God will protect me. And: I know my rights. And: The Bible says we gather. And: The virus is fake news. And: You can’t make me.
All that stubbornness and adamance and delusion isn’t working out so well for 30 Idaho Christians who just came down with the dreaded infection after attending a religious revival.
The Idaho Falls Potter’s House Christian Center on Lomax Street held a multi-day revival near the end of May. In the days following the event, people who attended began showing novel coronavirus symptoms. They were tested, and the positive cases were reported to Eastern Idaho Public Health and the Southeastern Idaho Public Health District.
Eastern Idaho Public Health spokeswoman Mimi Taylor said health officials are speaking with at least 41 people from 12 households who attended the revival. Within that health district, 11 people were [found] to have COVID-19. At least 6 other cases are considered probable.
An additional 13 people from Bannock and Bingham Counties who attended the event tested positive for the virus. … A case is determined to be probable if a person has not been tested, or testing is pending, and they have all the symptoms of COVID-19, have come into direct contact with an infected individual, and developed symptoms within the expected timeframe.
The number of COVID-19 cases stemming from the revival event is likely to rise.
“It can happen to anyone,” Taylor said.
Can it, though? Theoretically, yes, I suppose. In practice, it’s improbable that it’ll happen to people who wash their hands frequently, social-distance, wear proper masks, avoid crowds, decline to shake hands, avoid touching their faces, and withdraw from situations where another person keeps coughing. Is that too hard? For these folks, it evidently was.
Those who got the virus said nobody [at the revival] wore masks, and it remains unclear if any social distancing measures were followed.
Southeastern Idaho Public Health Community’s Tracy McCulloch told a local reporter that people at the revival, when quizzed afterwards,
“… said there was a female there that was coughing a lot.”
Eastern Idaho had 109 COVID cases one week ago. By yesterday afternoon, that number had climbed to 167.
(Image via Shutterstock)
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