Source: Leon Bennett / Getty
I don’t think it’s a secret that Black people weren’t (and some still aren’t) taking the Coronavirus seriously. There are young folks who are attempting to go about life as if everything is normal. And church folks who were still trying to have services across the nation and the world.
People of faith have argued that since God was on their side, they didn’t believe the virus would affect them. But that’s not how these things work.
And gospel singer BeBe Winans, 57, learned that lesson the hard way.
About a month ago, Winans was in a New York airport to attend the funeral of a family friend. Winans recorded himself at the airport reminding people not to be fearful because God is in control.
“It’s like a ghost town in the airport in New York. Fear. People are being driven by fear. And I’m sorry, fear don’t drive me. It never will. It never has. So don’t fear, especially if you know who God is. Don’t get me started. I’m sorry if I don’t fall into that category. But have a great rest of your weekend.”
But weeks later, Winans tested positive for the virus. In addition to his own diagnosis, he passed it along to his 83-year-old mother, Delores, and his 64-year-old brother, Marvin.
Thankfully, they are all recovering. But Winans changed his tune afterward.
According to Billboard, in an interview with SiriusXM’s The Joe Madison Show, Winans said, “Sometimes, for some reason, we as a people when we look in and we look at television and various things that’s going on around us, we somehow say, that can’t happen to me for some reason. I don’t know why, but sometimes we believe that. And even myself being cautious, when the outbreak started, I did just a little travel. I was actually in New York and I was like, well, I’m going to Detroit because I had a friend pass and we were having a funeral and just that little travel, I caught it.”
Winans said when he returned home, he started coughing out of nowhere. He experienced fatigue, chills, loss of appetite.
His doctor told him to stay home. Because he wasn’t in need of a respirator, he was not able to go to the hospital.
But Winans’ brother, who also contracted the disease, did have to go to the hospital. “He had a fever and pneumonia set in. He was there for four or five days.”
Winans also said his mother contracted the virus. “My mom was touched for four or five days.”
Winans said he thanks God for his power but now acknowledges that we can all be faithful and still use common sense.
“I’m a man of faith and just raised in and in my mind, I’m just concrete in the subject matter that God is greater than everything. Yet, and still, it’s so important for us to use common sense. So, being on the other side of it now, I’m just grateful that the word, I just finished my run and through the whole run, I was just saying, God, I thank you. I thank you because it could have been a different outcome for me and my family. So, I’ve learned to be more grateful for life itself.”
