God Will Ward Off Coronavirus Because Trump Is President, Right-Wing Pastor Claims

Concerns over the spread of the coronavirus around the world seem to be warranted.

In China this week, it was reported that fatalities from the virus exceeded 1,000 patients dying, meaning the coronavirus exceeded the SARS scare from years prior, NPR reported.

Thirteen cases have so far been reported in the U.S., with expectations being that number will increase over time.

But President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to be too worried — he’s received assurances, he’s said, from China that the virus will wither out once springtime rolls around, HillReporter.com reported earlier this week. That theory, however, is not based on anything factual, and experts say the president shouldn’t rely on that being the case.

Hank Kunneman, a far-right pastor at the Lord of Hosts Church in Omaha, Nebraska, doesn’t fret too much about the virus, however, believing that God will protect the United States against it from spreading.

Why? Because God loves Donald Trump, Kunneman explained in a sermon on Sunday night.

“Listen to the words that I speak to you at this moment, says the Living God,” Kunneman said in a recent sermon. “Why do you fear, United States? For I have spoke to you before, and I speak to you again. I have extended and opened a window of mercy to this nation at this time. Therefore the virus that they speak of, the prognostication, the diagnosis — my mercy is the quarantine that shall be greater than what they have spoken to you, United States.”

Kunneman added that it was Trump’s presidency that God would spare Americans:

“Because of the administration that stands in this land, who honors me, who honors the covenants of your forefathers and of the Constitution, and because they have aligned themselves with Israel, and because they have sided on the right side of life — life in the womb, life given outside of the womb — therefore I give life to this nation, and I give mercy,” Kunneman said, per reporting from Right Wing Watch.

Such reliance on prayer alone to combat viruses and other ailments can have disastrous results, particularly for more at-risk populations like children.

A study published in Pediatrics in 1998 found that, of children who died from 1975 to 1995 due to “faith-healing” medical neglect, 4-in-5 perished unnecessarily, as medical care would have created conditions for them where their rates of survival would have gone up to 90 percent or more.

In other words, prayer likely led to their deaths, whereas medical science could have given them more than a fighting chance against their respective ailments.