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The Burke County community may be wondering if the recent ruling from the North Carolina federal court allowing churches to resume indoor services will change the way church services are currently held.

Livestreaming worship services, Bible studies and prayer meetings through Facebook and YouTube have been well-received in the community and beyond, according to many Burke County church pastors.

Viewing is significantly higher than our regular attendance, said the Rev. George Logan, pastor of New Day Christian Church. Many of our members are sharing messages with their family and friends. Weve gotten positive messages and comments from people from around our community, as well as the country and abroad.

Many churches provide a CD of the service to watch for church members who are not on Facebook or YouTube or who may not be technologically savvy. Members also check in on them by phone.

First Baptist Church of Morganton also reaches out to members by mailing a weekly newsletter and offers its Sunday morning service livestream on CoMPAS Cable Channel 2.

Judging from the numbers of people viewing the Sunday morning services, it appears that we are reaching hundreds of viewers each week, said the Rev. Dr. Tom Bland Jr., senior pastor at FBC of Morganton. I suspect that other churches that have been conducting online services have had similar experiences.

Chambers Chapel Missionary Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Glen Alpine offer drive-up services Sundays. Gaston Chapel AME hosts praise in the parking lot services, and First Baptist Church of Icard holds services on the church grounds with attendees spaced 6 feet apart.

This information is current as of May 20, 2020 and includes information from more than 70 communities served by Lee newspapers. Please check directly with the place of worship for any change in status or services prior to attending or tuning in.

On Saturday, May 16, Judge James C. Dever III, of the Eastern District of North Carolina federal court, issued a temporary restraining order blocking the government from enforcing Gov. Roy Coopers executive order banning indoor religious services, ruling that it was a violation of the First Amendment, according to a previous News Herald article.

The lawsuit was filed by the Rev. Ronnie Baity, pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem; Return America Inc.; and Peoples Baptist Church Inc. A hearing is scheduled for May 29.

A few pastors in the community offered to shed some light on how they will serve their congregations amid the new ruling and COVID-19.

Logan said they will eventually begin to hold indoor services, but not until they have a comprehensive plan in place, which they are working on now.

It is of utmost importance to accurately discern what Gods spirit is saying to us, Logan said. If we do so, we will effectively minister to and protect our members, while still respecting authority.

Bland said they followed the governors executive order precisely and voluntarily for many reasons, but mainly for the concern for the health and safety of church members and visitors.

Our church presently is praying about and exploring (the) next steps as we anticipate that our state soon will transition into Phase 2 of its reopening, Bland said. We have made no decisions yet, at least through the end of May and possibly longer. (Before) any changes, we will prepare our facilities as fully as possible through strict adherence to (the) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Thrive Church is allowing indoor services beginning May 24, where members must register on Facebook to attend the 10:45 a.m. service. Seating is limited to 50 people. Masks and social distancing are mandatory. Families are allowed to sit together.

Bland explained what we need to remember to continue to protect people from the virus.

We do not want to risk jeopardizing the health of anyone who might attend, he said. We want to strive to obey the biblical commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves, including through how we conduct ourselves as a church family as this pandemic continues.

Barbara Jolly-Deakle is a News Herald correspondent and a member of the Morganton Writers Group. She can be reached at BabbyWrites@CompasCable.net.

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Churches respond to COVID-19, First Amendment ruling - Morganton News Herald

Amid the grim coronavirus news of death and unemployment, at least there is the comic relief of the left embracing the Tenth Amendment.

Suddenly trendy is the provision of the Bill of Rights that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

The rush to the Tenth came in response to President Trump'sstatementon May 22. "I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now," Trump said."The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now, for this weekend.If they don't do it, I will override the governors."

The editor of Mother Jones, a left leaning magazine, Clara Jeffrey, wasn't having it. "To be clear, Trump can't do [expletive] to force churches/temples/mosques to open. Little thing called the 10th Amendment," shetweeted.

The White House correspondent of the PBS Newshour, Yamiche Alcindor, made the same point. "Pres Trump says he will 'override the governors' if they don't follow new CDC guidance and open places of worship this weekend. Context: The 10th Amendment of the Constitution says powers not delegated to federal government are reserved to the states," Alcindortweeted.

