Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 230 | Light at the End of the Quarantine

Episode Date: March 27, 2020

Good news in regard to the coronavirus! Plus, I answer some of your pressing questions. Happy Friday.

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Friday. It is Friday. I know it feels like you're floating in time and space and you have no idea what day it is, what year it is, what month it is. Well, it is March 27th, Friday, the year of our Lord 2020. We are here together figuring this thing out. And I do have some good news for you today. So we are, I know we're still stuck on this. We're still stuck on the subject that we've been talking about for two weeks. But that's because it's affecting all of our lives. Like this is a major. historic event and this would be like us not talking about 9-11 obviously it's not the same thing as 9-11 but it has major implications and is going to have implications for years to come not just physical implications of people getting sick and dying but the economic implications of not just people dying but the shutdown that is going in place now i have some good news and i'm going to also answer some of the questions that you guys sent me on instagram and And I want to first address that if you are freaking out about this, because there seems to be three different places. Originally on Twitter, I said that there were two different places that people are in.

There are really three different major groups that people are in. Some people might fall through the cracks on these categories. So there's the group that is absolutely freaking out thinking that this virus is going to kill millions of people. And that if we go outside at all, we are going to catch it and we're probably going to die. that it's far worse than we could have ever imagined and that we do need to absolutely shut everything down and we'll worry about the economy later, let the government take care of people. We don't need to worry about people getting back to work or losing their jobs because, look, people are going to die and we just got to save, we got to save people's lives.

So that's one side. Those people tend to think that Trump isn't doing a good job, that we don't have enough ICU beds or that we don't have enough equipment. and I'm not saying that that's just an opinion that we don't have enough equipment, but that tends to be what these people are focusing on and thinking about and very concerned about. And then there's a group on the other side that says, you know what, this is not a big deal. People just need to go back to work and this kills fewer people so far than the flu. And we just need to realize that this is not that big of a deal.

There are some people in that camp who think this is all a hoax that think this is all applied. to hurt Donald Trump and to hurt the United States and to hurt capitalism. And then you've got some people in the middle who I would say that I'm in this camp, who think that this is a serious virus that came from, that the reason why it's spread and why it's as serious as it is is because the communist government in China failed to contain it. They failed to enact any kind of policies to contain it and to mitigate it, at least quickly enough.

and they failed to let world health officials in to Wuhan and into China to help them for a long period of time. They said in the beginning, even though they knew that it was very contagious, they told the WHO that, hey, there's no human to human transmission. The WHO then parroted that propaganda. And so it is the Communist Party of China's fault that all of this is happening right now. We don't need to forget that. And I think both into the spectrum remember that. that that's one of the biggest concerns of people like me. And we also were worried about people dying.

We're worried about the elderly. We're worried about the immunocompromised. We are worried about people dying. We think this is serious. We look at New York and we see that they're overwhelmed, Washington, State, L.A., and we see the need for some kind of relief. But we also know that there are going to be serious economic implications to this that really ruin people's lives and that we have to have some kind of plan of recovery.

We have to see some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. We have to be talking about how Americans are going to go back to work, when they're going to go back to work, and what it's going to look like when we reintroduce people into the public and when we open up the economy. And that are also concerned, there are people like me who are also concerned that we are suspending so many of our constitutional rights in a time of crisis. And that's making us wonder, well, what are the point?

constitutional rights if they're suspended in times of crisis. Aren't they four times like this when the government is eager to take over? Aren't we supposed to still be protected by the constitution in times like this? But we also see that this is an unprecedented moment and that the government does have a role in all of this. So there are some people with some nuance in the middle, with some mixed thoughts and mixed feelings in the middle. And I would count myself among those. I see the seriousness of the economic implications and of the physical and medical implications of a pandemic as well. So this episode, though, is for all of you because whether you're freaking out about the virus, you're freaking out about the economy, you're freaking out about both, or you're just totally

chill and you know that it's all going to be fine. This is still going to contain good news for you because there is good news that we should recognize. And if you are stuck in this cycle freaking out and thinking this is getting worse and worse, then hopefully you'll feel some kind of relief and some kind of, I don't know, some kind of hope knowing that maybe things aren't quite as bleak as we originally thought they were. So on Wednesday I shared with you a finding that was cited by the New York Times by a British epidemiologist named Neil Ferguson. Neil Ferguson, he does have ties with the World Health Organization.

