It is the speed of the contagion that has folks spooked.  That and the media play-by-play.  There’s a virus coming to your house. Just like that Stephen King book.

 

Just three weeks ago, life in America was pretty standard.  Now everything is shut down and Tom Hanks has Corona.  What happened? 

 

Disease happened.  Global travel happened. Worldwide government bureaucracies initially failed as they usually do.  We have a list in this country: Al Qaeda, Katrina, Maria, Vietnam, Iraq.  On and on.

 

The committed left media is hyping and using the illness to try to drive President Trump from office.  Here’s Trump-hater Gail Collins in The New York Times: “Let’s call it TrumpVirus.  If you’re feeling awful, you know who to blame.”

 

Really astute analysis from Ms. Collins.  I don’t know how she does it.

 

More brilliance from Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan.  She puts forth that telling people NOT to panic, as the federal government is doing, is a bad strategy.  Ms. Noonan apparently believes panic is okay.

 

If you look up the word “panic” in the dictionary, you’ll see this: “Sudden uncontrollable fear and anxiety, often causing unthinking behavior.”

 

Could it be that Peggy Noonan wrote her column in a panic?  Just asking.

 

Clear-thinking people are right to fear the Coronavirus because it spreads quickly from even casual human contact.  It’s an “airborne” contagion, unlike AIDS or Ebola.  That’s scary even if you tend to be brave.

 

So caution is a good protection.  Panic is not.  And blaming the virus on Donald Trump is stupid and loathsome.  No national leader could stop the illness and the USA is certainly trying to contain the infection.

 

Of course mistakes will be made.  This is a sudden plague upon the land.  Some things will work, some will not.

 

President Trump told the nation that “we are all in this together.”  But I don’t believe that at all.  Richer folks are better protected than the poor.  Country people have a stronger chance to avoid infection than citizens packed into the cities.  We are not together in America, we are badly divided politically, residentially, and culturally.

 

Finally, there will be people who attempt to exploit the virus for political and/or financial gain. They will try to use human suffering to advance their own interests.

 

I am watching these people.  And I will report back.  Because it’s sick.