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Wednesday, March 25, 2020

DAVID KNIGHT: DEMOCRATS DECLARE ABORTION ESSENTIAL~FEMA TRAINS PREACHERS FOR GUN CONFISCATION

David Knight covers the Second Amendment crisis resulting from COVID-19 in the following show segment.
Recon Marine and Infowars reporter Tim Reames @TimReames joins The Alex Jones Show in studio to expose the government gun confiscation programs pushed through local religious leaders.

MASKS, MASKS, WHERE ARE THE MASKS?

MASKS, MASKS, WHERE ARE THE MASKS?
Ask Obama, the FDA, the CDC, and China
BY DANIEL GREENFIELD
SEE: https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/masks-masks-where-are-masks-daniel-greenfieldrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
 Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
The media is full of stories of mask rationing and shortages. Health care professionals are reusing masks, slathering them with sanitizer, or substituting scarves in place of surgical masks. Democrats demand that President Trump make more masks immediately using the Wartime Production Act.
But why aren’t there any masks?
Surgical masks, like anything in the medical field, are tightly regulated. You can’t just make a mask. Some masks have to be certified by the FDA and others by the CDC. Some are certified by both the FDA and the CDC.
Until recently, the public had no problem buying N95 respirators for use in construction. These masks are certified by the CDC. Why is the CDC in the business of certifying industrial masks, you may wonder? Because, as discussed previously, the CDC does every possible thing except what people think it does. The component of the CDC that does this is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
NIOSH is not to be confused with OSHA, even though they were created at the same time, through the same law, and serve a very similar function: making this another skein in the infinitely tangled web of the federal bureaucracy.
The Open PPE Project launched an effort to quickly create N95 masks only to be told by NIOSH that approving a new mask production facility would take between 45 and 90 days.
Meanwhile there are reports of large stockpiles of masks sitting around waiting for an FDA inspector.
The United States government has a stockpile of 12 million NIOSH approved masks and 5 million that are expired, and are therefore not approved by NIOSH. Except it may approve some conditionally for use.
The FDA and CDC bureaucracy are not up to speed with the current crisis. There aren’t enough inspectors and the Wuhan Virus won’t wait on inspectors from the FDA or NIOSH to do their job.
Instead of streamlining its approvals and inspection process, the CDC lowered its mask protection recommendation for health care workers on the front lines.  
The CDC is willing to tell health care professionals to use scarves, rather than accelerate approvals.
Meanwhile N95 mask manufacturers feared being sued if masks meant for industry were used in surgical settings, which meant that they wouldn’t sell those masks to health care providers. At least not until a law protecting them against lawsuits was passed. All this, of course, took even more time.
Smaller manufacturers have tried to get in the game, only to discover the regulatory challenges of it. Fashion businesses that tried to jump in have settled for trying to make surgical masks that they hope will be FDA certified. Meanwhile the big manufacturers were making masks in the People’s Republic of China. And those masks are not leaving ChiCom territory except by the express will of its government.
Worse still, as the crisis grew, the People’s Republic of China bought up the world’s supply of masks, at one point importing 20 million masks in 24 hours. American companies even eagerly donated masks.
But why was the United States so unprepared for a run on masks before the pandemic arrived?
After Katrina, the Bush administration had set a goal of billions of masks in case of a major disaster. But that goal was never met. When the H1N1 swine flu outbreak arrived, we were badly unprepared.
