Submitted by Caleb Pilgrim
Personally, I would rather deal with systemic issues, despite obvious limitations of time and space. In this vein, you may wish to have Dr. Doughlin and/or others opine on the substance of the PAHO/WHO 2018-2024 report attached.
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/272851/ccs-brb-2018-2024-
The Coronavirus is no doubt a game changer. Policy wise, the question remains what exactly is to be done? Or, in sum, despite bluffing, are we, in the Caribbean, in a situation analogous to the man who puts on a condom well after he has been severely infected?
Arguably, the risks increase drastically if “43%” of the QEH patients suffer from diabetes or diabetic complications. Ditto other Caribbean islands.
Similarly, data coming out of China/Wuhan indicates that 50% of the fatalities there are for patients suffering from high blood pressure. Ditto Barbados and the other Caribbean islands. Ditto, heart disease patient(s). Ditto various cancers as well, not uncommon in Barbados. In fact, all of the foregoing diseases are already commonplace in B’dos.
Finally, if we must – re the debate on the “social gospel”, perhaps, it was not by accident that we used to meet in John Moore’s Bar/“Rum shop”, where Dr. Doughlin (an Adventist) addressed us before we all drifted off in different directions.
I believe that, based on our reading of the Canon, a reasonable interpretation is that Jesus’s radical gospel absolutely frightened the Establishment of his day. Thus, his 26 or more healing miracles would have frightened the crap out of the doctors (see for instance Mark’s treatment of the woman with the “issue of blood”, versus Dr. Luke’s treatment of the same issue. Per Luke, the poor woman had spent all that she had …).
Similarly, the merchants who lost their income, when he fed the thousands, including turning water into wine. Imagine if you owned a Package Store or an Off License. The merchants become apoplectic.
Similarly, when he taught a totally contrarian doctrine in the synagogues, the Scribes (the lawyers), Pharisees and Sadducees would have feared losing respect and money, (or vice versa).
I don’t know that we can never escape the relevance of the “social gospel”, so long as the poor, the sick, the infirm and those who suffer remain with us.
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