We've got some trust issues with the World Health Organization. They're not really run, at least at the very top by people of integrity. And like I said, they're in bed with China and they parrot their propaganda often. And so they are to blame in large part for how all of this was handled. So it doesn't really necessarily lend Neil Ferguson or anyone connected to WHO credibility. But he has a lot of influence in the UK. and the group that he's a part of creates these models for epidemics that have a lot of credibility over there. So the model that his group came up with, it was described by the New York Times as a sophisticated model.

It said worst case scenario for the United States, 2.2 million people died from this. Best case scenario, 1.1 million people die from this. So this was Ferguson's projection. He said in the UK, it'll probably be 500,000 people. well we based our decisions a lot of our policy decisions on that the UK has done the same now Neil Ferguson is coming out and saying well it's probably going to be a lot less than that there's probably going to be a lot fewer people who die particularly in the UK he is saying it's not going to be 500,000 it's not going to be 200,000 or even 100,000 or even 50,000 he's saying it's probably

going to be fewer than 20,000 people that die in the UK and oh never mind, the NHS is not going to be overwhelmed, we'll have the proper number of hospital beds, ICU beds to take care of these people. Now, he is crediting the new strategy that the UK has implemented of total lockdown to the lower projection of deaths that he thinks are going to occur, but the lockdown has only happened for two to three days. So there's a debate that is going on right now. have we made these very serious and unprecedented policy economic decisions based on faulty data? Are some of these projections saying that millions of people are going to die, is it based on faulty data? And there is a possibility that that's true because a lot of people you will see are talking about how many cases are in the United States by using the number of confirmed cases.

so people who have actually tested positive. And then they are looking at the people that have died among the people that have tested positive and they're using that to calculate the death rate. But that's not actually an accurate calculation because there are a lot of people as people like Ferguson and other scientists, other epidemiologists are realizing this disease, this virus is much more transmissible than they originally thought. So it's much more contagious, which means that probably a lot more people have it and probably have had it over the past couple of months, maybe the past few months than we originally thought,

which means if we have a lot more people, tens of thousands, maybe more people who have had this, and the death rate really is as low as we think it is, which is about a thousand. Now, it could be more than that because maybe other people died of it before we actually knew what coronavirus was or before we were talking about it. But the death rate is probably a lot lower because there are a lot more people who actually have the coronavirus than have actually tested positive

or who have gotten tested at all. And so now that scientists are looking at that data and saying, okay, this is a lot more contagious than we thought. There's probably a lot more people who have had it over the past few months who have survived it. And there are right now, at least among the confirmed cases,

1,000 people who have died from it. that means that the death rate is probably a lot lower than we thought. So that means that maybe 2.2 million people aren't going to die or even 1.1 million. It might be a lot lower than that. In the UK, like I said, he is saying that it's probably going to be around 20,000. And we're still not even sure if that's true. And so when we look at that and when we hear that, when we hear, okay, we might have made a lot of knee-jerk reaction decisions based on exaggerated hyperbolic or just accidentally

untrue, accidentally exaggerated data, then you wonder, okay, well, was this the proper calculation? Was this worth it? Of course, we want to save as many lives as possible, but to absolutely shut everything down and to tell people you basically can't leave your homes except to exercise. And if you're not six feet away from people, you're going to get in trouble. That's what some people are saying in certain areas. You wonder, was it worth suspending almost all of our constitutional rights? for based on data that just wasn't true or wasn't accurate. And so that's good news.

I think that probably the death rate is a lot lower than we originally thought it was. Does that mean that we shouldn't take it seriously? Of course not. I mean, in New York City, they are, apparently the hospitals there are completely overwhelmed. They need more ventilators. They need more medical equipment. I mean, you do have doctors and nurses wearing protective gear that is basically makeshift, like trash bags and things like that. And so, yes, doctors and nurses, especially in the ER, are

completely overwhelmed right now, which tells us that there is a surge of these cases happening, which means, of course, we know it's very contagious, we know it can be dangerous for any age group. We know it can be deadly for any age group. And so we should continue to take it seriously. We should continue to try to mitigate as much risk as possible, save as many lives as possible, do as much as we can for those in the healthcare industry, for people who are, essential workers deemed by the government who are still out there working and serving us, risking their health to do so, we of course should be very careful, have good hygiene, still socially distance and all of those things. But it's okay for us to ask, were these the appropriate

decisions to make looking at the new data that we have now, knowing that the death rate might be a lot lower than we originally thought. Shouldn't we be a little bit more careful? And it's funny because you get people who absolutely lose their ever-loving minds. If you even bring up the economic effects of this, as if people losing their jobs isn't that big of a deal. It is a big deal that ruins people's lives. And quite frankly, can very often precipitate things like depression and suicide. And so it's things we should take seriously.

