Politics and Science

            I just finished re-reading Christ for Unitarian Universalists by Scotty McLennan. Scotty McLennan is a Unitarian Universalist minister and Christian. The book is an overview of what liberal Christians and non-believers can take from the life and story of Jesus. The lessons include non-violence in the face of persecution, turning the other cheek, helping the poor and marginalized, and love for our fellow human beings. Since I was raised Roman Catholic, and was then an atheist from my mid-teens to my mid-twenties, and then converted to Unitarian Universalism in early 2018 at age 26, I have learned a lot about teachings and lessons of Jesus from the book, and how to be active for a peaceful movement for social justice.

I sent the following questions to local Des Moines hospitals, such as Broadlawns, UnityPoint Methodist, UnityPoint Lutheran, and MercyOne about the COVID-19 pandemic. 1)      How close is the ICU to full? 2)      Does the hospital anticipate running out of ICU capacity? 3)      How successful or unsuccessful has treating COVID patients been? 4)      How does the hospital view state and federal responses to COVID? I received varying degrees of responses. As of July 16, 2020, Broadlawns had six ICU beds and no COVID patients occupying any of them. Furthermore, Broadlawns has screening system on their premises for anyone with symptoms. People with symptoms are referred to Broadlawns’ Urgent Care for testing. Local hospitals are working to have reciprocity for personal protective equipment (PPE) in the event that any of them run low. On July 23rd, 2020, I received a statement from UnityPoint that discussed PPE and recommended following announcements from the Center for Dis