To put the so-called coronavirus pandemic into perspective, compare current speculation in the media about its “devastating” effect with the statistics below from the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT). Obviously, we care about all with injuries, illness, and loss of life, but in light of the statistics in the excerpt below, why are international, federal, state, and local politicians not issuing “drive in place” directives to protect the global population from the more devastating effects of road crashes each year?<\/p>\n
“Annual Global Road Crash Statistics<\/p>\n
View the WHO\u2019s infographics on road safety facts.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day.
\n\u2022 An additional 20-50 million are injured or disabled.
\n\u2022 More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among young adults ages 15-44.
\n\u2022 Road traffic crashes rank as the 9th leading cause of death and account for 2.2% of all deaths globally.
\n\u2022 Road crashes are the leading cause of death among young people ages 15-29, and the second leading cause of death worldwide among young people ages 5-14.
\n\u2022 Each year nearly 400,000 people under 25 die on the world\u2019s roads, on average over 1,000 a day.
\n\u2022 Over 90% of all road fatalities occur in low and middle-income countries, which have less than half of the world\u2019s vehicles.
\n\u2022 Road crashes cost USD $518 billion globally, costing individual countries from 1-2% of their annual GDP.
\n\u2022 Road crashes cost low and middle-income countries USD $65 billion annually, exceeding the total amount received in developmental assistance.
\n\u2022 Unless action is taken, road traffic injuries are predicted to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.<\/p>\n
Annual United States Road Crash Statistics<\/p>\n
\u2022 Over 37,000 people die in road crashes each year
\n\u2022 An additional 2.35 million are injured or disabled
\n\u2022 Over 1,600 children under 15 years of age die each year
\n\u2022 Nearly 8,000 people are killed in crashes involving drivers ages 16-20
\n\u2022 Road crashes cost the U.S. $230.6 billion per year, or an average of $820 per person
\n\u2022 Road crashes are the single greatest annual cause of death of healthy U.S. citizens traveling abroad”<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.asirt.org\/safe-travel\/road-safety-facts\/<\/p>\n
So, in light of the above and in order to protect yourself from car crashes and the coronavirus, you should “logically” be advised to park your car in the garage and then to lock yourself and your family in your car until the politicians give you the “green light.”<\/p>\n
Alternatively, you could carry on with life as normally as possible and use some of your extra time delving deeper into scripture. Remember that the coronavirus “panic-demic” is the global reaction of a world without faith, either in God or even in the existence of God; a faithless world suddenly and collectively confronted with its finitude, its mortality. People are rightly scared.<\/p>\n
Christians, however, know that people turning away from Jesus Christ, even his followers, is nothing new. In relation to Jesus teaching about unbelief, St. John records that “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God'” (John 6:66-69 – ESV).<\/p>\n
In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and thereafter in scripture, baptism, the Lord’s supper, and teaching and preaching, God in Christ has given all of us mortal sinners the words of eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 – ESV). As those ordained into the priesthood of all believes through baptism, let us share these eternal life giving words with others as Christ has given them to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"