Experts did say pandemic would get worse in Oct.

For some time, experts have warned the coronavirus pandemic would start getting worse in October.

The last person on Earth you’d expect to underscore that point just did — emphatically so.

America has been growing accustomed to the gyrations of the COVID-19 outbreak: economies closing, partially reopening, and closing again; curves flattening, then curving again; masks that once weren’t deemed essential for the general public now are.

Then, the announcement late Thursday — the first day of October — by President Donald Trump that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 struck like a thunderbolt.

The diagnosis, at least for the time being, seemed to wash away Trump’s alternative reality that the pandemic wasn’t as severe as it has been made out to be and that the end of it was in sight.

Analysts thrashed about assessing how this would change the presidential campaign — again — but as the news settled in Friday morning and the president’s symptoms were initially described as “mild,” something familiar happened: Life went on in the balky way it has in recent months, at least for the vast majority of people not directly harmed by the pandemic.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer held a news conference late in the morning at a park to formally announce that children’s playgrounds were reopening for the first time since March — with the bittersweet subtext that, inexplicably, they were among the last outdoor recreational venues cleared for use again.

Hours later, the Padres defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to advance to the next round in Major League Baseball’s postseason — in front of the typical small crowd of cardboard cutouts at Petco Park.

Efforts to bring back normal activities have included necessary precautions that remind us how different the world is. Some city libraries at last are reopening, but will operate very differently than before and at limited capacity, not unlike commercial enterprises that reopened weeks and months ago.

Local political campaigns are off and running, and if you only paid attention to political mailers, television ads and social media activity, it seems like nothing has changed. But virtual debates and fundraisers, along with maskwearing, social-distancing precinct walkers, are clear reminders that they have.

The presidential campaign almost seemed to be returning to a familiar pace, with Trump rallies and a live, in-person debate before an actual (small) audience. But all that has become problematic, and not just because of the unhinged nature of the debate — a tone set by Trump’s fulminations.

Two days after the debate it was revealed that Trump, the first lady and presidential aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for COVID-19. The rallies were staged with a lack of social distancing and mask wearing.

So far, major outbreaks have not been definitively traced to the events, though health officials in Tulsa, Okla., noted a surge in cases occurred three weeks after an indoor Trump rally there in June. However, aspects of the local economy had been reopening in the previous weeks.

Six members of the Trump campaign advance team for the event tested positive for the virus. Other White House aides have tested positive before Hicks.

Trump’s diagnosis was certainly a bombshell, but in retrospect, it may not be so surprising that Trump became infected, given what has surrounded him.

Well wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery have poured in, including from adversaries such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s November opponent who announced on Friday that he and his wife, Jill, had tested negative for coronavirus.

Trump’s diagnosis did not keep critics from pointing out that he has flouted coronavirus safeguards.

“Let’s hope Trump gets better. But let’s also note that he seldom wore a mask and mocked those who did. How many people did he personally infect? How much damage did his bad example do?” said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont Mckenna College and a former Republican who once worked as a research director for the National Republican Party.

All levels of governments are struggling to stop the spread of coronavirus among the public at large and within their own ranks. The San Diego City Council has established strict socialdistancing protocols, yet a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 after attending Tuesday’s meeting where some council members were present.

As society moves ahead in the COVID era, it does so uneasily amid an ongoing debate about whether economies are reopening too quickly or not fast enough. Trump’s predicament is unlikely to change that.

Whatever progress may be realized, there’s also a sense of living on the brink.

San Diego County for weeks has teetered on the verge of having to roll back some openings because the number of infections has hovered near a threshold set by the state.

The U.S. economy also appears to be on the edge of an abyss, and stark consequences loom.

“Millions of Americans risk losing water and power as massive, unpaid bills pile up,” said a Washington Post headline on Friday.

“A President’s Positive Test and the Year That Won’t Let Up,” read a headline in The New York Times the same day.

On a lighter note, but in keeping with the theme, the Times linked to a video by comedian Weird Al Yankovic, a send-up of the debate titled “America Is Doomed, the Musical.”

A good laugh can help in times like these.

So can taking the long view that things may not always be so grim. Yet another Times story reflected on an era when the world seemed lurching toward a disaster of a very different kind — a global military conflict triggered by the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.

There was perhaps no greater symbol of those tensions than the Berlin Wall, separating what was then East and West Germany. The Cold War has long since ended, and 30 years after reunification, the 870-mile stretch of that once-heavily militarized zone will become a nature preserve.

Tweet of the Week

Goes to Jason Gay (@jasongay), sports columnist at The Wall Street Journal while watching Tuesday’s presidential debate.

“my drink just asked for a drink”