Penna Dexter

Even if you’d rather not worry about it — and you can certainly put me in that category — coronavirus is, if not front and center, at least brewing below the surface for most of us.

On weekends, I read Peggy Noonan’s column. She’d planned on writing her latest piece about presidential politics: the South Carolina primary, Super Tuesday, etc. “But,” she wrote, “my mind kept tugging in another direction.”

We can’t just say of this virus, it’s “over there” and not really relevant to our lives. “We live,” writes Peggy Noonan, “in a global world. Everybody’s going every place all the time. Nothing is contained in the ways it used to be.”

Everyone must now think about coronavirus and decide what, if anything, to do about it. The first choice I had to make was when the financial advisor called. Stay the course.

Coronavirus has already affected politics. Accusations are flying. Democrat candidate Bloomberg will now run on his crisis management experience. We have to pray the things our Administration is putting into place are the wisest and best. Another columnist, the Washington Post’s Kathleen Parker writes, “President Trump’s designation of Vice President Pence as his coronavirus ‘czar’ has created an uproar…” What did we expect? The vice president is requiring that all virus-related information come through his office. “While this may sound extreme,” Ms. Parker admits, “there’s some logic in trying to ensure that all information is consistent and accurate.”

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control are working against the clock on an effective test for the virus. There are clinical trials in progress on a vaccine. These agencies are in constant communication with one another and with the White House.

So — what about coronavirus? This is an opportunity for us as a country to unify over solutions and we should pray that happens. For the body of Christ, it’s a time to trust the Lord, and do good.