On Plugged In…
The coronavirus
is changing the way
people worship...
and how they pray.
At the Vatican...
Pope Francis delivers…
Easter mass…
to a mostly empty basilica..
Muslims prepare for Ramadan …
knowing the annual …
pilgrimage to Mecca …
is suspended.
Jews celebrate Passover …
and hold a traditional Seder ...
but now the matzah on the table…
making room …
for the laptop computer …
with guests joining by the Internet.
(Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum)
“Is it perfect? No, but we are using technology the best we can.”
On Plugged In -
how the era of social distancing...
Is changing cultural norms...
and traditions...
And…
are researchers any closer to a cure?
On - the coronavirus crisis:
Faith and Religion
(Greta)
Hello and welcome to Plugged In. I’m Greta Van Susteren coming to you from my home in Washington DC.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to shape daily lives, not least of which - how they worship and how they pray. Easter is one of the most important holidays on the Christian calendar. At the Vatican it was celebrated in quite a different way. VOA’s Sabina Castelfranco reports on Pope Francis’ Easter message.
((Sabina Castelfranco reporting in Rome))
With Saint Peter’s Square empty, Pope Francis delivered his Urbi et Orbi message from the Gates of the Confession, to the city and to the world. His words this year resounded more strongly than ever as he addressed a world he said is “now oppressed by a pandemic severely testing our whole human family.”
((Pope Francis ))
“Today my thoughts turn in the first place to the many who have been directly affected by the new coronavirus: the sick, those who have died and family members who mourn the loss of their loved ones, to whom, in some cases, they were unable even to bid a final farewell.”
((NARRATOR))
The pontiff praised the doctors and nurses who work to exhaustion and at risk of their own health. And he declared this year’s “Easter of solitude” should be a “contagion of hope.”
((Pope Francis (IN ITALIAN))
“This is not a time for indifference, because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic.”
((NARRATOR))
All the pope’s services during Holy Week were held inside an empty Saint Peter’s Basilica with the exception of the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, which took place in a deserted Saint Peter’s Square. Ten people from Italy’s prison system and the Vatican’s health services carried a cross.
It was a far cry from the traditional Way of the Cross candle-lit procession attended by tens of thousands at Rome’s ancient Colosseum every year.
Romans and the faithful worldwide will not forget this Holy Week easily. The city has no traffic, empty piazzas and no tourists – a surreal scene no one could ever have imagined.
Time seems to have come to a standstill at famous Rome landmarks like the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum, normally bustling with people.
In Saint Peter’s Square only police officers with protective masks are visible - making sure no one breaks the new rules.
(SABINA CASTELFRANCO, FOR VOA NEWS, ROME)
(Greta)
Disruptions to religious norms prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to issue a warning of potential attacks against houses of worship due to social frictions associated with the pandemic.
The warning says DHS has not received any “imminent or credible threats” but cites an increase in online hate speech
“intended to encourage violence to spread hatred.”
Just getting a congregation together for religious services is still weeks away. Reverend Timothy Cole leads a historic Episcopal church here in Washington, DC.
He was also among the first COVID-19 patients in the nation’s capital.
I spoke with Reverend Cole about his personal recovery from Corona virus and the impact it is having on religion and faith.
(Greta Interviews Rev. Timothy Cole)
GVS: So take me back to March first. You did services that day right?
TC: Yes I came back from a conference in Louisville and did some services. And then, you know, I felt fine and then the following day, Monday I started to feel like flu. So I went to bed and and waited until the flu broke, and then waited another 24 hours and then went back to work felt fine. And then a few days later on I went down with that again and that's when they admitted me.
GVS: Did your family get it at all? Did your wife get it from you?
TC: nope both my wife and son were fine.
GVS: And yet, yet during that period of time you were interacting with them when you were with the flu symptoms?
TC: Yes, that's right.
GVS: How many days did you spend in the hospital?
TC: 21 days.
GVS: Do you have recollection of it? or were you that sick that you don't have recollection of it?
TC: No, I remember it. It was- I had quite a bit of oxygen at the beginning, but I was never on a ventilator. And so I seemed to get a little bit better and then I seemed to get worse again. It's just, it's a waiting game, because you're waiting to see whether the body is going to improve or not, you know. But for me it went up and down a little bit and it was a--So it's quite a long, long process.
GVS: I don't mean to step on your privacy rights but did you have like the chloroquine? I mean there are a lot of medicines that people are talking about . Do you have any medicines that they are now looking at as possible?
TC: Yeah, I asked I asked to have the, the anti-malarials because I saw the study in France where it seemed to have some good effect. And having spent a lot of time abroad in those countries and taken anti-malarials many times before I thought, well, you know, if it does good that's great. if it doesn't do anything that's fine. it's a safe drug so I asked to have it.
GVS: Did they and they actually gave it to you?
TC: Yeah.
GVS: And did you have a z-pack with it, the antibiotic that they they marry these two together or not?
TC:Yes, there's another drug that it goes with, yea.
GVS: Could your family visit you while you were in the hospital?
TC: No, they couldn't really. Lorraine came up. There was a sort of airlock with two glass windows and she came up and we were able to kind of talk in the phone and wave to each other through glass, but that was about it, really. It's an amazing feeling. You know, you are one day you're going along the kind of highway of life, straight and able to do turn to right left, to do whatever you want to do, and then suddenly you find yourself shoved into this small dark back street, which you've got no choice but to go down. and you can't turn to left or right and you're kind of just stuck. and it's, it's, it's a strange feeling.
