The Power of Prayer

Years ago I read a Reader’s Digest Summary of a scientific study on the Power of Prayer which had been published in a medical journal. The patient records of cardiac patients from several hospitals were compiled and then divided into two groups, to make each group (the test and the control) equal by severity of illness and types of treatment.  The names of the patients (with some personal information about each of them) in the test group were given to strangers with the instructions for each person to pray for his/her assigned patient “in any way you see fit.”  None of the patients or hospital personnel were told who was in the study group.  At the end of the study there was a statistical difference between the groups, as if the test group was given a “miracle drug.”(Note that this study would have been illegal in today’s world because of HIPAA privacy laws.) 

We are living in a unique time.  Every continent in the world, except Antartica, has been affected by this COVID-19 pandemic.  Our hospitals are overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of infected patients who need care. There are not enough respirators and personal protective equipment to meet the needs. Businesses and schools have been closed to limit the spread of the illness. Routine medical care has been put on hold. Dentists cannot deliver needed care to our patients because the illness is spread by both breath and saliva; Dental procedures aerosolize the virus, and the virus stays airborne for up to three hours. Dentists do not have hospital air filtration, hospital gowns, and N95 masks which would be necessary to deliver care in our offices. 

We need to slow down the rate that this virus is infecting people, and we need to limit the number of people who are infected- both those that are ill and those that are asymptomatic carriers. Social distancing is one tool we are using to limit the spread of the virus, but it is not enough.  We all need to pray, in whatever way is comfortable for us. Pray for a speedy end to this pandemic, for a speedy and complete recovery for the people who have been infected, for the mental health of all of us living in social isolation, for the return of a healthy economy, and for the return of our normal lifestyles, before the virus took over.- A personal note from Dr. Judith Okun