But there are people, especially on the left side of the aisle, it seems, that freak out if you say anything about the economy. And just two weeks ago, you had people like AOC saying, go out to Chinatown, go out to your Chinese restaurants and make sure that she said you need to be patroning them. Of course, it's patronizing. But you need to be going out there and buying things and going to restaurants and things like that. Now if you talk about supporting local businesses or talking about local businesses losing everything they have, it's well, so you just want people to die?

So you just want elderly people to die? You just want immunocompromise people to die. so you're just for eugenics? Of course not. Of course not. They were just saying two weeks ago that we need to be supporting our local businesses so they don't lose everything.

But that was just all virtue signaling. I think that's a lot of what we're seeing, that virtue signaling is literally going to have deleterious effects on society because people have said we absolutely have to stop everything in order to save even one life. And it just, it doesn't make long-term sense. And so I'm glad that we are having conversations about this, weighing the risks and rewards and saying, yes, we care about life.

We care about all life. Let's save as many lives as possible. But we can't forget about livelihoods. And we have to have an actual plan to come out on the other side of this. President Trump has said as much this week. And he is talking about trying to open up the economy by Easter, which would be awesome. Like, that would be wonderful. I've been really sad thinking about not being able to go to Easter.

services or not being able to have the gatherings that we are used to having on Easter. I mean, it is very sad. Do I want things to open up prematurely? Of course not. Of course I don't. Like, I don't want to put people at unnecessary risk. I don't want to put people in unnecessary danger. I don't want to be insensitive and say, well, this is the tradition that I have and I'm going to have a normal Easter because that's what I want. That's not my attitude at all. Would it be wonderful if we could figure out a plan to make sure that a lot of people are back to work and that we are giving things into gear by Easter. I think that that would be awesome. But the problem is going to be that President Trump is no matter when he decides, okay, we're going to start opening up the economy, whether it's

in two weeks or two months, you're going to have the left-wing media who already thinks that he's terrible and a narcissist and is a eugenicist and wants people to die. Yes, the same people. who advocate for assisted suicide and abortion. They are going to be emphasizing every single case of coronavirus that crops up. They are going to be exaggerating the damaging effects of it. They are going to be fearmongering. They are going to be instilling panic. They are going to say that Trump is liable for every single death that occurs if he says,

hey, we want to open up the economy. And so it's just, it's going to be, it's going to be difficult. for President Trump. But here is another piece of awesome news is that President Trump's approval ratings are, they've reached an all-time high, according to, I think it's Gallup, and let me make sure I have that right, which is amazing because the media has been trying. So Trump's job approval rating matches all-time high, according to Gallup, which is really amazing because the media has been working over time right now,

over time to make sure that President Trump looks like a murder that looks like a guy who doesn't care about anyone who is not taking this seriously, who is an absolute clown that doesn't know what he's doing and doesn't know anything that's going on and isn't able to string two sentences together. They've been trying so hard to make him look responsible for all of this. When the fact of the matter is, is that a lot of people are very satisfied with his leadership. And we hear CNN and NBC saying that they're no longer going to show his press briefings, which he's been doing pretty much on a daily basis for the past week or so. They're saying, we're not going to show these anymore.

Yeah, because it's proving that these press briefings are very popular among the American people, that he has done a pretty good job of assuring people that things are under control and that they're doing the best that they can to make sure that people are taking care of, that hospitals are taking care of. I think Dr. Burks is also helping with that. I think Dr. Fauci is also helping with that. But he has constructed the team that is around him. And I think a lot of people are very satisfied by that.

And you have left us in the media who have been trying for the past three years to take him down. They are now using this crisis and using this epidemic to attempts to take him down even further. They think this is going to be the nail in the coffin. Well, they've said that everything was going to be the nail in the coffin for President Trump. Everything was going to be the beginning of the end, the end of his presidency. From not legitimately being the president, that was the case they were making in the beginning, to Russian collusion, to all of the supposed crimes that he's committed. And now they're saying that, of course, he is somehow responsible for the deaths and the sickness here in the United States.