The last run on masks took place during the H1N1 swine flu outbreak under Obama. Hospitals and health care providers began running low on masks and the Strategic National Stockpile released 85 million N95 masks. The stockpile was never replenished and today there are only 12 million N95s.
There were warnings back then that "maskmaking operations have moved outside the U.S., and 90% of masks sold in the U.S. now come from Mexico or China" and that "Mexico and China would be unlikely to export their supplies before making sure their own populations were fully protected."
While the Obama administration threw billions at assorted solar and wind boondoggles, it failed to invest the money that would have set up reliable mask production in the United States of America. All the experts who claimed that “science” predicted the imminent demise of the planet had been too busy trying to control the weather through higher taxes to spend money on anything as crude as masks.
The secret warehouses where the strategic mask reserve was supposed to be kept are a mess and millions of the masks are expired. New York City asked for millions of masks and got 78,000 expired masks. Oklahoma got 500,000 expired masks. This is the situation, not just at the federal level, but state mask stockpiles, where they exist, also often consisted of storehouses of expired N95 masks.
Had the Bush administration’s National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza been followed, there would be no mask shortage. And had the Obama administration at replaced the masks that it withdrew from the Strategic National Stockpile, we might have had 100 million or so masks in the stockpile.
And had we brought mask manufacturing back to America, we would have a pipeline for making more.
Instead the Wuhan Virus brought a perfect storm, cutting us off from our manufacturing sources in the People’s Republic of China, after the Obama administration had depleted our mask reserve, while regulatory barriers make it difficult for companies quickly get in the game and produce more masks.
President Trump has done his best to cope with a sudden disaster that was decades in the making.
The mask shortage was not a disaster that could have been remedied in January. We were never going to produce a billion masks in two months. The same nation that could turn out armies and fleets in a year would have, but that nation had its manufacturing at home and fewer regulatory barriers.
Big clothing companies like Hanes have tried to step up. As have smaller manufacturers. But the federal bureaucracy has slowed down the process for both distributing existing masks and making new ones. There are plenty of companies eager to make masks, without any Wartime Production Act pressure. They just need a streamlined process that will clear as many of the barriers and delays out of the way.
Meanwhile making new N95 masks requires melt-blown fabric and there’s a global shortage of the machines that produce it because, once again, China has monopolized the marketplace.
Ordering companies to make them by using the Wartime Production Act won’t bring them into being.
All the posturing by Senate Minority Leader Schumer, House Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and the rest of the circus about the Wartime Production Act is just fantasy socialist wargaming.
Outsourcing our industrial base to the People’s Republic of China came with a price. Reconstructing that base won’t just happen overnight. Not when it often has to be done all the way from the ground up.
President Trump had warned us of the danger of our dependency on China’s Communist regime. The Democrats who denied that reality now act as if waving around a piece of legislative paper can make products spring forth out of thin air as long as the right orders are given and enough money is spent.
Real life doesn’t work that way.
The Democrats had many years in which they could have financed American factories making protective gear or at the very least replenished the mask supplies from the swine flu outbreak in 2009. They did none of those things and now want to blame President Trump because he couldn’t snap his fingers and create a billion masks in two months. Meanwhile they failed to restore 85 million masks in 7 years.
If we’re going to learn anything from this crisis, we have to tell the truth and hold them accountable.