A Democratic congressman from California, Jared Huffman, and a Democratic congressman from Maryland, Jamie Raskin, issued ajoint statementaccusing Trump of "breathtaking arrogance," and of threatening "to trample the sovereign powers of the states under American federalismand the rights of the people under the First Amendment and the Tenth Amendment."

Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State insisted that Trump lacks the power to override the governors. "The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution forbids the federal government from strongarming the states," Laser said, asquoted by Politico's Josh Gerstein.

What's amusing about this? Well, it's the humor of contrasting it with the attitude toward federal supremacy and states' rights that had obtained some years back, when the Democrats controlled the White House, and when "states rights" was the cry of segregationists, not social-distancers.

A front-page newsarticle in The New York Times back in 2010, when President Obama, a Democrat, was in the White House, cast doubt on states' rights efforts.

"Article 6 of the Constitution says federal authority outranks state authority, and on that bedrock of federalist principle rests centuries of back and forth that states have mostly lost, notably the desegregation of schools in the 1950s and '60s," the Times reported then. The Times quoted a law professor,Ruthann Robson, who claimed, "Article 6 says that that federal law is supreme and that if there's a conflict, federal law prevails."

A different New York Timesarticlefrom 2010 described the Tenth Amendment as "The Tea Party's favorite part of the Constitution," a reference to the grassroots "Taxed Enough Already" movement that was then organizing protests against Obama's policies.

Anda third Times article from 2010, reporting on Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing, observed, "Tea Party supporters believe that much of what the federal government regulates should be left to the states, where voters hold a shorter leash. For this reason, they embrace a strict interpretation of the 10th Amendment, which says that the powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution 'are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.'"

Back in 1996, when a different Democrat, Bill Clinton, controlled the White House, a Timeseditorialcomplained, "A headstrong five-justice majority is driving the Supreme Court toward a revolutionary, indeed reactionary, interpretation of federalism, tilting the balance dangerously toward states' rights at the expense of Federal power."

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that support for states' rights or federal power is dependent on whether your guy is the one in the White House giving the orders or the one in the governor's mansion being ordered around. It's less principled or consistent that it is partisan and situational.

The right can vacillate on these matters, too. That's particularly true in religious freedom cases. A strong historical legal case can be made that the First Amendment prohibition on establishing a religion was intended as a restriction on the federal government, not the states. So some conservatives have resisted using federal power to strike down, say, state school prayers or depictions of the Ten Commandments in state courthouses. But many of these same folks are glad Trump is encouraging governors to allow in-person worship, an expression of the free-exercise protection in the same First Amendment.

If the left presses the "state sovereignty" argument against Trump too far, it may find that clashes will be refereed in federal courts, and that Trump is commander-in-chief of a military with firepower that dwarfs any state police or National Guard unit. But Trump, too, may wish to recall a lesson of the Tea Party, which is that if voters are angry enough at Washington that they've discovered the often-obscure Tenth Amendment, there may be some price to be paid by incumbents in the upcoming election.

For skeptics of Washington-imposed central authority or big government, the left's embrace of the Tenth Amendment may be a positive effect of the pandemic. What are the chances that it would last into a Biden administration?

Read the original:
Liberals Have Rediscovered the 10th Amendment's Value During the Coronavirus Pandemic - Reason

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Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates:The Tamil Nadu governemnt said that 817 people tested positive for coronavirus in the state on Wednesday, and six deaths were also reported. Additionally, 567 people have been discharged on Wednesday.

The total number of cases in the state stands at 18,545, including 133 deaths and 9,909 discharged.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 40 new coronavirus cases reported in the state on Wednesday. Of these, nine returned from abroad, 16 returned from Maharashtra, five from Tamil Nadu and three from Delhi.

The total number of cases in the state are 1,004, of which 445 are active cases.

He added that till Tuesday, 173 Keralites have died due to COVID-19 in various countries.

