singing and chanting banned in houses of worship

[little2add]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has banned singing and chanting in houses of worship amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Once again, there was absolutely no effort to stop protests where thousands of people gathered and destroyed property (especially in LA).

Like think for a minute. What’s more likely to spread disease? A group of less than 100 people in a building singing 6 feet apart in moderate decibel levels? 

 

Go figure

[Luigi]

And there have also been - to the best of my knowledge (but I don't live in California) - any legal challenges to these executive orders. We have all lost all of our civil rights, as far as I can tell. 

[Hna.Caridad]

Quote

18 hours ago, little2add said:

Like think for a minute. What’s more likely to spread disease? A group of less than 100 people in a building singing 6 feet apart in moderate decibel levels? 

 

 

Sadly, singing inside an enclosed area with only a 6 foot distance seems to be more likely to spread the virus than being in a crowd outside with (or without) a mask.  The church that you pictured above is way more crowded than one in which I would feel comfortable these days—particularly if the church has air conditioning.

There was a time when people insisted that 3 feet was enough distance to keep people “safe” from airborne/droplet infections.  It’s only since the COVID outbreak that we’ve been hearing about the magical 6 feet, and…science is finding that 6 feet isn’t really enough, either.

I’ve taking a clip out of an article—to see the whole article, please go to:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-why-6-feet-may-not-be-enough-social-distance

Aerosol particles released when people sing may have led the coronavirus to spread to 45 members of the Skagit Valley Chorale in Washington. Two died.

Some choir members met for practice on March 3 and 10 before Washington state issued a stay-home order and before Skagit County had any known COVID-19 cases. Choir members reportedly kept six-foot distance from each other. But in belting out tunes, whistling and talking to one another, infected choir members may have propelled the virus into each others’ safety zones.

 “A good singer knows how to use all the air in their lungs,” says Donald Milton, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland School of Public Health in College Park. That may lead to exhaling lots of coronavirus, or breathing it deep into the lungs during breaths between refrains.

Regarding the protests:  you seem to be more fixated on protecting property than on protecting lives.  I find it odd that you’re suddenly concerned about the possibility of outdoor protesters (many of whom are wearing masks) spreading COVID now that they’re protesting racism and police brutality than you were in March and April when (mostly) unmasked people were gathering outside of state capitols to protest the economic shut-downs. 

I'm not saying that you are more concerned about property than about lives:  I'm just saying that that's how it's coming across in your posts.     

And yes,  I miss singing. 

[Kateri89]

18 hours ago, Hna.Caridad said:

Regarding the protests:  you seem to be more fixated on protecting property than on protecting lives.  I find it odd that you’re suddenly concerned about the possibility of outdoor protesters (many of whom are wearing masks) spreading COVID now that they’re protesting racism and police brutality than you were in March and April when (mostly) unmasked people were gathering outside of state capitols to protest the economic shut-downs.

I realize that this comment was directed toward someone else but I feel I have to respond.  I support anyone’s right to protest for any reason.  I supported the right for people to protest the shutdown when it was tanking the economy and causing very real difficulties for people who had lost their jobs or their businesses.  COVID-19 can obviously be fatal but it’s no trivial matter when someone can no longer pay their bills or have lost their health insurance due to unemployment.  At the same time, George Floyd was killed by a police officer who asphyxiated him and by the lack of action from the three officers standing nearby.  That’s also not trivial and I think it is perfectly reasonable to protest and call for police reforms.

What actually infuriates me is the gaslighting and hypocrisy of the media and health officials. For MONTHS, people were told to stay home because they would otherwise risk contracting COVID-19 or passing it to someone else.  The media and public health officials were instrumental in this.  They denounced the first protestors and then all of a sudden, BLM starts protesting in massive groups in every single state and in other countries around the world and suddenly the media and heath officials completely changed their tune.  They claimed police brutality was a greater health threat than COVID-19.  That’s absurd; the simplest proof is that it’s only true if more black people were unjustly killed by police since the start of the shutdowns than were killed by COVID-19.  Meanwhile, those same news sources (prior to the BLM protests) were reporting that black people were disproportionately affected by COVID-19.  So which is it? I was unaware that a virus could differentiate between types of protests to know which people to infect.

Then, a couple of weeks after the protests started there were spikes in new cases and the media had the nerve to blame it on re-opening too soon and people on beaches and in restaurants.  They made absolutely no mention of the protests as if that had nothing to do with the resurgence.  So in my opinion, the mainstream media and certain public health officials are directly responsible for the resurgence as well as anyone who violated the health precautions.  I’m including both groups of protestors in that.  Let’s also not forget that during all of this, abortion clinics were allowed to remain open to slaughter children but people can’t sing in church?  The ideological warfare couldn’t be clearer and I am someone who despises political manipulation from both sides of the aisle.

[Lea]

Yet, there is a difference in between "hanging out for just having fun" and demonstrating (which means using basic civil rights). In my area, even during the contact limitations demonstrations against them were legal and took place (sadly enough, often mostly consisting of far-right guys). So yeah. Considering this I think it's absolutely legit to demonstrate against real problems like police brutality (something I've experienced and witnessed myself, btw) or structural racism.

Freedom of worhip is normally not reglemented. Demonstrations are, both for good reasons (mainly to protect demonstrations, which is not necessary for christian places here; synagogues are protected), so it's only normal to do the necessary, reglementing the first by asking for "hygiene concepts" for services and activities. 

And yes, I miss singing and "normal" worship gatherings, too.