PENNSYLVANIA STATE REP. STEPHANIE BOROWICZ INTRODUCES RESOLUTION CALLING FOR DAY OF PRAYER, REPENTANCE IN MIDST OF CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

Stephanie Borowicz
THOSE WHO OPENLY OBJECTED:
REP. KEVIN BOYLE
REP. DAN FRANKEL
PENNSYLVANIA STATE REP. STEPHANIE BOROWICZ INTRODUCES RESOLUTION CALLING FOR DAY OF PRAYER, REPENTANCE IN MIDST OF CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A pastor’s wife and lawmaker in Pennsylvania has introduced a resolution calling for “A State Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” in the midst of the novel coronavirus crisis. Two Democratic legislators have expressed opposition, calling her proposal “the stupidest resolution I’ve ever seen” and “forcing her belief system on others.”
Those who have criticized Rep. Stephanie Borowicz’s resolution have done so largely because of its suggestion that God allows calamity to come upon the world because of sinful behavior — words that mirror a proclamation written by an Iowa senator in 1863 and signed by then-President Abraham Lincoln.
“During the pandemic of 2020 and the ensuing uncertainty and anxiety of this time, Pennsylvanians may be comforted by turning to a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer as well as the wise words [signed by] our great President Abraham Lincoln,” she wrote, then proceeded to quote from the historic resolution.
“[I]t is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”
Borowicz personalized the text at times to fit into current circumstances.
“Insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement in this world … May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of the pandemic, which now desolates this Commonwealth may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.”
“We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown … but we have forgotten God and we have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and … we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own,” the 1863 resolution reads.
“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us,” it laments. “It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
The resolution seeks to make March 30 the “State Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer,” just as the proclamation signed by then-President Lincoln made March 30, 1863 a day of prayer and repentance as well.
But some Democratic lawmakers in the Commonwealth object to the proposal, such as Rep. Kevin Boyle of Philadelphia, who remarked on Twitter on Monday, “I do believe this is the stupidest resolution I’ve ever seen a politician introduce.”
Rep. Dan Frankel of Squirrel Hill and Chair for the House Health Committee also opposed the resolution in a statement to PennLive.
“It’s painfully ironic that in her resolution Rep. Borowicz references Lincoln, who sought to unite a nation divided by the moral virus of slavery. It’s ironic because right now the Pennsylvania government is working to unify to combat this epidemic of the coronavirus. Borowicz, using archaic language specific to her personal faith tradition, simply divides us by forcing her belief system on others,” he remarked.
“As a public servant, I believe that is my role, not directing the personal faith practices of my fellow Pennsylvanians,” Frankel said.
However, this is not the first time that lawmakers have opposed Borowicz’s efforts to glorify God in the legislature.
Last year, Boyle, a Roman Catholic, introduced a resolution seeking to chastise Borowicz for declaring Jesus as the nation’s “only hope,” and that at His name “every knee will bow” — among other numerous references — during a prayer that was delivered shortly before a Muslim legislator was sworn into office. A Muslim leader also presented a prayer that day, which drew applause, while some conversely had walked out on Borowicz.
“A prayer that cites a particular religious belief as ‘our only hope,’ that ‘we’ve lost sight of you, we’ve forgotten you, God, in our country, and we’re asking you to forgive us,’ and that ‘every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess’ is unnecessarily divisive and polarizing,” Boyle’s resolution asserted.
Gov. Tom Wolf, who identifies as a Methodist, similarly said that he was “horrified” by Borowicz’s prayer.
“I grew up in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn on the basis of freedom of conscience. I have a strong spiritual sense. This is not a reflection of the religion I grew up in,” he stated, according to USA Today.
However, Borowicz said that she prays no differently any other time, including when she is praying with family and friends. She is also the founder of Make a Stand USA, an organization that seeks to “to hold prayer rallies in each state, bringing the country back to God.”
“I had no idea that that would cause controversy. It wasn’t directed at anyone,” she told the American Pastors Network.
Pennsylvania Founder William Penn, Quaker, street preacher and author of books such as “No Cross, No Crown”
The organization defended Borowicz in noting that Penn founded the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the Word of God, and that even the preamble to the Pennsylvania Constitution refers to “Almighty God.”
As previously reported, Penn was a street preacher, and was once put on trial for causing a “tumultuous assembly” with his preaching. He was also the author of such books as “No Cross, No Crown: A Discourse Showing the Nature and Discipline of the Holy Cross of Christ.”
Isaiah 30:9 says that spiritually rebellious people ‘will not hear the law of the Lord.’ So, we should not be surprised when some people object to the Word of God when it is read, spoken or used in our prayers,” said Executive Director Gary Dull.
“When a person prays a ‘Christian prayer’ to the Christian God of the Bible, it only stands to reason that Christian and biblical terms will be used in that prayer,” he added. “That may and will offend some people, but that does not mean that such a freedom should be taken away.”
Borowicz’s husband, Jason Borowicz, serves as an associate pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Jersey Shore.
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SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS:

GESTAPO POLICE STATE N.J. GOVERNOR PHIL MURPHY HIT WITH FEDERAL LAWSUIT BY SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION & PARTNERS

Second Amendment Foundation
“Gov. Murphy cannot simply suspend the Second Amendment, and neither can (State Police) Supt. Callahan,” he continued. “Yet, under this emergency order, that’s exactly what they’re doing. The Constitution, and federal law, don’t allow that. New Jersey may have been the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights, but they’re the last state to recognize it.”
SAF sues Gov Phil Murphy NICS
GESTAPO POLICE STATE N.J. GOVERNOR PHIL MURPHY HIT WITH FEDERAL LAWSUIT BY SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION & PARTNERS 
BY DAVE WORKMAN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:
CCRKBA: ‘Impeachment’s Hidden Agenda’ to Derail 2A Judge Confirmations




The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit against New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy over an executive order that has shut down gun sales in the state.