"With people returning to the state, Kerala has entered the next phase of COVID-19 prevention and containment. There is a spike in the number of cases," he said.

792 new cases of coronavirus were reported in Delhi in the last 24 hours, which is the highest single-day spike in infections in the National Capital so far, The Indian Express reported. The total number of coronavirus cases rose to 15,257 on Wednesday.

"The toll in the city rose to 303 after 15 more casualties were updated by the state health department after examining the death summaries shared by the hospitals," the report said.

Addressing a joint press conference of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, Congress leader and state minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the government was working to alleviate the problems being faced by migrant workers in the state.

He said, "It has been two months since lockdown. We are all working together under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray. We are a major industrial hub. The number of our migrant labourers is also high. Each day, we are giving 7 lakh meals."

He also said that the coronavirus in Mumbai "continues to be a concern".

"Mumbai continues to be a matter of concern but the chief minister is making sure, nobody is inconvenienced. We had expected cooperation from the Opposition but they have opened new avenues to destabilise us. But we will not let them succeed," he added.

Kerala excise minister TP Ramakrishnan on Tuesday said that 576 bar hotels, 291 beer parlours and 301 government outlets will be allowed to sell liquor from Thursday.

He was quoted by India Today as saying, "We have decided to create a mobile application for crowd management at liquor shops. This is not for home delivery, but to book tokens. Our plan is to create a virtual queue management system. Only five people will be allowed at an outlet at a time."

One person can make a booking once in 4 days, the report said.

Amid escalating tensions between India and China over a border dispute, Sun Weidong, Chinese envoy to India said that the two countries were fighting coronavirus pandemic "together".

"China and India are fighting together against COVID-19 and we have an important task to consolidate relations. Our youth should realise the relation between China and India, the two countries are opportunities for each other and pose no threat.

"We should never let differences overshadow our relations. We should resolve differences through communication."

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the state government had not been informed about 36 trains that are set to arrive in the state from Mumbai.

"Without our knowledge, 36 trains are coming from Mumbai. I spoke with Maharashtra, they also got the information late. Railways is planning it on their own," she said. This came a day after Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan also said that two trains from Mumbai and Delhi had arrived in Kerala without the state government being informed.

The Goa Cabinet decided to make COVID-19 test compulsory for every person entering the state if they are unable to produce a 'COVID negative' certificate, said chief minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday.

"The 14-day home quarantine option will be no longer available. Either you bring the negative certificate or have to take the test," said the chief minister.

The move comes amid the state losing its green zone tag recently when people from neighbouring Maharashtra entered the border and tested positive for the disease.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in the state was at 21 days.

Speaking at a review meeting on Tuesday, Chouhan had said that the state's COVID-19 recovery rate has gone up to 53 percent, while the national average was 41.8 percent, the official said.

Similarly, the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases was at 21 days in Madhya Pradesh, while the average in the country was 15.4 days, the Chief Minister said in the meeting.

Eighteen more individuals, including one passenger who landed in Guwahati from Ahmedabad, tested positive in Assam, tweeted health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday.

Of the 17 other COVID-19 cases, 14 were reported in Golaghat alone, two in Karbi Anglong while one in Lakhimpur.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday dismissed the rumours of Mumbai and Pune going under military lockdown for 10 days. He clarified that that there was no proposal for Army deployment in the two cities.

Deshmukh strongly denied the messages which went viral on social media on Army deployment and appealed the people not to believe in it. He added that Maharashtra cyber cell has initiated action against those spreading the rumour.

A total of 792 COVID-19 positive cases were reported in Delhi in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the National Capital to 15,257 on Wednesday.

The Union Territory has so far reported 303 deaths, bringing the COVID-19 mortality rate to 1.9 percent.

Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: In the past 24 hours, 75 Maharashtra Police personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. This takes the total number of positive cases in the force to 1,964 with the toll at 20.

A total of 849 personnel have recovered while 1,095 are active cases.

Essential services related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health should be continued in a restricted manner in areas defined as containment and buffer zones, the Union Health Ministry said, underlining that COVID-19 testing is not mandatory for providing such services.

