When will missionaries be instructed to stay home?

[_Dr Moore]

With extreme measures being put in effect globally to reduce gatherings and contain the spread of COVID-19, I suspect it is only a matter of time before missionaries are instructed to stay home for a period of time, for the good of communities they serve. If just one missionary could be an unsuspecting carrier, with potential to infect just one elderly resident through day-to-day contacting, it would be better to keep them all home until this coronavirus threat abates. I view this as the inverse of "saving just one soul" -- e.g., if the risk is high that missionaries may kill just one soul, then it would be better to hold them back for a season.

I believe it is a matter of "when", and "for how long", not "if".

So I'm going on record with a guess that missionaries will be told to stay home no later than this coming Friday, March 13 for a period of 2 weeks minimum.

Any one else care to postulate?

[_Fence Sitter]

When will general members be instructed to avoid large crowds like church meeting? Large crowds are where the virus spreads most easily. This kind of warning already should be issued by the church to their elderly and sick. You would think Nelson's nocturnal talks with God might of already let him know that.

[_toon]

In other words, when will the Church jump on the panic bandwagon?

[_Dr Moore]

Wards in our stake were given warning last week, that anyone over age 60 should not go to church until further notice. That was based on regional/area advice, per CDC guidelines.

Bishop offered to arrange sacrament services to be provided, with an unspecified sanitary precautions, presumably no physical contact between the person receiving and those arriving to administer.

So that much has already been taking place.

[_Dr Exiled]

So, keeping with this, the elderly missionaries should stay at home and facetime their grandkids they are neglecting while serving the Fund. That makes sense as the elderly are at the greatest risk.

[_oliblish]

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-update-february-27-2020

Missionary Work

All missionaries, regardless of where they are serving, have been reminded to follow basic preventative health practices to avoid illness. It is important to note that young missionaries are not generally considered to be at risk for serious complications from the coronavirus.

Missionaries who remain in those countries where COVID-19 is of particular concern will take precautions to stay healthy, including staying in their apartments as much as possible, avoiding personal interaction with other people and teaching through phone calls or other technology. Mission Presidents are communicating with families to let them know of these precautions and keep them updated on local circumstances.

The Church is taking steps to reduce the number of missionaries in areas where the virus is of particular concern. These steps will give mission presidents more flexibility to ensure missionaries are effective and safe and that there is adequate space to house missionaries if they are moved out of cities where there are greater concerns about infection.

These steps apply to the following missions:

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission
Italy Milan Mission
Japan Fukuoka Mission
Japan Kobe Mission
Japan Nagoya Mission
Japan Sapporo Mission
Japan Tokyo North Mission
Japan Tokyo South Mission
Korea Busan Mission
Korea Seoul Mission
Korea Seoul South Mission
Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission
Singapore Mission
Thailand Bangkok Mission

Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand: All prospective missionaries preparing to serve in these missions or who come from those countries will either postpone their start date or receive a temporary assignment. Additionally, all missionaries serving in these missions who were nearing the end of their service have returned home early. All senior missionaries and any young missionaries with chronic health problems have also returned home or haven been temporarily reassigned to a mission in their home countries. Some senior missionaries will continue to support the mission remotely.

Japan: All missionaries preparing to serve in Japan will either postpone their start date or receive new temporary assignments.

Korea: All missionaries who are not native to Korea have left that country and returned home before departing for new temporary assignments in their home countries. This is in addition to those missionaries who were nearing the end of their service and those who had chronic health problems, who had already returned home early. All missionaries leaving the country had already been in self-isolation for some time and had avoided contact with others outside their apartments. Prospective missionaries preparing to serve in Korea or who come from that country will either postpone their start date or receive a temporary assignment.

Mongolia: All missionaries who are not native to Mongolia have been temporarily transferred from that country. Those who are nearing their scheduled release date have returned home early, while the rest have received new temporary assignments.

Each missionary who returns home will be asked to self-isolate for 14 days following instructions from the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

[_oliblish]

In other words, when will the Church jump on the panic bandwagon?

I think the key here is to listen to the experts at the CDC and WHO and avoid getting advice from politicians and cable news commentators.

[_DrW]

In other words, when will the Church jump on the panic bandwagon?

toon,

Like the ignorant comments of Trump himself on the issue, your smart-ass question is the kind of naïve nonsense that makes things worse.

There are good reasons why the professionals are taking Covid 19 seriously. They do not advocate panic, but they are dead serious in their warnings to the public about this new pathogen.

The following attributes of the Covid 19 virus make it the near perfect pathogen for a pandemic.

1. Long incubation period (14 days and perhaps longer - plenty of time for infected individuals to spread the pathogen before they, or anyone else, realizes they are infected).

2. Mortality rate less than say 10% and not immediately fatal (like ebola) so carriers live to pass it on to others.

3. Transmission through direct physical contact with infected individuals (kissing, handshakes, etc.), indirectly by picking up pathogens off of previously contaminated surfaces, and by airborne transmission, especially through coughing or sneezing.

4. Mortality rate that is at least 20 - 30 times greater than from influenza. (Influenza kills tens of thousands in the US alone each year.)

5. Wide range of effects on infected individuals with some having mild symptoms or even being asymptomatic, making them potential "super spreaders".

6. Relatively long term viability outside the body - apparently remaining infectious up to 9 days on many interior surfaces.

7. Perhaps worst of all - a human population that is unprepared:

- No previously acquired immunity (this is a new pathogen)

- No vaccines with even minor effectiveness (this is a new pathogen).

- Inability of US health care workers to effectively test for the virus because Trump cut CDC funding (so no effective test kits), and fired the pandemic response team to save money so he could give tax breaks to billionaires (so no one who knows what they are doing is available to provide the rapid response needed at the first reports of the existence of the pathogen from China).

- Criminally clueless President who lies about the status of the outbreak in the US, directly contradicts scientific evidence regarding the virus, muzzles the CDC spokespersons, and gives contrary and dangerous advice including going to work if you are sick with Covid 19. Before this is over, Trump will have the blood of many on his hands. Trump's BS leadership style has finally caught up with him and the world will pay the price for years to come.

Take home: The ignorant, irresponsible, science-denying Trump-directed and toon-mimicked right wing narrative that Covid 19 is not a problem might well turn out to be the biggest problem we have.

[_Maksutov]

Let's see if GC is affected.

[_I have a question]

Let's see if General Conference is affected.

If the Apostles had the courage of their convictions they wouldn’t be afraid to meet large congregations and shake the hands of strangers...Jesus didn’t shun lepers, why would Apostles shun Coronavirus sufferers? The opposite, they should be actively seeking them out to personally minister to them.