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Several days after the Second Amendment Foundation warned the Mayor of New Orleans against suspending firearms sales in reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak, that organization has hit the New Jersey governor with a federal lawsuit alleging depravation of rights for “shutting down firearms dealerships in the Garden State, thus preventing citizens from exercising their rights under the Second and Fourteenth amendments.”
It may be the first time in history for such a legal action, as panic over the Coronavirus continues.
SAF is joined by the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, on behalf of Robert Kashinsky and Legend Firearms, a gun shop in the state. They are represented by noted civil rights attorney David Jensen at Jensen & Associates in Beacon, N.Y. He is also representing SAF and the Connecticut Citizens Defense League in a federal lawsuit against the state of Connecticut’s prohibition on so-called “high capacity magazines.”
Attorney David Jensen
In the New Jersey case, Gov. Phil Murphy and State Police Supt. Patrick J. Callahan are defendants in their official capacities. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleges depravation of rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The case is known as Kashinsky v. Murphy. The complaint may be read here.
The lawsuit contends that Murphy, by issuing Executive Order 107 on March 21, mandated “the closure of all retail businesses that sell firearms or ammunition and of making the portal for firearms background checks unavailable on the website of the New Jersey State Police…amount to a ban on obtaining firearms or ammunition in the State of New Jersey.”
Kashinsky, according to the federal complaint, does not own a firearm, but he recently obtained a Firearms Purchaser Identification card for the purpose of buying a gun out of concern for his ability to protect himself and his wife in the event of an emergency. However, Murphy’s executive order was quickly followed by a notice posted on the State Police background check portal of its website “indicating that the State Police would no longer conduct background checks,” the lawsuit says.
“Gov. Murphy cannot simply suspend the Second Amendment, and neither can Supt. Callahan,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Yet, under this emergency order, that’s exactly what they’re doing. The Constitution, and federal law, don’t allow that.
“New Jersey may have been the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights,” Gottlieb observed. “but they’re the last state to recognize it.”
In 2005 following Hurricane Katrina, SAF and the National Rifle Association took the City of New Orleans to federal court over firearm seizures conducted by the administration of former Mayor Ray Nagin. The court found those gun confiscations—some of which were done at gunpoint—to be unconstitutional.
Recently, when North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a statewide emergency due to the Coronavirus, SAF reminded officials about the case of Bateman v. Purdue, that prevents suspension of Second Amendment rights during an emergency in that state. The intent was to allow people to venture outside their homes with firearms in the event of a disaster, such as a hurricane.
“We could not have foreseen that our case against North Carolina would ever keep citizens safe in this kind of emergency,” Gottlieb said, “but we are delighted that no public official can arbitrarily render the state’s residents unable to defend themselves on the grounds of a declared emergency. That’s the time when honest citizens might need their firearms the most while away from home.”
Just days ago, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed an emergency order that actually exempts firearm and ammunition distributors and retailers from any shutdown, recognizing them instead as “essential businesses…for the purposes of safety and security.” SAF applauded the governor.
The New Jersey lawsuit could put other states on notice about trying to shut down the exercise of Second Amendment rights. Most state constitutions also have right-to-bear-arms provisions, and they are often more protective than the Second Amendment.

About Dave WorkmanDave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books #add on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
__________________________________________________________
SEE ALSO:
https://www.ammoland.com/2020/03/saf-adds-plaintiffs-to-n-j-
federal-court-action-plans-other-2a-lawsuits/#axzz6HtZf9BPi

SEE ALSO:

Gov. Murphy Admits Denying Press Credentials For NJ2AS News - Hates First Amendment as 

well!

Governor Murphy, who’s taken our Second Amendment rights away, told NJ2AS News (on 03/27/2020) they shouldn’t have First Amendment rights. He tried to imply Alejandro Roubian is not a real journalist and should not be allowed in his pressers. Then he outright refused to answer his question. This is unreal!