GVS: Are you taking any medicine now? Or are they just telling you to rest and drink fluids?
TC: No, yes I'm just resting and waiting for the, for my lungs to heal, you know, and there's, there's nothing, apparently that you can do about that. you just have to let them do it in their own good time.
GVS: Well you have obviously done a good job, both physically and also spiritually respond to it. You seem like you are in good spirits and on the road to recovery.
TC: Yeah, thank you I feel that. and I've been most fortunate here. I have been surrounded by so many wonderful people, both the doctors, nurses, the hospital but also the community here who have been praying for me, and and responded to the crisis in amazing ways actually. And people are connecting and people are. I mean, this, this community is stronger definitely than it was before the beginning of this crisis. and it was a strong community then.
GVS: You did your Easter service, online digitally that everyone's doing?
TC: That's right, and lots of people are doing similar things. But it's been wonderful how members of the congregation have have really become closer, more connected and more together really. And when we do come back to church, it's going to be a wonderful reunion. And as I say, I think our community will be stronger than it was before it started and I really hope that's going to be true for communities up and down the country and for the country as a whole.
(Greta)
With Easter’s arrival comes the Jewish holiday of Passover.
The traditional dinner celebrating the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt is open to family, friends and even strangers. But a new plague marks the holiday this year.
I spoke with Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum from New York about how she and her congregants are adapting to the corona virus pandemic.
(Greta interviews Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum)
SK: We had to pivot very quickly to being an online community. But we don't like using the word virtual as a colleague of mine says - we're still a community.
One of the wonderful things about being part of a multi-generational community is that the younger people have really stepped up and have been loving and generous tutors to our older folks. And before my psalms class for the first couple of weeks, for instance, younger people were on the phone with everybody and on zoom, walking people through the technology to help everybody get up to speed.
The reality is so many of my congregants are sick, or dying, or mourning. And we can't go to the hospital to be with people. We can't sit with people in Shiva anymore and do funerals in which we're, we're, we're holding the mourners. It's a difficult time in these ways.
GVS: I guess I feel the saddest for the people sitting Shiva when they're alone, you know that you have a wonderful tradition of bringing food over and people coming together with the family of a lost a loved one. And you know, it's a wonderful tradition, and to have that sort of stolen from everybody during this time.
SK: Well, we like to think of it as offering us an opportunity to really develop new ways of thinking about ritual, new ways of thinking about mourning new ways of trying to be together. And I'm trying to focus for our community, what we can learn from these places. Isolation in these places of social distancing, and not only focus on the negative, which the curses are awfully visible, it's our job, I think, to always look for the blessings that exist in our lives.
And I believe that even the most difficult things can make us more deeply human, more open to the light in the world, more appreciative of small kindnesses and generosities. And I think it's our job to learn the things that will only deepen the world and make us a better place. And that's the challenge of being a human being.
GVS: Looking at other religions. I mean, I suppose you can appreciate the challenges they have with their various traditions. They've got problems too, I mean and trying to deal with technology in a time of a virus like this - a pandemic.
SK: Every one of us is challenged right now. And I think that I learned from my Christian colleagues, from my Muslim colleagues, from my Sikh colleagues. I learned from all different communities who are focused on this one thing, how do we deepen ourselves? How do we build community? How do we not give up or give him and all religious traditions have this as a teaching within it, and I learned from them all, the power of believing in hope.
Do the Five – Help stop coronavirus:
Hands - wash them often.
Elbow – cough into it.
Face – don’t touch it.
Feet – Stay more than 3 feet (1 meter) apart.
Feel Sick? Stay at home.
Do the five – help stop coronavirus.
(Greta)
This pandemic is especially challenging for developing countries.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan is asking for debt relief so Pakistan and other struggling nations can fight COVID-19.
Some Pakistani doctors were arrested after protesting a lack of personal protective equipment. Pakistan has more than 5000 cases of coronavirus. VOA’s Islamabad bureau chief Ayesha Tanzeem says trying to cover the story while maintaining social distancing guidelines is a bit like playing a video game.
(Reporters Notebook - Ayesha Tanzeem)
Things are moving from surreal to downright fictiony. Yep, that’s not a word. I invented it.
The other day I had to go fos some essential grocery shopping. Seriously, it felt like a real-life version of the video game Pacman. Every other human on the street or in the shop was out to eat me. To stay alive, I had to stay away from them at all costs. So I zigzagged right to left on the sidewalk, trying to keep my six feet distance away from all passersby.
Inside the supermarket, the game intensified. Every time I saw another customer walking down the aisle towards me, I would turn and walk the other way. If I couldn’t find something and the salespeople tried to help me, I would gesturd wildly for them to stay away.
The mental toll of just that bit of grocery shopping was enough to make me feel physically tired. I have felt less stress traveling through war torn Afghanistan.
Talking of Afghanistan, this is the time when I should have been there. I am forced to cover from a distance stories that require an up-close look.
That’s the biggest dilemma. Millions of people around me are suffering. I need to be telling their stories, the human stories. But I’m more restricted now than I am covering wars and conflict.
How do I do my job without putting my health or, more importantly, the health of my crew at risk? Yes, they’re taking all the precautions, the face masks, the sanitizer, the gloves, but I’m taking my crew out. They have little kids. I grapple with this everyday. The guilt is eating me.
(Ayesha Tanzeem, VOA News, Islamabad.)
(Greta)
According to the Los Angeles Times, new research shows COVID-19 may pose long-term threats to organ function in patients who have recovered.