BSP president Mayawati on Wednesday termed as most unfortunate the continued sufferings of the migrants amid an ongoing dispute between the Centre and the Maharashtra government. 'It is important to stop levelling of charges and pay attention to these helpless people so that their lives can be saved from being completely ruined,' she said in a tweet in Hindi.

With four more individuals testing positive for the novel coronavirus in Assam, the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to 686 on Wednesday, said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Of the total, there are 617 active cases, Sarma said.

Professor Johan Giesecke of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, speaking to Congress' Rahul Gandhi on COVID-19 crisis in India said the country needed a graded exit plan from the lockdown to protect the economy.

Claiming that a severe lockdown may disrupt the economic growth, Giesecke on Wednesday said, "India has to ease restrictions one by one, it may however take months to completely come out of lockdown."

The Indian Council of Medical Research has removed the price cap of Rs 4,500 for the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test used to detect COVID-19, asking states and UTs to negotiate with private labs to fix "mutually agreeable" rates for the test.

In a letter to the state chief secretaries on Monday, ICMR Director General (D-G) Dr Balram Bhargava said the COVID-19 diagnostic supplies are stabilising because of the indigenous production of the kits.

Of the total 1,51,767 confirmed COVID-19 cases, there are 83,004 active cases, according to the latest data released by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.

India's COVID-19 recovery rate was at 42.45 percent after 64,425 patients were cured of the disease.

India reported 6,387 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus to 1,51,767 on Wednesday, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The COVID-19 toll was at 4,337 across the nation after 170 more patients succumbed to the viral infection.

Sixteen new COVID-19 cases were reported in Assam as of 11.55 pm on Tuesday, said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Of the new cases, six were reported in Hojai and Golaghat each, two in Darrang while one each in Kamrup Metro and Kamrup.

India reported 6,535 coronavirus cases and 146 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 1,45,380 and the total fatalities to 4,167.

The number of active COVID-19 cases climbed to 80,722. As many as 60,490 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the Union health ministry said.

This came on a day that the Supreme Court took note of the plight of migrants stranded due to the lockdown and issued notices to the Centre and all state governments.

Of the 146 deaths reported since Monday morning, 60 were in Maharashtra, 30 in Gujarat, 15 in Delhi, 10 in Madhya Pradesh, seven in Tamil Nadu, six in West Bengal, four each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, three in Telangana, two each in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka and one in Kerala.

Of the total 4,167 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 1,695 deaths followed by Gujarat with 888 deaths, Madhya Pradesh with 300, West Bengal with 278, Delhi with 276, Rajasthan with 167, Uttar Pradesh with 165, Tamil Nadu with 118 and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with 56 deaths each.

The death toll reached 44 in Karnataka and 40 in Punjab.

Representational image. PTI

Jammu and Kashmir has reported 23 fatalities due to the disease, Haryana has 16 deaths, while Bihar has registered 13 and Odisha has seven deaths.

Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have reported five deaths each so far, while Jharkhand and Assam have recorded four deaths each so far.

Chandigarh and Uttarakhand each have recorded three COVID-19 fatalities each, while Meghalaya has reported one fatality so far, data showed.

More than 70 percent of the deaths are due to comorbidities, authorities said.

According to the ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 52,667 followed by Tamil Nadu at 17,082, Gujarat at 14,460, Delhi at 14,053, Rajasthan at 7,300, Madhya Pradesh at 6,859 and Uttar Pradesh at 6,532.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 3,816 in West Bengal, 3,110 in Andhra Pradesh and 2,730 in Bihar. It has risen to 2,182 in Karnataka, 2,060 in Punjab, 1,920 in Telangana, 1,668 in Jammu and Kashmir and 1,438 in Odisha.

Haryana has reported 1,184 coronavirus infection cases so far, while Kerala has 896 cases. A total of 526 people have been infected with the virus in Assam and 377 in Jharkhand.

Uttarakhand has 349 cases, Chhattisgarh has 291, Chandigarh has reported 238 cases, Himachal Pradesh has 223, Tripura has 194 and Goa has registered 67 cases so far.

