The story about the coronavirus that is not being told

Every night the news stations focus on the numbers of people identified as having the coronavirus and the number of deaths that have resulted from the disease. It has been labeled a worldwide pandemic. Millions of people have lost their jobs as businesses have been closed. Stay-at-home orders have been issued across the US and around the world. But, there is one aspect of this situation that has received little notice. The number of domestic violence cases has dramatically risen.

The NY Times reported that domestic violence cases have increased by 18 percent in Spain, and there has been a 30% increase in France since the coronavirus pandemic began. Another report claims that China saw their domestic violence reports triple in February. Across the US most states are reporting higher than usual numbers as well. We must remember that these are only reported cases; much domestic abuse never gets reported.

Those who deal with domestic violence are not surprised by these higher numbers. Any time, such as holidays, when families are together more than normal there are more reports of domestic violence. They say governments should have expected this when they began mandating that people stay at home and prepared for it. Unfortunately, like the coronavirus itself, most government agencies were not prepared for spikes in domestic violence cases.

A young woman who is a Facebook friend of mine is home from college. Yesterday, she put on her page a post telling people that if they are dealing with domestic abuse they should text or message her asking about her yellow cat. If she receives a message like that she will stay in regular contact with the person to ensure things are OK. If the person asks about how her black cat is doing, she will immediately call the police.

Many of you are checking on your neighbors, friends and persons within your congregation to make sure they are doing OK in the midst of this health crisis. If you know people who might be dealing with domestic abuse I encourage you to check on them as well. You may consider creating some type of code like my friend did to give people a way to safely contact you and ask for help.