The World Health Organization says 70 vaccines are now in development.
I spoke with the president of Regeneron - a science and technology company to learn more about their latest breakthroughs.
(Greta interviews George Yancopoulos at Regeneron)
GVS: Sir, what is it that your company is doing?
GY: Okay, we're trying to provide short-term therapeutics that can make a difference, before the final answer, which we're all hoping for which is a vaccine, can come along. Of course we've heard from experts like Tony Fauci and others that it may be a year or two away to get a vaccine. So what can we do in the short-term?
When you give somebody a vaccine, you're inducing that person to make an immune response, against the virus that can fight the virus. That immune response is called antibodies, anti-viral antibodies. Well, it turns out t hat we can make exactly those kinds of antibodies, outside of the body. And we can purify them and grow them up to large scale and then give them back to people. So it's as if they've been vaccinated, as if they've made their own antibodies but we provided the antibodies that can fight the virus. Another one of our approaches is directed against the inflammation that people are getting in their lungs that's causing serious lung disease. That's thought to perhaps be due to too much inflammation in the lungs. One of our drugs blocks that inflammation and we're testing that as well.
GVS: So if I can, dumbing this down for someone like me. The first approach, is basically the second approach is basically like a steroid to reduce the inflammation. The first approach is like a phony antibody. It is not something that the person creates himself, but you artificially create for the person to fight the disease?
GY: Exactly. And it's exactly the same antibodies you would make. But you don't have to make those antibodies yourself. So you're exactly right, Kevzara is like a more powerful, more targeted steroid okay, that targets just the one inflammatory pathway that might be important. And our antibody cocktail approach, as we call it, reproduces exactly the sort of antibodies a vaccine is intended to do, but we can make it much more potently, much more actively, and give it to you so you don't have to be vaccinated.
GVS: Where are you in the testing?
GY: Well with Kevzara, since it was already FDA-approved, and because of this incredible collaboration with the federal and the state government and the FDA and with BARDA, which is the rapid response arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, everybody got together. We got that trial going in record time within a week or two of the Chinese results. And we are in the midst of that trial right now, and we hope within a few weeks to a month or two to have a definitive answer: does this really work or not? With the antibodies, we've been working on that since the first reports started coming out of China that there was this new potential epidemic coming along. And those are on track to be going to the first human trials by June.
GVS: How long do trials have to take? Or how many people do you have to test?
GY: There's gonna be three kinds of trials: one is going to be in people who have never been infected to prove that they can be protected. For example, healthcare workers, people at the front lines, people at high risk-- show that they can go in to the front lines, and they don't have to be afraid that they are going to catch the disease. That's a prophylaxis, a protection trial. We can go to the people who have early stages of the disease, not yet having lung symptoms and severe lung disease. We can treat early treatment, and based on the data that we've done with MERS, which was another coronavirus and with Ebola, prophylaxis in early treatment, we have high hopes, would be quite effective. But we're also going to do the late treatment study in the patients who have the advanced lung disease. And we're going to see if it can benefit those as well. So there's going to be three separate trials. We would hope, if everything goes well, we can be in those trials by June, and within a month or so in each of the trials, maybe be getting answers.
GVS: All right, one last question, if the green light, if this all works just as we expect or we hope. How fast can you manufacture this or get this, deliver this to people?
GY: Well, we're working hand in hand with the FDA and with other regulators and with the government to free up, we have one of the world's largest biologics manufacturing facilities, up in Rensselaer New York. And we are trying to free it up and dedicate it entirely to these approaches for the coronavirus. If all goes well, if we continue to get this sort of collaboration help from all the necessary parties, we may be able to dedicate it completely. So by this summer, we could producing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of doses per month of this. So we could really make an impact, I think, in this crisis.
GVS: And of course, not to be a naysayer, but if there's another virus that comes along, you know, a few years from now, that's different, if this methodology works where you make these phony antibodies as I call it, that's a game changer for that.
GY: Well, the problem is, each virus, you need to make specific antibodies, just against that virus, just like we did for MERS or just like we did for Ebola and like we're trying to do now for COVID-19. If we're successful here, it will just add to our knowledge base and also every time we do it we get a little better, a little faster. So it took us nine months to go from starting the project to being human trials for Ebola. It's going to take us about five months for the COVID-19 which is going to be a world record for this sort of thing. And of course, we're going to try to increase our preparedness and our capability so if there's another, God forbid, pandemic, we'll be able to respond even better and faster.
COVID-19 Fast Facts:
This is a special presentation of Voice of America.
Wash your hands with soap and water – before you eat, after using the toilet, after touching anything many other people touch like a seat on a public bus. Scrub thoroughly for 20 seconds. If you cannot wash your hands, use a hand sanitizer. Taking these steps can prevent not only coronavirus but also colds and flu and other viruses.
VOA – A free press matters.
(Greta)
In the Middle East more than 160,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported. Iran remains the worst hit with over 70,000 cases, followed by Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are on lockdown with at least 250 known coronavirus cases. But health officials there say testing has been limited and some fear the situation can only get worse, especially in the densely-populated Gaza strip where the health system remains fragile. VOA’s Linda Gradstein reports.
(Palestinians & COVID-19 by Linda Gradstein)
((NARRATOR))
The Gaza Health Ministry is building a field hospital and two large quarantine facilities for coronavirus patients on the border with Egypt. Ministry officials worry they could soon be overwhelmed.