CORONAVIRUS NEWS BY DAVID CLOUD OF "WAY OF LIFE"

Coronavirus Good and Odd News
SEE: https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/coronavirus_good_and_odd_news.phprepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
March 25, 2020
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143, 
fbns@wayoflife.org
Stacks Image 325879
As the COVID-19 crisis continues and economic problems mount, there is still plenty of good news.
COVID-19 is still a small thing compared to influenza, which has infected 36 to 51 million, hospitalized about one-half million and killed 22,000 and 55,000 
in America alone since October (“Influenza Preliminary In-Season 2019-2020,” Centers for Disease Control). In 2018, there were 80,000 flu deaths in America, which was about 450 deaths per day. Worldwide, influenza kills about 500,000 annually during the flu season. That is about 6,250 deaths per day or 260 PER HOUR.

The largest global infectious pandemic is tuberculosis (TB), which sickens 10 million and kills 1.5 million annually (a death every 21 seconds). It is the world’s No. 1 infectious killer and the ninth leading cause of death worldwide. WHO estimates that 1.8 billion people are infected by 
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
, the bacteria that causes TB. It is a global disease, found in every country in the world. “TB is an airborne disease that can be spread by coughing or sneezing and is the leading cause of infectious disease worldwide. There is growing resistance to available drugs, which means the disease is becoming more deadly and difficult to treat. There were more than half a million cases of drug-resistant TB last year” (TBAlliance.org).

The Wuhan district of China, ground zero for COVID-19, is getting back to work, temporary hospitals are closing, and travel restrictions are being lifted. All of China had zero new infections on March 18-19.

The fatality rate for COVID-19 is smaller than WHO reports originally showed. Large numbers of those who have contracted the respiratory virus are not part of the statistics because the symptoms are often so mild. The current statistic is 1.4 percent even in Wuhan (“Coronavirus latest news,” 
New Scientist, Mar 19, 2020). Time magazine said, “That means the total number of reported cases is very likely an underestimate—and by not counting many mild or asymptomatic cases, we’re likely overestimating the disease’s overall mortality rate. ... COVID-19 LOOKS A LOT CLOSER TO THE SEASONAL FLU THAN TO PREVIOUS CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAKS. A more complete—and, hopefully, less severe—picture of COVID-19 will likely emerge as the outbreak continues, testing capacity increases and data are refined” (“The WHO estimated COVID-19 Mortality,” Time, Mar. 9, 2020).

Schools reopened in Singapore on March 23 under wise, no-panic rules (
The Straits Times, Oct. 20, 2020). The government has an eye on the sustainability of its educational system. Sustainability is an important concept in this crisis. Many factors must be weighed, including the economy.

The anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in combination with azithromycin is proving successful in treating coronavirus patients in tests in Australia, France, and elsewhere. “A French study with a small sample size showed it to be 100 percent effective. The French study, led by researcher Didier Raoult and his team, has received worldwide attention. In it, six COVID-19 patients were given Plaquenil – a brand-name hydroxychloroquine drug – in tandem with the antibiotic drug azithromycin, 
Forbes reported. All six patients tested negative for COVID-19 by day six. In Australia, a University of Queensland study that used the anti-malaria drug in combination with an anti-HIV drug also was highly effective. The Queensland team is now using the drugs in a clinical trial. ‘Prior to the clinical trials going ahead, the medications were given to some of the first Australian patients infected with COVID-19, and all have completely recovered without any trace of the virus left in their system,’ David Paterson of the University of Queensland said in a press release. ‘These medications have the potential to be a real cure for all, unlike the random anecdotal experiences of some people.’ The university’s press release called it a ‘coronavirus cure’” (“Patients ‘Completely Recovered,’” Christian Headlines, Mar. 19, 2020).

President Trump is streamlining the testing of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients and has instructed the CDC to cut all red tape.

The Israeli company Teva is donating 16 million hydroxychloroquine tablets to hospitals in America for testing purposes (6 million immediately and 10 million more within a month). Teva is a global leader in generic and specialty medicines.

