Dr. Everett Piper, a respected evangelical educator, recently tweeted out a link to a lengthy article and made this startling claim: “I posted a COVID19 article yesterday and said it was most important article of the day. THIS ONE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLE OF THE YEAR! Must read! Must share. Must follow this advice!!” The article, nearly 5,000 words long and primarily written by David Williams, a medical doctor, challenges much of the conventional thinking concerning COVID-19.

Are Drs. Piper and Williams correct? If so, is our national response to the virus terribly wrong?

No Assumptions

As I stated in a recent article, I have neither the medical nor the educational qualifications to comment with expertise on the virus or our response to it.

As for my attitude towards the government, I have both trust and distrust. That’s because I believe there are sincere, God-fearing people serving in our government as well as others with ulterior or even nefarious motives. Plus, there are sincere, well-intentioned people in the government whose ideologies I reject.

So, I make no a priori assumptions for or against governmental policies. They must be evaluated on their merits.

The purpose, then, of this article is to ask some honest questions of Dr. Williams and Dr. Piper for the sake of improved understanding. And I ask with the utmost respect.

But first, let me summarize the claims of Dr. Williams and his co-authors. (Dr. Williams wrote: “Although there is a central author, it is being written on behalf of multiple physicians in West Alabama and will be distributed through multiple medical offices. Between us we have well over a hundred years of practice and have treated hundreds of thousands of patients suffering infectious diseases. Including mission trips we have treated patients on five continents.”)

The Claims

According to the article, the following are lies:

• “We don’t know much about coronavirus.” To the contrary, “We know it mutates and evolves just like the flu. We know it sometimes becomes deadly as it has in SARS and MERS.”
• “COVID-19 is more infectious than influenza.” The authors argue that the reverse is true.
• “COVID-19 is more dangerous than influenza.” This is simply a “lie of the medically uninformed.”
• “The fact one doesn’t know he or she has COVID-19 makes it more dangerous.” Instead, “All viruses shed and are primarily spread while the infected host is asymptomatic.”

The article also claims these as truths (this is just an excerpt):

• “It is now almost impossible for anyone in the general public or general medical community to know the actual number of deaths from COVID-19.” Because of this, we need to be very wary of the data that is being presented.
• “The current policies instituted by our local, state, and national governments are causing greater health problems than the virus ever will.”
• “The media as a whole has grossly misrepresented this disease.”
• “The way in which the media has pushed fear nonstop amounts to psychological warfare against this country.”
• “The media will continue to fight reopening of this country by stating ‘experts’ predict a spike in deaths if we do so.”
• “Not every country has shut down their economy, and none of those countries have suffered higher rates of death because they have kept their economy going.”
• “Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is making a fortune, and he wants you to stay home.”
• “COVID-19 has been treated like a world-ender; it’s not even remotely close.”
• “This is not a medical crisis, but a political crisis.”
• “If you love your children, enjoy sports, or know anyone who owns or is employed by a small business you should be angry.” Yes, you should be very angry. “We can absolutely take steps to protect the elderly and vulnerable, but everything should reopen immediately.”

Some Honest Questions

There are some “opinions” offered in the article as well, but enough has been cited to lay the foundation for my questions. And again, I ask for the sake of improved understanding.

• If COVID-19 is no more deadly than normal influenza, why do so many of us know someone who died of COVID-19? I’m 65 years old now, and I can’t remember the last friend (or friend of a friend) who died of the flu. But already, among those who have passed away, I can personally count an old friend (an active, 74-year-old), a close friend of a friend (also very active, in his early 60s), and two friends of two close friends (I believe in their 60s as well). In other words, in my immediate circle of friends and their friends, in the last few weeks, four have died of COVID-19, whereas I can’t remember anyone I know dying of the flu in many years (decades?). What does that imply?
• If COVID-19 is no more deadly or contagious than normal influenza, why has it had such a devastating effect on the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, especially in Israel? These communities deal with the flu every year, as do other communities, but the fatalities and serious complications from COVID-19 seem drastically different than during the normal flu season. Why is that? One ultra-Orthodox website features a COVID19 Live Blog, COVID19 Tehillim Names (Tehillim means Psalms; these are people with the virus who are being prayed for); and a COVID19 Activity List. The website also features obituaries of victims, including rabbis in their 30s and 40s. Does this strike you as surprising?
• A friend of mine in Northern Italy shared some of the tragic stories coming from his part of the world, including firsthand accounts of a number of pastors who died of the disease. Here too, the numbers seem disproportionately higher than during the normal flu season. Why is that?
• Why did countries other than America, including Israel, go to such extreme lengths to shut down their nations, knowing the terrible financial damage that would ensue? And why did Singapore, praised for its approach in the earlier weeks, have to go to much more extreme measures in recent days as the disease has skyrocketed among the migrant workers? (See here and here for details.)
• A healthcare giver from the UK asked, “if it’s less infectious than flu and doesn’t make the average under 60 person sick … why have almost all the staff where I work been off with it? Fortunately the last of us is coming back to work now so we can get on with our jobs, looking after the elderly. This disease has taken several of them despite our best efforts to keep it out.” Does this surprise you at all?

Why I Ask

To say it once more, these are honest questions I have. And I have them precisely because I am lacking the necessary expertise to sort through the competing claims.

Also, in no way am I defending all of our government’s decisions. And I have openly criticized the overreach of some local leaders. In addition, I recognize that many people have their own agendas, including political and financial. Those agendas could cloud their judgment.

I am simply asking some honest, “layman” type questions. I imagine I am not the only reader of this important article that has similar questions. To any who can respond, thanks in advance for your time. And thanks for all you are doing for the good of the nation.

Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is When the World Stops: Words of Faith, Hope, and Wisdom in the Midst of Crisis. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.