((Dr. Mehbet Abbas, Gaza Ministry of Health (in English, VOA Via Zoom)))
“I’m a public health specialist and what I see is just scaring me because I know that before this Corona issue we have had this blockade of Gaza for almost 13 years today, and the health system was already fragile with a limited capacity of beds, and with limited capacity of equipment and a shortage of beds and the problems that we’re facing before. So this is coming on top of a very fragile health system to increase the pressure. And I am afraid that without external support of the health system in Gaza that things are going to be - there will be a collapse, we’re quite sure.”
((NARRATOR))
That concern is echoed by the World Health Organization.
((Dr. Gerald Rockenschaub, Head of WHO for Palestinian Territories))
"The Gaza Strip is a very crowded environment. That in itself is obviously an environment that would be conducive to further spread of the disease. And then, we obviously start from a relatively problematic level of the health system. And as I said, there are shortages everywhere from medicines, to human resources, to medical supplies.”
((NARRATOR))
The Hamas government is disinfecting Gaza's streets and markets, even enlisting help from the Islamic Jihad's armed militia.
Mosques have been shut down and social events limited, essential steps for slowing the spread of the disease in a place as overcrowded as Gaza.
((Mehmed Abbas, Gaza Ministry of Health (in English)))
“In Gaza the first thing - we are more than 5000 per kilometer square. So the overcrowding will let this disease, God forbid, spread very quickly. For that reason everybody should stay home at this moment, not tomorrow, right now and start the curfew.”
((NARRATOR))
Palestinians in the West Bank are also in a 30-day state of emergency declared by the Palestinian prime minister, after Bethlehem announced the first Palestinian cases of the coronavirus and locked down the city’s iconic Church of the Nativity.
The Palestinian Authority is distributing medical and food aid and theIsraeli government is also cooperating with the supply of equipment and know-how.
((Yotam Shefer, COGAT, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories))
“Israel delivered hundreds of medical kits to the PA enabling observation of the virus. Also there are joint tutorials and professional medical workshops participated both by Israeli and Palestinian medical staff where they are given the knowledge regarding the virus and proper tools to deal with it.”
((NARRATOR))
They often don’t agree on much else but Palestinians and Israelis recognize that the coronavirus knows no borders and in this instance, are acting in solidarity to prevent its spread across their borders.
Linda Gradstein for VOA News, in Jerusalem.
(Greta)
Coronavirus has been slow to spread in Africa but cases there are now rising quickly. South Africa, Egypt and Algeria currently have the most confirmed cases.
Immigrants from Somalia are clustered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis where everyone is staying home - keeping their social distance.
One Somali restaurant owner is trying to make a difference. He spoke with VOA’s Somali Service. Plugged In’s Mil Arcega narrates.
(Comfort Food narrated by Mil Arcega)
With most of the city’s business on coronavirus lockdown, Minneapolis restaurant owner Abdirahman Kahin is keeping his kitchen open to help feed people in need. Kahin says small businesses are rising to the challenge - at a time when they are most affected by the shutdown.
((Abdirahman Kahin, Afro Deli Owner))
“We closed most of our restaurants, and the only business we are doing is to-go. And that is not even one-fifth or one-sixth of our business. So therefore, we are helping the community because God, Allah, gave us what we have. So, we have to always try to help the community.”
((NARRATOR))
Kahin and his volunteers are helping older members of the Somali community, and their neighbors, along with disabled Minnesotans who are stuck at home because of the virus.
((Abdi Mohamed Darwish))
“I used to exercise by walking outside around my neighborhood. Now, due to the stay-at-home order, I cannot go outside. I feel restricted, and it has affected me greatly. I feel like I am in jail in my home.”
((NARRATOR))
Restaurant manager Isis Sisco says the free meals are a personal connection at a time of social distancing.
((Isis Sisco, Afro Deli Manager ))
“We know that food comforts everybody, so we are taking the timeout to make individual meals for each one of them, you know, just to give them some comfort. Because our food is comfortable.”
((NARRATOR))
Afro Deli volunteers brought lunch to Ramola Madsan.
((Ramola Madsan, Food Recipient ))
“I am so grateful to have somebody bring me something nice to eat. Yesterday after people came and offered this, I closed my door and I went inside and cried because it is such a kind, sweet thing to do.”
((NARRATOR))
Kahin says he knows the free meals are not enough to help everyone in need, but he hopes it helps start a broader private-sector response.
((Abdirahman Kahin, Afro Deli Owner))
“We don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. So, this community needs our help. And as a small business owner, we are a community business. And we always make sure to respond when the community needs us.”
((NARRATOR))
Kahin says it is up to local business and volunteers to help support public services that may be stretched thin by the virus.
((For Maxamuud Mascadde in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mil Arcega VOA News.))
(Greta)
Before we go an update on another deadly outbreak, one the World Health Organization believed was finally receding: Ebola.
The Democratic Republic of Congo had gone almost seven weeks without a single reported case of the virus - until last week.
That is when health officials reported two new deaths in the eastern city of Benin.
The first – a 26-year old electrician, the second – an 11-month old girl.
Both had been treated in the same hospital.
Until these two cases, the W-H-O had been preparing to declare the end to the second worst Ebola outbreak in the region.
That outbreak which we covered here on Plugged In - has killed more than 2200 people since August of 2018.
That is all the time we have for this edition of Plugged In.
We will continue to follow this crisis. But for the latest updates please visit our website at VOANews.com.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter - @Greta.
Thanks for being Plugged In. We hope to see you again next week!
