Nashville Scientologists Say Prevention is the Way to Contain the Coronavirus Breakout

On Friday, Tennessee announced 1,410 people tested positive for COVID-19, making it the state’s largest jump in new cases since the pandemic began. Volunteer Ministers from the Church of Scientology Nashville encourage sound prevention practices to bring this under control. 

“We’re stepping up to take this pandemic down,” said a Volunteer Minister who took part in an initiative of the Nashville Church of Scientology to bring educational materials on prevention to the community. “When you follow the common-sense practices covered in the How to Keep Yourself and Others Well booklet, they work. It’s as simple as that.”

Part of an international campaign to help communities everywhere contain the pandemic, Scientology Volunteer Ministers of Nashville have provided sets of “Stay Well” booklets to shops, restaurants and businesses to make simple information on prevention available to customers and clientele. 

On Friday, the Tennessee Department of Health announced that 1,410 people tested positive for COVID-19 that day, making it the state’s largest jump in new cases since the pandemic began. And on Sunday, Nashville’s Metro Health Department issued an order requiring masks or face coverings to be worn in indoor and outdoor public spaces. “Wearing a mask reduces the chance of contracting COVID-19,” said Dr. Alex Jahangir, chairman of Metro Nashville Board of Health. “Masks save lives.”

Based on the principle that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure, the Volunteer Ministers dressed in their signature yellow jackets and caps and additional protective gear and loaded up with sets of three booklets: How to Keep Yourself & Others Well, How to Protect Yourself & Others with a Mask & Gloves and How to Prevent the Spread of Illness with Isolation.

“We have found that when people understand why they are doing things like wearing masks, they are more willing to do so,” says Julie Brinker, Director of Community Relations of the Church of Scientology Nashville. “There is even a video on the How to Stay Well Prevention Resource Center that shows exactly how to put on a mask and how to wear it for maximum protection and a video on how bacteria and viruses spread that helps people understand why wearing a mask is important.”

Scientology Volunteer Ministers have made booklets available across Nashville and in communities around the world in 21 languages. The booklets are packaged in custom-designed boxes that fold into counter displays and invite people to “please take one.”

Each booklet has a QR code on the back that goes to the How to Stay Well Prevention Center on the Scientology website, which makes these and other prevention materials available, free of charge. The booklets can be read on the website or downloaded. More than a dozen brief videos illustrate the key information, making it easy to understand what a virus is, how it spreads, and the actions anyone can take to protect themselves and their families.

Distribution of these booklets began in May in communities around Scientology Churches and Missions across the globe. The Church of Scientology International Dissemination and Distribution Center made this possible by printing and shipping out 5 million copies of Stay Well booklets.

The Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers program is a religious social service created in the mid-1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. It constitutes one of the largest and most visible international independent relief forces. The Volunteer Minister’s mandate is to be “a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.”