It's not the Communist Party of China, but Donald Trump. And I just, it doesn't seem to be having the desired effect. It doesn't seem to be hurting him that badly considering his job approval rating is so good right now. Another piece of good news is that Texas has enacted a policy. I mean, thank God for Governor Greg Abbott as an act of policy that shuts down the states, the state's abortion clinics. They are stopping. So Texas is stopping all non-executive.

non-essential surgeries right now. So all non-essential operations have been put to a halt, at least for the time being, over the next couple of months, so we can make sure that the hospitals have the capacity that they need in order to care for people with coronavirus, which is obviously a very good decision. And they have deemed that abortion is a non-essential procedure, which we absolutely know to be true. It's not only non-essential, it's evil, but they aren't saying that right now.

And Planned Parenthood is losing their minds. They are trying to sue the state of Texas saying that this is unconstitutional, that they're blaming Republicans and Governor Greg Abbott for exploiting a crisis in order to push their own political agenda. But the funny thing is that's actually exactly what Planned Parenthood is. They exploit crises all of the time, whether they're large-scale crises like a pandemic or personal crises in a woman's life in order to push abortion because it makes them money. And so, of course, they're going to be using this pandemic to say, look, you're not going to be able to raise your child. These are really scary times. We don't know what the economy is going to do. We don't know what this pandemic is going to look like.

You don't really want to have a baby during a time like this. You just want to have an abortion. Just go ahead and get rid of it. I totally understand that you feel like you don't, you know, that you don't know what you're doing right now. You just lost your job. You should definitely have an abortion. This is such a ripe opportunity for Planned Parenthoods. to emotionally coerce women into aborting their children.

And I'm so thankful that Governor Abbott, that the government of Texas stood up and said, you know what, these are non-essential operations and you're not going to be able to provide abortions during this time. I'm just very thankful for that. And so that's another piece of great news. So guys, I do think that there is light at the end of the tunnel right now. There are things that we can be thankful for.

and of course we know that God is doing something. We might not always know and be able to see what exactly that is, but he is bringing glory to himself. And in that we can rejoice. Remember, the joy of the Lord is our strength, not worry, not fear, not anxiety. Go back and listen to Monday's episode where we talk about the importance of fearing God

and not fearing trouble. That doesn't mean that we don't take things seriously, but it does mean that as children of God, you don't have anything to fret over. So go back and listen to Monday's episode. It's a comforting one, not because of anything I say, but because God's word brings peace and clarity in a world of confusion.

Okay, I'm going to answer some of the questions that you guys sit me on Instagram. Okay, one question. How do you get over the fear of conflict? If you want to confront someone, but you don't know what to say because you are scared that they're not going to like you or they're going to be mad at you.

So this is really difficult, and I certainly have not. have not mastered this. Believe it or not, I don't like conflict. I don't like people to be mad at me. I don't like to have tension with people. I really don't. I don't like people to have a bad opinion of me and I know that I should get over that, of course. But just because I talk about controversial things with confidence and it is, it's not famed confidence. It's real confidence. I, it doesn't mean that I am not fearful of conflict and fearful of negative opinions because I am. But it's just a decision to care more about the truth than you do about people's opinions and realizing that love often looks like telling the truth rather than either obfuscating the truth, avoiding the truth, or lying.

So I think it's just a decision to have an allegiance, if you're a Christian to God, which means an allegiance to the truth, and realizing that that allegiance is higher than your allegiance to people's opinion or even their good feelings about you. That doesn't mean that you have to be rude about it. That doesn't mean that you have to be mean or bombastic or anything like that. But it's from a place of love. It's from a place of mercy that you want to tell someone the truth. and you can always start just in a practical way asking people questions. That's typically what I do when I'm trying to start a conversation about a disagreement in politics

is ask people why they believe what they believe, like how they got to a certain conclusion where they read that particular data point that they are listing or like why, for example, they believe abortion is okay. Like how do you come to that conclusion? How does that fit into your moral framework? And it usually makes them think because a lot of people on the left, quite frankly, haven't thought about their positions or how it fits into their greater worldview or why they believe what they believe. And so just pushing them a little bit to get to think about that.