The coronavirus
is changing the way
people worship...
and how they pray.
At the Vatican...
Pope Francis delivers…
Easter mass…
to a mostly empty basilica..
Muslims prepare for Ramadan …
knowing the annual …
pilgrimage to Mecca …
is suspended.
Jews celebrate Passover …
and hold a traditional Seder ...
but now the matzah on the table…
making room …
for the laptop computer …
with guests joining by the Internet.
(Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum)
“Is it perfect? No, but we are using technology the best we can.”
On Plugged In -
how the era of social distancing...
Is changing cultural norms...
and traditions...
And…
are researchers any closer to a cure?
On - the coronavirus crisis:
Faith and Religion
(Greta)
Hello and welcome to Plugged In. I’m Greta Van Susteren coming to you from my home in Washington DC.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to shape daily lives, not least of which - how they worship and how they pray. Easter is one of the most important holidays on the Christian calendar. At the Vatican it was celebrated in quite a different way. VOA’s Sabina Castelfranco reports on Pope Francis’ Easter message.
((Sabina Castelfranco reporting in Rome))
With Saint Peter’s Square empty, Pope Francis delivered his Urbi et Orbi message from the Gates of the Confession, to the city and to the world. His words this year resounded more strongly than ever as he addressed a world he said is “now oppressed by a pandemic severely testing our whole human family.”
((Pope Francis ))
“Today my thoughts turn in the first place to the many who have been directly affected by the new coronavirus: the sick, those who have died and family members who mourn the loss of their loved ones, to whom, in some cases, they were unable even to bid a final farewell.”
((NARRATOR))
The pontiff praised the doctors and nurses who work to exhaustion and at risk of their own health. And he declared this year’s “Easter of solitude” should be a “contagion of hope.”
((Pope Francis (IN ITALIAN))
“This is not a time for indifference, because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic.”
((NARRATOR))
All the pope’s services during Holy Week were held inside an empty Saint Peter’s Basilica with the exception of the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, which took place in a deserted Saint Peter’s Square. Ten people from Italy’s prison system and the Vatican’s health services carried a cross.
It was a far cry from the traditional Way of the Cross candle-lit procession attended by tens of thousands at Rome’s ancient Colosseum every year.
Romans and the faithful worldwide will not forget this Holy Week easily. The city has no traffic, empty piazzas and no tourists – a surreal scene no one could ever have imagined.
Time seems to have come to a standstill at famous Rome landmarks like the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum, normally bustling with people.
In Saint Peter’s Square only police officers with protective masks are visible - making sure no one breaks the new rules.
(SABINA CASTELFRANCO, FOR VOA NEWS, ROME)
(Greta)
Disruptions to religious norms prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to issue a warning of potential attacks against houses of worship due to social frictions associated with the pandemic.
The warning says DHS has not received any “imminent or credible threats” but cites an increase in online hate speech
“intended to encourage violence to spread hatred.”
Just getting a congregation together for religious services is still weeks away. Reverend Timothy Cole leads a historic Episcopal church here in Washington, DC.
He was also among the first COVID-19 patients in the nation’s capital.
I spoke with Reverend Cole about his personal recovery from Corona virus and the impact it is having on religion and faith.
(Greta Interviews Rev. Timothy Cole)
GVS: So take me back to March first. You did services that day right?
TC: Yes I came back from a conference in Louisville and did some services. And then, you know, I felt fine and then the following day, Monday I started to feel like flu. So I went to bed and and waited until the flu broke, and then waited another 24 hours and then went back to work felt fine. And then a few days later on I went down with that again and that's when they admitted me.
GVS: Did your family get it at all? Did your wife get it from you?
TC: nope both my wife and son were fine.
GVS: And yet, yet during that period of time you were interacting with them when you were with the flu symptoms?
TC: Yes, that's right.
GVS: How many days did you spend in the hospital?
TC: 21 days.
GVS: Do you have recollection of it? or were you that sick that you don't have recollection of it?
TC: No, I remember it. It was- I had quite a bit of oxygen at the beginning, but I was never on a ventilator. And so I seemed to get a little bit better and then I seemed to get worse again. It's just, it's a waiting game, because you're waiting to see whether the body is going to improve or not, you know. But for me it went up and down a little bit and it was a--So it's quite a long, long process.
GVS: I don't mean to step on your privacy rights but did you have like the chloroquine? I mean there are a lot of medicines that people are talking about . Do you have any medicines that they are now looking at as possible?
TC: Yeah, I asked I asked to have the, the anti-malarials because I saw the study in France where it seemed to have some good effect. And having spent a lot of time abroad in those countries and taken anti-malarials many times before I thought, well, you know, if it does good that's great. if it doesn't do anything that's fine. it's a safe drug so I asked to have it.
GVS: Did they and they actually gave it to you?
TC: Yeah.
GVS: And did you have a z-pack with it, the antibiotic that they they marry these two together or not?
TC:Yes, there's another drug that it goes with, yea.
GVS: Could your family visit you while you were in the hospital?
TC: No, they couldn't really. Lorraine came up. There was a sort of airlock with two glass windows and she came up and we were able to kind of talk in the phone and wave to each other through glass, but that was about it, really. It's an amazing feeling. You know, you are one day you're going along the kind of highway of life, straight and able to do turn to right left, to do whatever you want to do, and then suddenly you find yourself shoved into this small dark back street, which you've got no choice but to go down. and you can't turn to left or right and you're kind of just stuck. and it's, it's, it's a strange feeling.