Ladakh has reported 52 COVID-19 cases, Puducherry has 41 instances of the infection, Manipur has 39 while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 33 infections

Meghalaya has registered 14 cases. Nagaland has reported three cases of the infection, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Arunachal Pradesh have reported two cases of the virus each, while Mizoram and Sikkim have reported a case each till how

"2,970 cases are being reassigned to states," the ministry said on its website, adding, "Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR."

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.

The Supreme Court said there have been inadequacies and certain lapses by the Centre and the states, and asked them to provide transport, food and shelter immediately free of cost.

Referring to various media reports showing the unfortunate and miserable conditions of migrant labourers walking on foot and cycling long distances after the lockdown, the top court issued notices to the Centre, the states and Union territories and sought their replies by 28 May.

Although the Centre and the states have taken measures to provide relief to the migrants, the court said there have been inadequacies and certain lapses. Effective concentrated efforts are now required to redeem the situation, it added.

The adequate transport arrangement, food and shelters are immediately to be provided by the Centre and State Governments free of cost, said the court which took the suo motu (on its own) cognizance of the situation.

The order by the court came amid criticism by activists and lawyers that the judiciary was not doing enough in tackling the migrants crisis after the coronavirus lockdown and in making the executive accountable.

The national lockdown was imposed on 25 March leading to job losses and forcing lakhs of migrant workers to head to their faraway native states.

The apex court on 15 May observed that it is impossible for the courts to monitor or stop the movement of migrant workers across the country and it is for the government to take necessary action in this regard.

We take suo motu cognizance of problems and miseries of migrant labourers who had been stranded in different parts of the country. The newspaper reports and the media reports have been continuously showing the unfortunate and miserable conditions of migrant labourers walking on-foot and cycles from long distances, said a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MR Shah.

The top court added that in the present situation of lockdown in the entire country, this section of the society (migrant labourers) needs succour and help by the concerned governments especially steps need to be taken by the Government of India, State Governments/ Union Territories in this difficult situation to extend helping hand to these migrant labourers.

'COVID-19 fatality rate in India among lowest in the world'

The COVID-19 fatality rate in India is among the lowest in the world at 2.87 percent, the Union government said, attributing the timely lockdown, early detection and management of coronavirus infection cases as the main reasons for the low death toll.

From 3.38 percent in April, the fatality rate in the country has come down to 2.87 percent as against 6.4 percent globally.

The toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,167 and the number of cases climbed to 1,45,380 in the country registering an increase of 146 deaths and 6,535 cases in a 24-hour span till Tuesday 8 am, according to the Union health ministry.

Responding to a question at a press briefing on why the country's death rate is one of the lowest in the word, ICMR DG Balram Bhargava said there is no substantiative factor behind it.

"We have surprisingly found a low fatality rate in India and which is a very good thing. Ultimately, we are interested in a patient surviving whether he gets COVID-19 or not.

"There are several hypothesis such as we are living in bad hygiene, have higher immunity and have been given certain vaccines like BCG and those for tuberculosis, but these all are hypothesis and we cannot say anything clearly on any factor. So long as the fatality rate is low it a good thing and I hope it continues," he said.

Joint secretary Lav Agarwal, however, said that the country's graded response to COVID-19 and timely identification of cases along with their clinical management played a major role in keeping the death rate low.

One of the main components of an infectious diseases is early identification, he said.

"We had started screening of passengers and activated our healthcare workers even 13 days before the WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern. If cases are detected on time they do not turn serious and to the extent automatically the fatality rate will be low," he said.

France has a fatality rate of 19.9 percent followed by Belgium at 16.3, Italy at 14.3, UK at 14.2, Spain 12.2, Sweden 11.9, Canada 7.6, Brazil 6.3, the US at 6.0, China 5.5 and Germany at 4.6 percent.

With inputs from PTI

Updated Date: May 27, 2020 20:15:47 IST

Tags : Assam, Coronavirus In India, Coronavirus Lockdown, Coronavirus Outbreak, Coronavirus Outbreak In Mumbai, Coronavirus Pandemic, COVID-19, COVID-19 In Assam, COVID-19 Outbreak, COVID-19 Pandemic, Health Ministry, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Lockdown, NewsTracker, Quarantine, Supreme Court

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Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: Jayant Patil says govt should be able to curb spread of COVID-19 in Mumbai by next week, 'cases slowly decreasing'...

