The Response to Covid Was So Much Worse Than Covid

Ahh, March of 2020. My co-counsel and I filed a lawsuit to reopen Church attendance in Kentucky. We couldn’t get the Kentucky Bishop’s Conference to sign on as plaintiffs because they were for the shut down. So, our clients were Baptists. Because these Baptists had actual faith, they refused to knuckle under even after they were ticketed for attending Easter Sunday services. At the time, we got a lot of nasty blow back about wanting to kill Grandma. My co-counsel, who was all over social media, got actual death threats. After winning that case, we filed a second one over shutting down parochial school attendance. Same story. We couldn’t get any of the Kentucky Bishops to sign on as plaintiffs, and I couldn’t even get a call with my Bishop in Cincinnati who I merely wanted to speak to in order to get him to persuade the Kentucky Bishops. Again, our clients were Baptists but, this time, a few brave lay Catholics as well. It was truly inspiring to see some who actually believed in the truths of their faith and that the exercise of it is indispensable, particularly at times of crisis.

The bishops may have been spooked by two sets of events which were widely reported at the time. One was a pair of well attended funerals in Albany, Georgia around 1 March 2020. Albany was almost unique in cities of that size for being a COVID hotspot and it began with these funerals, which proved to be superspreader events. The other was a choir practice in a town in Washington state (I think it may have been Port Angeles or Anacortes, I forget) after which a mass of choir members fell ill and two died. Still, it was pretty clear by the summer of 2020 that indoor air was the mode of transmission. At that point tents and folding chairs should have been placed on church grounds. Betwixt and between, they could have dispensed people over 45 from attending in person.

My 97 yr old Mom, in no meds and very tiny, quit eating. She got really weak. Amid several negative Covid tests, she had one positive. No Covid symptoms: no fever, resp. problems, etc. This was Dec. 2022. Neither of my siblings is talking to me because I kept my mom out of the hospital (her decision, I backed her up). The sister who is a nurse wants me investigated for neglect and accused me of attempted murder. Mom is doing fine now: i lined up caregivers who are getting her to eat better and she’s stronger every day. I’m with her every day, often overnight.

My sister the nurse kept insisting she be put on oxygen and treated with paxlovid. She claims fatigue is a symptom of Covid. It is but it’s also a symptom of a geriatric person who suffers malnutrition.

This has been an ongoing family battle for over a year. A lot of anger directed toward me. She gave in to the nurse sister and got vaxxed, then declined the booster because she felt it was rolled out too soon. My sister threatened to bring a visiting nurse to the house and give her the booster anyway. Mom said absolutely not and no more discussion allowed. I support her right to decide this.

Both sisters, and the nosy brother in law, regularly visited to yell at her about the booster. In my opinion, that’s elder abuse.

It also enrages them that I don’t reveal my vax status: I say it’s don’t ask, don’t tell.

This mental illness from Covid phobia has destroyed our family. We never used foul language in our house. When my other sister, a retired school teacher, stood in my mother’s living room and shouted the F-Word at me, in front of my horrified mother, I knew these people were lost.

Abp. Hebda in Minnesota also spoke out as well.