GVS: Are you taking any medicine now? Or are they just telling you to rest and drink fluids?
TC: No, yes I'm just resting and waiting for the, for my lungs to heal, you know, and there's, there's nothing, apparently that you can do about that. you just have to let them do it in their own good time.
GVS: Well you have obviously done a good job, both physically and also spiritually respond to it. You seem like you are in good spirits and on the road to recovery.
TC: Yeah, thank you I feel that. and I've been most fortunate here. I have been surrounded by so many wonderful people, both the doctors, nurses, the hospital but also the community here who have been praying for me, and and responded to the crisis in amazing ways actually. And people are connecting and people are. I mean, this, this community is stronger definitely than it was before the beginning of this crisis. and it was a strong community then.
GVS: You did your Easter service, online digitally that everyone's doing?
TC: That's right, and lots of people are doing similar things. But it's been wonderful how members of the congregation have have really become closer, more connected and more together really. And when we do come back to church, it's going to be a wonderful reunion. And as I say, I think our community will be stronger than it was before it started and I really hope that's going to be true for communities up and down the country and for the country as a whole.
(Greta)
With Easter’s arrival comes the Jewish holiday of Passover.
The traditional dinner celebrating the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt is open to family, friends and even strangers. But a new plague marks the holiday this year.
I spoke with Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum from New York about how she and her congregants are adapting to the corona virus pandemic.
(Greta interviews Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum)
SK: We had to pivot very quickly to being an online community. But we don't like using the word virtual as a colleague of mine says - we're still a community.
One of the wonderful things about being part of a multi-generational community is that the younger people have really stepped up and have been loving and generous tutors to our older folks. And before my psalms class for the first couple of weeks, for instance, younger people were on the phone with everybody and on zoom, walking people through the technology to help everybody get up to speed.
The reality is so many of my congregants are sick, or dying, or mourning. And we can't go to the hospital to be with people. We can't sit with people in Shiva anymore and do funerals in which we're, we're, we're holding the mourners. It's a difficult time in these ways.
GVS: I guess I feel the saddest for the people sitting Shiva when they're alone, you know that you have a wonderful tradition of bringing food over and people coming together with the family of a lost a loved one. And you know, it's a wonderful tradition, and to have that sort of stolen from everybody during this time.
SK: Well, we like to think of it as offering us an opportunity to really develop new ways of thinking about ritual, new ways of thinking about mourning new ways of trying to be together. And I'm trying to focus for our community, what we can learn from these places. Isolation in these places of social distancing, and not only focus on the negative, which the curses are awfully visible, it's our job, I think, to always look for the blessings that exist in our lives.
And I believe that even the most difficult things can make us more deeply human, more open to the light in the world, more appreciative of small kindnesses and generosities. And I think it's our job to learn the things that will only deepen the world and make us a better place. And that's the challenge of being a human being.
GVS: Looking at other religions. I mean, I suppose you can appreciate the challenges they have with their various traditions. They've got problems too, I mean and trying to deal with technology in a time of a virus like this - a pandemic.
SK: Every one of us is challenged right now. And I think that I learned from my Christian colleagues, from my Muslim colleagues, from my Sikh colleagues. I learned from all different communities who are focused on this one thing, how do we deepen ourselves? How do we build community? How do we not give up or give him and all religious traditions have this as a teaching within it, and I learned from them all, the power of believing in hope.
Do the Five – Help stop coronavirus:
Hands - wash them often.
Elbow – cough into it.
Face – don’t touch it.
Feet – Stay more than 3 feet (1 meter) apart.
Feel Sick? Stay at home.
Do the five – help stop coronavirus.
(Greta)
This pandemic is especially challenging for developing countries.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan is asking for debt relief so Pakistan and other struggling nations can fight COVID-19.
Some Pakistani doctors were arrested after protesting a lack of personal protective equipment. Pakistan has more than 5000 cases of coronavirus. VOA’s Islamabad bureau chief Ayesha Tanzeem says trying to cover the story while maintaining social distancing guidelines is a bit like playing a video game.
(Reporters Notebook - Ayesha Tanzeem)
Things are moving from surreal to downright fictiony. Yep, that’s not a word. I invented it.
The other day I had to go fos some essential grocery shopping. Seriously, it felt like a real-life version of the video game Pacman. Every other human on the street or in the shop was out to eat me. To stay alive, I had to stay away from them at all costs. So I zigzagged right to left on the sidewalk, trying to keep my six feet distance away from all passersby.
Inside the supermarket, the game intensified. Every time I saw another customer walking down the aisle towards me, I would turn and walk the other way. If I couldn’t find something and the salespeople tried to help me, I would gesturd wildly for them to stay away.
The mental toll of just that bit of grocery shopping was enough to make me feel physically tired. I have felt less stress traveling through war torn Afghanistan.
Talking of Afghanistan, this is the time when I should have been there. I am forced to cover from a distance stories that require an up-close look.
That’s the biggest dilemma. Millions of people around me are suffering. I need to be telling their stories, the human stories. But I’m more restricted now than I am covering wars and conflict.
How do I do my job without putting my health or, more importantly, the health of my crew at risk? Yes, they’re taking all the precautions, the face masks, the sanitizer, the gloves, but I’m taking my crew out. They have little kids. I grapple with this everyday. The guilt is eating me.
(Ayesha Tanzeem, VOA News, Islamabad.)
(Greta)
According to the Los Angeles Times, new research shows COVID-19 may pose long-term threats to organ function in patients who have recovered.
