Brigham Young: Don't Expect God to Save You From Your Own Folly

In July of 1868, the Saints in Utah were struggling with grasshoppers destroying their crops. Twenty years prior had been the miracle of the seagulls, but it wasn't a permanent solution. Brigham Young spoke and noted that the Saints had been counseled for years to store up grain and hay, but had instead sold it to ouside markets for cheap. Below are some extracts from his lengthy speech [1].

I believe the Latter-day Saints are the best people on the earth of whom we have any knowledge. Still, I believe that we are, in many things, very negligent, slothful and slow to obey the words of the Lord. Many seem to act upon the faith that God will sustain us instead of our trying to sustain ourselves...

Some try to exercise faith and ask the Lord to remove this destructive power. I remember saying in the School of the Prophets, that I would rather the people would exercise a little more sense and save means to provide for themselves, instead of squandering it away and asking the Lord to feed them...

But some may say, "I have faith the Lord will turn them away." What ground have we to hope this? Have I any good reason to say to my Father in heaven, "Fight my battles," when He has given me the sword to wield, the arm and the brain that I can fight for myself? Can I ask Him to fight my battles and sit quietly down waiting for Him to do so? I cannot. I can pray the people to hearken to wisdom, to listen to counsel; but to ask God to do for me that which I can do for myself is preposterous to my mind...

[The people] are in want and in trouble, and they are perplexed. They do not know what to do. They have been told what to do, but they did not hearken to this counsel...

Let crickets, or grasshoppers, or frosts, or anything else come and destroy our crops, and we feel it then; but just as soon as prosperity comes we forget what has happened...

Take the people and I am proud of them; but there is a feeling with them that they must not be counseled in their temporal matters. I call this a sectarian notion, for we will find yet that God is Dictator in everything...

How much credit was due to [the children of Israel led out of Egypt]? Just as much as to us, for not saving our grain when we had an abundance, and, when the grasshoppers come, crying, "Lord turn them away and save us." It is just as consistent as for a man on board a steamboat on the wide ocean to say, I will show you what faith I have, and then to jump overboard, crying, "Lord save me!" It may not seem so daring; but is it any more inconsistent than to throw away and waste the substance the Lord has given us, and when we come to want, crying to Him for what we have wasted and squandered? The Lord has been blessing us all the time, and He asks us why we have not been blessing ourselves...

Who are deserving of praise? The persons who take care of themselves, or the ones who always trust in the great mercies of the Lord to take care of them? It is just as consistent to expect that the Lord [will] supply us with fruit when we do not plant the trees; or that, when we do not plow and sow and are saved the labor of harvesting, we should cry to the Lord to save us from want, as to ask Him to save us from the consequences of our own folly, disobedience and waste [2].

Notes:
1. Journal of Discourses, Vol 12, pp 238-245
2. This paragraph was quoted in the manual, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young

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Initial Thoughts on Omicron and Vaccines

You've no doubt seen discussion in the news and social media about the emerging coronavirus variant called Omicron. It was first detected in South Africa, but is now in many countries including the U.S. Because it is fairly new, it's hard to say much definitive about it. I recommend keeping an eye on knowledgable commentators (a few links below).

Initial data from South Africa suggest that it is spreading very fast, and that prior infection with COVID does not give protection (at least robust protection) against Omicron. How well the vaccines protect remains to be seen, but we will likely see a lot more breakthrough cases than with Delta. The reason, simply put, is that the Omicron spike protein has changes that will prevent some of the antibodies that were previously generated from recognizing the Omicron spike. It's not all or nothing; rather, it's degradation by degree.

I made the following figure to illustrate how I think about COVID vaccines. Ideally, most people stay in the first stage, and very few people proceed to the bottom stages. With Omicron, we will probably see more people (either vaccinated or previously infected) go further down than they would if this was just another Delta wave. People with no COVID or vaccination history are simply at the mercy of nature.

What can you do? The same kinds of things you've already been doing. However, you need to be fully vaccinated, including the booster. For one thing, the Delta variant is still very prevelant and we are heading into winter [1]. So you want to be as protected as possible against it. But even if the vaccine isn't as potent against Omicron, there is every reason to expect that it will still be helpful. Whether you have previously had COIVD or not, get fully vaccinated so that your immune system is as prepared as possible for Omicron. Even if the antibodies are not as good as they could be, having them at higher concentration will help. Also, there's more to the immune system than antibodies (namely, T cells), and they need to be on high alert too.

A Few Suggested Information Sources [2]:
Your Local Epidemiologist (Katelyn Jetelina) (Twitter / Substack)
Scott Gottlieb (former FDA commissioner)
Carl Zimmer (science reporter - one of the best in the business)

Notes:
1. As our family was leaving for our Thanksgiving trip, we learned of deaths in the extended family of some friends. The friends were vaccinated, but their rural relatives refused to get vaccinated (for the reasons you can imagine), even though an uncle had died of COVID. A birthday party for the father became a superspreader event, resulting in four hospitalizations. The father died, and at the last update a 31 year-old cousin was on a ventilator and expected to die [update: confirmed dead]. You make your choices, but you don't choose the consequences.
2. I've chosen a few relatively non-technical resources. Keep your eyes on these professionals and those they recommend. Beware of contrarians.

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