Spanish flu has been used to describe the flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919 and the name suggests the outbreak started in Spain. But the term is actually a misnomer and points to a key fact: nations involved in World War I didnt accurately report their flu outbreaks.

Spain remained neutral throughout World War I and its press freely reported its flu cases, including when the Spanish king Alfonso XIII contracted it in the spring of 1918. This led to the misperception that the flu had originated or was at its worst in Spain.

Basically, it gets called the Spanish flu because the Spanish media did their job, says Lora Vogt, curator of education at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. In Great Britain and the United Stateswhich has a long history of blaming other countries for diseasethe outbreak was also known as the Spanish grip or Spanish Lady.

READ MORE: When Mask-Wearing Rules in the 1918 Pandemic Faced Resistance

Historians arent actually sure where the 1918 flu strain began, but the first recorded cases were at a U.S. Army camp in Kansas in March 1918. By the end of 1919, it had infected up to a third of the worlds population and killed some 50 million people. It was the worst flu pandemic in recorded history, and it was likely exacerbated by a combination of censorship, skepticism and denial among warring nations.

The viruses dont care where they come from, they just love taking advantage of wartime censorship, says Carol R. Byerly, author of Fever of War: The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I. Censorship is very dangerous during a pandemic.

Patients lie in an influenza ward at the U.S. Army Camp Hospital No. 45 in Aix-les-Baines, France, during World War I.

Corbis/Getty Images

When the flu broke out in 1918, wartime press censorship was more entrenched in European countries because Europe had been fighting since 1914, while the United States had only entered the war in 1917. Its hard to know the scope of this censorship, since the most effective way to cover something up is to not leave publicly-accessible records of its suppression. Discovering the impact of censorship is also complicated by the fact that when governments pass censorship laws, people often censor themselves out of fear of breaking the law.

In Great Britain, which fought for the Allied Powers, the Defense of the Realm Act was used to a certain extent to suppressnews stories that might be a threat to national morale, says Catharine Arnold, author of Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History. The government can slam whats called a D-Notice on [a news story]D for Defenseand it means it cant be published because its not in the national interest.

Both newspapers and public officials claimed during the flus first wave in the spring and early summer of 1918 that it wasnt a serious threat. The Illustrated London News wrote that the 1918 flu was so mild as to show that the original virus is becoming attenuated by frequent transmission. Sir Arthur Newsholme, chief medical officer of the British Local Government Board, suggested it was unpatriotic to be concerned with the flu rather than the war, Arnold says.

The flus second wave, which began in late summer and worsened that fall, was far deadlier. Even so, warring nations continued to try to hide it. In August, the interior minister of Italyanother Allied Powerdenied reports of the flus spread. In September, British officials and newspaper barons suppressed news that the prime minister had caught the flu while on a morale-boosting trip to Manchester. Instead, the Manchester Guardian explained his extended stay in the city by claiming hed caught a severe chill in a rainstorm.

READ MORE: Why the Second Wave of the 1918 Flu Was So Deadly

Warring nations covered up the flu to protect morale among their own citizens and soldiers, but also because they didnt want enemy nations to know they were suffering an outbreak. The flu devastated General Erich Ludendorffs German troops so badly that he had to put off his last offensive. The general, whose empire fought for the Central Powers, was anxious to hide his troops flu outbreaks from the opposing Allied Powers.

Ludendorff is famous for observing [flu outbreaks among soldiers] and saying, oh my god this is the end of the war, Byerly says. His soldiers are getting influenza and he doesnt want anybody to know, because then the French could attack him.

Patients at U. S. Army Hospital No. 30 at a movie wear masks because of an influenza epidemic.