Following is the testimony of a man whose life was saved by hydroxychloroquine: “Rio Giardinieri, 52, who is vice-president of a company that manufactures cooking equipment at high-end restaurants in LA and around the world, thinks he contracted COVID-19 at a conference in New York. He had a fever for five days, horrendous back pain, headache, cough, and tiredness. ... Doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and coronavirus. They put him on oxygen in the ICU but he says he was still unable to breathe. ... Friday evening, he said goodbye to his wife and three children. ... A dear friend immediately sent him a recent article about hydroxychloroquine ... So, Giardinieri reached out to an infectious disease doctor. ‘He gave me all the reasons why I would probably not want to try it because there are no trials, there’s no testing, it was not something that was approved. And I said look I don’t know if I’m going to make it until the morning because at that point I really thought I was coming to the end because I couldn’t breathe anymore. He agreed and authorized the use of it and 30 minutes later the nurse gave it to me. ... they gave me some Benadryl [that allowed me to go to sleep and when I woke up at exactly 4:45 in the morning, I woke up like nothing ever happened.’ Miraculously, he’s since had no fever or pain, feels fine and he’s able to breathe again” (“A man with coronavirus,” Fox10 Phoenix, Mar. 23, 2020).

Remdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug that holds out hope as a COVID-19 blocker, is undergoing large human trials in China and the US.

Kaletra, a combination of anti-HIV drugs that stop viral replication, has shown some effectiveness in trials in China. India’s Chief Medical and Health Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh announced on March 16 that three COVID-19 patients have recovered by means of a combination of HIV drugs. “It appears it is working because three patients have recovered. Good thing is that all three patients are elderly and the successful result of the drug patients of such age is a big thing” (“Combination of two anti-HIV drugs proved crucial,” 
The Economic Times, Mar. 16, 2020).

Israel’s Institute of Technology (Technion) announced a new COVID-19 testing procedure that can test more than 60 patients at one time. The institute said they have “successfully tested a method that will dramatically increase the current COVID-19 testing capacity using existing available resources” (“Technion, Weizmann Institute,” 
No Camels, Mar. 18, 2020).

The first COVID-19 vaccine (by the company Moderna) has begun human testing in Washington state (“Biotech company ships first batches of vaccine,” 
Fox News, Mar. 16, 2020).

Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology branch at Galilee (MIGAL) has a vaccine that it hopes will achieve safety approval in a short time through expedited trials and fast-track approvals (“Israeli breakthrough in coronavirus vaccine imminent,” 
Israel Today, Mar. 16, 2020). MIGAL’s vaccine is a by-product of the development of a vaccine against Avian coronavirus.

Other companies have vaccines ready for testing. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is backing a vaccine developed by Oxford University and one by the US company Inovio, which had a vaccine ready three hours after the gene sequence was published in January. “It plans clinical trials in April and to have a million doses by December, if the approach works” (“The race to test coronavirus antiviral drugs and vaccines,” 
New Scientist, Mar. 11, 2020).

The French company Sanofi Pasteur is hybridizing the COVID-19 virus with a baculovirus already approved for its flu vaccine as a possible fast track to a vaccine that could be quickly mass-produced.

Some companies in America are hiring large numbers of new workers to keep up with increased demands caused by the coronavirus crisis. Walmart announced on March 20 that it is hiring 150,000 additional workers and has expedited the hiring process from two weeks to 24 hours. Walmart is raising the wage for entry-level workers and is also providing $550 million in cash bonuses to its hourly employees. Amazon is hiring 100,000 new workers for its American warehouse and delivery wings. CVS Pharmacy is hiring 50,000 and paying some workers bonuses of $500. Domino’s pizza is hiring 10,000. Walgreens is hiring 9,500. Pepsi is hiring 6,000 new full-time employees. Dollar Tree is hiring 25,000. 7-Eleven is hiring 20,000. Kroger, Costco, Albertson’s, and Aldi are hiring.

The coronavirus crisis has resulted in a massive increase in government surveillance of citizens. It looks like a trial run for a one-world government, and it is working very well. Ten countries are tracking phone data. Poland is requiring home quarantined patients to use a special app to take regular selfies to prove they are indoors; failure results in a visit from police (“Poland made an app,” 
Business Insider, Mar. 23, 2020). Taiwan has introduced “electronic fences” which alert police if suspected patients leave their homes (“Taiwan’s New Electronic Fence,” New York Times, Mar. 20, 2020).

Some liquor distilleries in America have switched to producing hand sanitizer.

