happens each year. It will not stop. And also, there is
a Flu season, Flu deaths rise in cold weather, and drop down to zero in warm weather. It is warming up -summer is coming!
So let’s end this panic mode, and get back to work.
And Bob One, you evidently know little about data or statistics! So why do you act as if you are an authority!
I can see the ban on wind instruments as it takes a whole lot of breath to use some of them, and certain instruments will send that breath further into the room, thus contaminating others since masks cannot be used at the time. There are some online classical and Church concerts where the people using such instruments are in separate rooms and doing the concert over computers. The music in the one I watched was good, but it did not seem as excellent as it would have been if all the players were in the same room. Better, though, than contaminating one another.