The National Library of Medicine

The United States entered WWI as an Allied Power in April 1917. A little over a year later, it passed the 1918 Sedition Act, which made it a crime to say anything the government perceived as harming the country or the war effort. Again, its difficult to know the extent to which the government may have used this to silence reports of the flu, or the extent to which newspapers self-censored for fear of retribution. Whatever the motivation, some U.S. newspapers downplayed the risk of the flu or the extent of its spread.

In anticipation of Philadelphias Liberty Loan March in September, doctors tried to use the press to warn citizens that it was unsafe. Yet city newspaper editors refused to run articles or print doctors letters about their concerns. In addition to trying to warn the public through the press, doctors had also unsuccessfully tried to convince Philadelphias public health director to cancel the march.

The war bonds fundraiser drew several thousand people, creating the perfect place for the virus to spread. Over the next four weeks, the flu killed 12,191 people in Philadelphia.

READ MORE: How U.S. Cities Tried to Halt the Spread of the 1918 Pandemic

Similarly, many U.S. military and government officials downplayed the flu or declined to implement health measures that would help slow its spread. Byerly says the Armys medical department recognized the threat the flu posed to the troops and urged officials to stop troop transports, halt the draft and quarantine soldiers; but they faced resistance from the line command, the War Department and President Woodrow Wilson.

Wilsons administration eventually responded to their pleas by suspending one draft and reducing the occupancy on troop ships by 15 percent, but other than that it didnt take the extensive measures medical workers recommended. General Peyton March successfully convinced Wilson that the U.S. should not stop the transports, and as a result, soldiers continued to get sick. By the end of the year, about 45,000 U.S. Army soldiers had died from the flu.

The pandemic was so devastating among WWI nations that some historians have suggested the flu hastened the end of the war. The nations declared armistice on November 11 amid the pandemics worst wave.

In April 1919, the flu even disrupted the Paris Peace Conference when President Wilson came down with a debilitating case. As when the British prime minister had contracted the flu back in September, Wilsons administration hid the news from the public. His personal doctor instead told the press the president had caught a cold from the Paris rain.

See all pandemic coverage here.

Go here to read the rest:
As the 1918 Flu Emerged, Cover-Up and Denial Helped It Spread - History

Disney+ is the subject of a new censorship controversy surrounding the blurring of cleavage in episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place.

Disney+ is under fire for the censorship of a character's cleavage in Wizards of Waverly Place, which is a Disney Channel original show. The question remains, however, whether this censorship was present in the original broadcast or was changed for streaming on Disney+.

Disney appears to have blurred the cleavage of Maria Canals-Barrera, who plays Theresa Russo, the mortal moth of the main characters in the show. In the censored episode, she wears a purple blouse that features a very noticeable blur where a hint of cleavage should be.

RELATED: Deadpool Creator Rob Liefeld Throws Shade At Disney With Dead Mickey Mouse

Twitter user Danielle Owen (@lovelychubly) noticed this censorship and shared a photo of it in a tweet that has since gone viral.

The photo demonstrates how distracting the attempted edit is to the eye. However, it's apparently not a Disney+ issue, as many other Twitter users have come forward to argue that this censorship was present when the episode wasoriginally broadcast in 2009.

In the age of deep fakes, more evidence is required to prove whether this censorship is new or old. But, as fans know,Disney is no stranger to censorship controversy. And while it may not have originated with Disney+, thisincident is only fanning the flames after the service's firstcensorship discovery, involving itsversion of Splash.

There, the streaming service added longer CGI hair to Daryl Hannah's famous mane in order to cover her backside as she runs into the ocean. However, much like the Waverly cleavage blurring, the edit only serves to draw the eye to the area Disney is seeking to cover.

KEEP READING: Disney+'s Loki: First Season May See More Episodes

(via Movieweb)

Legends of Tomorrow Brings Back Fan-Favorite Character

Katarina writes and lives at the intersection of mental health, media, and hope. She has written for National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Women Write About Comics in the past. Currently she serves as editor for The Future of the Force and writes lists for CBR. Film, writing, people, and nature are Katarinas four favorite things. Her passion lies in using writing to help people understand and experience the world and its media more vividly. A new resident of LA, Katarina is probably crying about something nerdy at this very moment.

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