Muslims have largely abandoned the Temple Mount after the closure of the Aqsa Mosque, while Jews have increased their presence (“Coronavirus causes Muslims to Abandon Temple Mount,” 
Breaking Israel News, Mar. 19, 2020).

A religious Jew who stole an antiquities artifact in Israel 15 years ago returned it, fearing that the end of the world is at hand. He was a teenager when he took the Roman ballista stone from an archaeological exhibition. It is from the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. Now married with children, the man is seeking to have a clear conscience when he stands before God (“‘It’s the End of the World,’ Says Repentant Israeli Antiquities Thief,” 
Israel Today, Mar. 18, 2020). If he would read his Bible with open eyes, he would see that he will give account for every sin against God in thought and deed and therefore there is no possibility of being justified by one’s deeds; only through the Messiah’s vicarious atonement can a sinner be justified. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecc. 12:14). “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:5-6).

Iran has scaled back its terrorist activity across the Middle East because of the coronavirus (“IDF indicates Iran scaling back,” 
The Times of Israel, Mar. 17, 2020).

For the redeemed, the Bible is full of wonderful promises from God our Saviour. “But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou 
art my God. My times are in thy hand...” (Psalm 31:14-15). Susannah Spurgeon, wife of Charles, commented on this promise as follows: “Not one or two important epochs of my history only, but everything that concerns me;—joys that I had not expected,—sorrows that must have crushed me if they could have been anticipated,—sufferings which might have terrified me by their grimness had I looked upon them,—surprises which infinite love had prepared for me,—services of which I could not have imagined myself capable;—all these lay in that mighty hand as the purposes of God’s eternal will for me” (cited from Susie: The Life and Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon by Ray Rhodes Jr.).

The best news is that any individual infected by the deadly virus of sin can be healed through saving faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and escape certain eternal death. Sin has a 100% mortality rate, but Dr. Jesus has a 100% success rate for those who come to Him by the door of saving faith. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
COVID-19 AND PRAYER

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3).

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of 
them whose heart is perfect toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

“And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Psalm 50:15).

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him” (Psalm 91:14-15).

“The LORD 
is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
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In light of these great promises and the encouragement that God Himself gives to His people that they might pray in faith and expect real answers, I pray that panic will subside, that good reason will reign, that government leaders will have wisdom and not be driven by panic-mongers, that God will protect our president, that God will be merciful to an undeserving people, and that many be confronted with their mortality and turn to Jesus Christ.

I also pray that the coronavirus will dissipate like fog in the sunshine by the end of April and that all of the doomsayers will be proven wrong. They won’t acknowledge that it was an answer to prayer and will doubtless take credit, but those who pray will know what happened and will rejoice in God’s great mercy and power.

For God’s people, difficult times call for prayer rather than panic. We have 
glorious promises, such as Romans 5:3-11 and 8:28. That’s why Proverbs says, “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” We aren’t foolish, but we are bold, because “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Prayer in God’s will changes things. It’s God’s eternal plan that it be so. The God who answered Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance from the fearful might of Assyria is still alive and still in the prayer answering business.

I would urge each born again child of God to take some special time to pray about this situation, and to keeping praying day-by-day until we have deliverance.

God has told us to pray for those who are in authority, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). That is exactly what we need! If God has specifically instructed His people to pray for this, is He not ready to answer? President Trump called for a national day of prayer last week. I wonder how many Bible-believing churches prayed? God doesn’t hear the prayers of those who come to Him in any other way than through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ. “For 
there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).

The day of the Lord has not yet come. It will come soon enough and the pestilences and other judgments will be unprecedented (Matthew 24:3-31).

As for prayer for leaders, the Bible teaches us that the governments are in God’s hands and that He can and does lead unsaved men. The prophet Daniel said, “... he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding” (Da. 2:21).

Let’s do some real praying, brethren, in these panic times. How is your prayer life? Let’s use this occasion to raise the temperature of our prayer lives to a higher level. Do you have a daily prayer closet when you do some real intercessory prayer before the throne of grace? Do you have family altars when the family really prays together? Do you have active prayer partners? Does your church have real prayer meetings when the people actually pray together? This has become a rarity, and it is high time to get back to prayer.