Typically, it typically can start some kind of conversation or at least just makes them a little bit more critical of their own biases. So just something to think about. When someone asked me, is my husband into politics like I am, he keeps up with it a lot. There are a lot of stories actually that I get from him that he sends me he's on Twitter he doesn't tweet or anything but he follows people on Twitter and so he'll send me stuff and he knows what's going on just as much sometimes if not more than I do now he's not he doesn't share opinions and things like that but we do talk about it a lot and we keep up with a lot of the same things and listen to a lot of the same people and follow a lot of the same people so if I could meet one person from the Bible besides

Jesus, who would it be? It would probably be Esther. I would just want to know, oh, that's really hard. I think it would be a woman from the Bible. Oh, really difficult. There's so many questions. Like, I would want to talk to Eve and be like, girl, girl, like, we got a lot to discuss. Why you did that? Why, girl? Why did you do that? There's so many other things that you could have done besides that. And look at all of this. We got coronavirus. Thanks a lot, Eve. So it'd be interesting to talk to her. Interesting to talk to Esther, how she handled all of the responsibility that she was given and how she took the opportunity that most people would have squandered and used it to glorify God and to do God's will. I think that's awesome. It'd be cool to talk to Mary. So like, what was it like being pregnant and never having had sex before?

um is that inappropriate kind of but like it's i don't know that i think that would be interesting to ask her uh what it was like to carry the god of the universe in her womb um okay who else no i think that's it i think those are all the people i would like to meet uh pizza gate queue anon deep state stuff uh so someone asked me what i think about all of this i've seen it because I know there are some people who follow me on Instagram who follow this stuff. And I am a very just skeptical person in general. I'm just skeptical person. And I am very slow to believe in conspiracy theories and very slow to buy into things like that.

And I haven't looked into it enough. I just say be careful. Just be careful. Be careful. following Gnostics who believe that they have some hidden truth that only certain people know and that once you find this truth, you'll understand everything. I mean, people who claim to have some hidden deep truth that is extra biblical, that it's outside of the Bible, you need to be really careful about adhering to them and following them.

That's all I'll say. Eating disorder, is it spiritual or mental disorder? It can definitely be both. we're not compartments like humans aren't compartments the spiritual the mental and the physical go together um okay i think those are all of the questions that i got from you thank you guys so much oh i forgot i have an announcement for you guys so for any of you who are still listening to this so my book you're not enough and that's okay escaping the toxic culture of self-love it was originally supposed to come out on May 5th and I was so excited about it but as you can imagine with

everything going on things are just changing and things are shifting so my book is not going to come out on May 5th anymore it's going to come out on August 11th and I know those of you who have preordered my book might be really disappointed and I totally understand that there's a part of me who's really that's really disappointed too but at the same time I understand that this is what's best. This is what is best for the book. This is what is best for everyone right now as we are focusing on other things that quite frankly are a lot more important than my book coming out. We are focusing on our physical health. We are focusing on providing for our families and it's just not the time for the book to come out, but it will be in a few months. Now, if you have

already pre-ordered my book and you're like, what the heck, I've been looking forward to reading this while you are going to be able to get an excerpt of my book. You can still pre-order it right now and get an excerpt of my book. And I'll give you an email address and you'll send the proof of purchase. And I will send you an excerpt of the final version of my book that you will get to read before it actually comes out. Because I just want to show my appreciation to you guys. Those of you who have already preordered it and have promoted it and have been so excited about it, I'm really sorry.

It's not going to be out on the date that you guys wanted it to, but you are going to get part of it. And we're obviously going to celebrate the heck out of it when it does come out on August 11th. But I just wanted to tell you guys that I thank you guys so much for all of your support and all of your encouragement. I am praying for you guys, especially those of you, as I said, on Instagram, those of you who are pregnant right now who are about to. to give birth who are freaking out who are worried that your spouse isn't going to be able to be in their room with you girl i am praying for you i seriously am i'm not just saying that i've just

thought a lot about how it's probably hard to be pregnant right now no matter which trimester you're in but especially if you're about to give birth i know that this is a scary time and i am thinking about you but i'm thinking about all of you i'm thinking about all of you who are having a rough go of it and um i'm thankful for you guys please share my podcast if you like it leave relatable a five-star review if you love it and I will see you guys back here on Monday.