The World Health Organization says 70 vaccines are now in development.
I spoke with the president of Regeneron - a science and technology company to learn more about their latest breakthroughs.
(Greta interviews George Yancopoulos at Regeneron)
GVS: Sir, what is it that your company is doing?
GY: Okay, we're trying to provide short-term therapeutics that can make a difference, before the final answer, which we're all hoping for which is a vaccine, can come along. Of course we've heard from experts like Tony Fauci and others that it may be a year or two away to get a vaccine. So what can we do in the short-term?
When you give somebody a vaccine, you're inducing that person to make an immune response, against the virus that can fight the virus. That immune response is called antibodies, anti-viral antibodies. Well, it turns out t hat we can make exactly those kinds of antibodies, outside of the body. And we can purify them and grow them up to large scale and then give them back to people. So it's as if they've been vaccinated, as if they've made their own antibodies but we provided the antibodies that can fight the virus. Another one of our approaches is directed against the inflammation that people are getting in their lungs that's causing serious lung disease. That's thought to perhaps be due to too much inflammation in the lungs. One of our drugs blocks that inflammation and we're testing that as well.
GVS: So if I can, dumbing this down for someone like me. The first approach, is basically the second approach is basically like a steroid to reduce the inflammation. The first approach is like a phony antibody. It is not something that the person creates himself, but you artificially create for the person to fight the disease?
GY: Exactly. And it's exactly the same antibodies you would make. But you don't have to make those antibodies yourself. So you're exactly right, Kevzara is like a more powerful, more targeted steroid okay, that targets just the one inflammatory pathway that might be important. And our antibody cocktail approach, as we call it, reproduces exactly the sort of antibodies a vaccine is intended to do, but we can make it much more potently, much more actively, and give it to you so you don't have to be vaccinated.
GVS: Where are you in the testing?
GY: Well with Kevzara, since it was already FDA-approved, and because of this incredible collaboration with the federal and the state government and the FDA and with BARDA, which is the rapid response arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, everybody got together. We got that trial going in record time within a week or two of the Chinese results. And we are in the midst of that trial right now, and we hope within a few weeks to a month or two to have a definitive answer: does this really work or not? With the antibodies, we've been working on that since the first reports started coming out of China that there was this new potential epidemic coming along. And those are on track to be going to the first human trials by June.
GVS: How long do trials have to take? Or how many people do you have to test?
GY: There's gonna be three kinds of trials: one is going to be in people who have never been infected to prove that they can be protected. For example, healthcare workers, people at the front lines, people at high risk-- show that they can go in to the front lines, and they don't have to be afraid that they are going to catch the disease. That's a prophylaxis, a protection trial. We can go to the people who have early stages of the disease, not yet having lung symptoms and severe lung disease. We can treat early treatment, and based on the data that we've done with MERS, which was another coronavirus and with Ebola, prophylaxis in early treatment, we have high hopes, would be quite effective. But we're also going to do the late treatment study in the patients who have the advanced lung disease. And we're going to see if it can benefit those as well. So there's going to be three separate trials. We would hope, if everything goes well, we can be in those trials by June, and within a month or so in each of the trials, maybe be getting answers.
GVS: All right, one last question, if the green light, if this all works just as we expect or we hope. How fast can you manufacture this or get this, deliver this to people?
GY: Well, we're working hand in hand with the FDA and with other regulators and with the government to free up, we have one of the world's largest biologics manufacturing facilities, up in Rensselaer New York. And we are trying to free it up and dedicate it entirely to these approaches for the coronavirus. If all goes well, if we continue to get this sort of collaboration help from all the necessary parties, we may be able to dedicate it completely. So by this summer, we could producing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of doses per month of this. So we could really make an impact, I think, in this crisis.
GVS: And of course, not to be a naysayer, but if there's another virus that comes along, you know, a few years from now, that's different, if this methodology works where you make these phony antibodies as I call it, that's a game changer for that.
GY: Well, the problem is, each virus, you need to make specific antibodies, just against that virus, just like we did for MERS or just like we did for Ebola and like we're trying to do now for COVID-19. If we're successful here, it will just add to our knowledge base and also every time we do it we get a little better, a little faster. So it took us nine months to go from starting the project to being human trials for Ebola. It's going to take us about five months for the COVID-19 which is going to be a world record for this sort of thing. And of course, we're going to try to increase our preparedness and our capability so if there's another, God forbid, pandemic, we'll be able to respond even better and faster.
COVID-19 Fast Facts:
This is a special presentation of Voice of America.
Wash your hands with soap and water – before you eat, after using the toilet, after touching anything many other people touch like a seat on a public bus. Scrub thoroughly for 20 seconds. If you cannot wash your hands, use a hand sanitizer. Taking these steps can prevent not only coronavirus but also colds and flu and other viruses.
VOA – A free press matters.
(Greta)
In the Middle East more than 160,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported. Iran remains the worst hit with over 70,000 cases, followed by Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are on lockdown with at least 250 known coronavirus cases. But health officials there say testing has been limited and some fear the situation can only get worse, especially in the densely-populated Gaza strip where the health system remains fragile. VOA’s Linda Gradstein reports.
(Palestinians & COVID-19 by Linda Gradstein)
((NARRATOR))
The Gaza Health Ministry is building a field hospital and two large quarantine facilities for coronavirus patients on the border with Egypt. Ministry officials worry they could soon be overwhelmed.
