Churches Were Eager to Reopen. Now They Are a Major Source of Coronavirus Cases.

[Zorro]

The virus has infiltrated Sunday services, church meetings and youth camps. More than 650 cases have been linked to reopened religious facilities.

Weeks after President Trump demanded that America’s shuttered houses of worship be allowed to reopen, new outbreaks of the coronavirus are surging through churches across the country where services have resumed.

The virus has infiltrated Sunday sermons, meetings of ministers and Christian youth camps in Colorado and Missouri. It has struck churches that reopened cautiously with face masks and social distancing in the pews, as well as some that defied lockdowns and refused to heed new limits on numbers of worshipers.

Pastors and their families have tested positive, as have church ushers, front-door greeters and hundreds of churchgoers. In Texas, about 50 people contracted the virus after a pastor told congregants they could once again hug one another. In Florida, a teenage girl died last month after attending a youth party at her church.

More than 650 coronavirus cases have been linked to nearly 40 churches and religious events across the United States since the beginning of the pandemic, with many of them erupting over the last month as Americans resumed their pre-pandemic activities, according to a New York Times database.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/us/coronavirus-churches-outbreaks.html

[winetourdriver01]

1. Grift

Well you know it's hard to do the grift with empty pews

[stopbush]

2. The power of prayer...

[JCMach1]

3. As bad as, or worse than bars

[LastDemocratInSC]

6. Well, churches are worse than bars in many ways.

Always have been.

[JCMach1]

9. from your mouth to God's ears

[Ohiogal]

4. I'll just bet it's a lot more than 650.

[Tech]

5. Isn't that surprising. Is this a good time to say " bless their hearts"?

[tanyev]

7. Oh, FFS.

“There’s a very fine line between protecting the health and safety of people, and protecting the right to worship,” said George Murdock, a county commissioner in northeastern Oregon, where the largest outbreak in the state has been traced to a Pentecostal church in a neighboring county. “It’s one we’ve been walking very nervously all along.”

NOBODY is attacking their right to worship. They just have to do it in a way that is safe right now. The churches that are doing online services and stay-in-your-car parking lot services are doing just fine.

[SoonerPride]

8. Is anyone surpised?

I'm not.

[malaise]

10. Some got some nice money

Check it out

[Blecht]

11. These monsters learned nothing from Korea

The main source of an early spread in South Korea came from a church. Korea learned and worked hard early. The US, not so much.

Some data:

South Korea
Population: 51 million
Total cases: 13,244

Texas
Population: Just under 30 million
Cases - single day (yesterday): 10,028