((Dr. Mehbet Abbas, Gaza Ministry of Health (in English, VOA Via Zoom)))
“I’m a public health specialist and what I see is just scaring me because I know that before this Corona issue we have had this blockade of Gaza for almost 13 years today, and the health system was already fragile with a limited capacity of beds, and with limited capacity of equipment and a shortage of beds and the problems that we’re facing before. So this is coming on top of a very fragile health system to increase the pressure. And I am afraid that without external support of the health system in Gaza that things are going to be - there will be a collapse, we’re quite sure.”
((NARRATOR))
That concern is echoed by the World Health Organization.
((Dr. Gerald Rockenschaub, Head of WHO for Palestinian Territories))
"The Gaza Strip is a very crowded environment. That in itself is obviously an environment that would be conducive to further spread of the disease. And then, we obviously start from a relatively problematic level of the health system. And as I said, there are shortages everywhere from medicines, to human resources, to medical supplies.”
((NARRATOR))
The Hamas government is disinfecting Gaza's streets and markets, even enlisting help from the Islamic Jihad's armed militia.
Mosques have been shut down and social events limited, essential steps for slowing the spread of the disease in a place as overcrowded as Gaza.
((Mehmed Abbas, Gaza Ministry of Health (in English)))
“In Gaza the first thing - we are more than 5000 per kilometer square. So the overcrowding will let this disease, God forbid, spread very quickly. For that reason everybody should stay home at this moment, not tomorrow, right now and start the curfew.”
((NARRATOR))
Palestinians in the West Bank are also in a 30-day state of emergency declared by the Palestinian prime minister, after Bethlehem announced the first Palestinian cases of the coronavirus and locked down the city’s iconic Church of the Nativity.
The Palestinian Authority is distributing medical and food aid and theIsraeli government is also cooperating with the supply of equipment and know-how.
((Yotam Shefer, COGAT, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories))
“Israel delivered hundreds of medical kits to the PA enabling observation of the virus. Also there are joint tutorials and professional medical workshops participated both by Israeli and Palestinian medical staff where they are given the knowledge regarding the virus and proper tools to deal with it.”
((NARRATOR))
They often don’t agree on much else but Palestinians and Israelis recognize that the coronavirus knows no borders and in this instance, are acting in solidarity to prevent its spread across their borders.
Linda Gradstein for VOA News, in Jerusalem.
(Greta)
Coronavirus has been slow to spread in Africa but cases there are now rising quickly. South Africa, Egypt and Algeria currently have the most confirmed cases.
Immigrants from Somalia are clustered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis where everyone is staying home - keeping their social distance.
One Somali restaurant owner is trying to make a difference. He spoke with VOA’s Somali Service. Plugged In’s Mil Arcega narrates.
(Comfort Food narrated by Mil Arcega)
With most of the city’s business on coronavirus lockdown, Minneapolis restaurant owner Abdirahman Kahin is keeping his kitchen open to help feed people in need. Kahin says small businesses are rising to the challenge - at a time when they are most affected by the shutdown.
((Abdirahman Kahin, Afro Deli Owner))
“We closed most of our restaurants, and the only business we are doing is to-go. And that is not even one-fifth or one-sixth of our business. So therefore, we are helping the community because God, Allah, gave us what we have. So, we have to always try to help the community.”
((NARRATOR))
Kahin and his volunteers are helping older members of the Somali community, and their neighbors, along with disabled Minnesotans who are stuck at home because of the virus.
((Abdi Mohamed Darwish))
“I used to exercise by walking outside around my neighborhood. Now, due to the stay-at-home order, I cannot go outside. I feel restricted, and it has affected me greatly. I feel like I am in jail in my home.”
((NARRATOR))
Restaurant manager Isis Sisco says the free meals are a personal connection at a time of social distancing.
((Isis Sisco, Afro Deli Manager ))
“We know that food comforts everybody, so we are taking the timeout to make individual meals for each one of them, you know, just to give them some comfort. Because our food is comfortable.”
((NARRATOR))
Afro Deli volunteers brought lunch to Ramola Madsan.
((Ramola Madsan, Food Recipient ))
“I am so grateful to have somebody bring me something nice to eat. Yesterday after people came and offered this, I closed my door and I went inside and cried because it is such a kind, sweet thing to do.”
((NARRATOR))
Kahin says he knows the free meals are not enough to help everyone in need, but he hopes it helps start a broader private-sector response.
((Abdirahman Kahin, Afro Deli Owner))
“We don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. So, this community needs our help. And as a small business owner, we are a community business. And we always make sure to respond when the community needs us.”
((NARRATOR))
Kahin says it is up to local business and volunteers to help support public services that may be stretched thin by the virus.
((For Maxamuud Mascadde in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mil Arcega VOA News.))
(Greta)
Before we go an update on another deadly outbreak, one the World Health Organization believed was finally receding: Ebola.
The Democratic Republic of Congo had gone almost seven weeks without a single reported case of the virus - until last week.
That is when health officials reported two new deaths in the eastern city of Benin.
The first – a 26-year old electrician, the second – an 11-month old girl.
Both had been treated in the same hospital.
Until these two cases, the W-H-O had been preparing to declare the end to the second worst Ebola outbreak in the region.
That outbreak which we covered here on Plugged In - has killed more than 2200 people since August of 2018.
That is all the time we have for this edition of Plugged In.
We will continue to follow this crisis. But for the latest updates please visit our website at VOANews.com.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter - @Greta.
Thanks for being Plugged In. We hope to see you again next week!
