Catastrophe or irrelevance?

As I sit here wondering whether the sneeze I just experienced was the onset of a life-ending coronavirus attack or just a result of the beginning of spring in Pittsburgh, I wonder how I can say anything new about the virus that is turning all of our lives upside down.

For me, the scariest part of the whole thing is the fact that one of my sons works in the emergency rooms of three Maryland hospitals and his wife is a nurse in the emergency room of Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. They are also the parents of two of our grandchildren.

It has warmed my heart to see how their neighbors have written messages of thanks and appreciation on the sidewalk with chalk. Such kindness is emblematic of a larger surge in national togetherness as we all respond to this crisis.

But even as people rally around one another, two painful realities remain: The United States’ leadership is manifestly unqualified to handle this pandemic, and the greatest pains of this crisis will be felt by the globe’s most disadvantaged people.

I like to think that it is just a horrible coincidence, rather than an inevitable result of the evolution of American political society, that now, as the country faces the challenge to its economy and society that the coronavirus attack constitutes, someone as apparently inadequate as Donald Trump is president.

Two elements of his character alarm me. The first is that he doesn’t seem to be getting any better. He seemingly does not learn. Mr. Trump is profoundly ignorant. He doesn’t know American history and he doesn’t understand how America has fit into the world at any point in history. Whereas the U.S. would have been at one time a global leader during a crisis like this, the country has struggled to keep up with its own troubles, let alone those of other countries.

Due to the government’s lack of foresight and preparedness, the Trump administration and Congress had to push through an enormous stimulus package, priced at more than $2 trillion, to try to save the economy. Does Mr. Trump understand that sending many of us a $1,200 check will not make up for the country’s inability to quickly or ably meet the challenge of COVID-19?

As the U.S. struggles to make up for lost time in slowing the roll of this deadly virus, the coronavirus pandemic will create tremendous pain for poor people and poor countries.

In this country, the disease has been most destructive for those who were already struggling to make ends meet — the elderly, students and the already impoverished. Think of the average American, who before the virus attack couldn’t come up with $400 for an unexpected expense.

On the international level, think what is going to happen when the easily transmittable virus hits some of Africa’s poorest, most densely populated city centers. Totalitarian China was able to organize itself as a society to fight the attack, but that will not be possible in Cairo, Kinshasa, Lagos and Nairobi. We likely won’t even know how many people are infected and die in those places. Anyone who believes that warm weather and sunshine will put coronavirus out of business, as Mr. Trump does, knows nothing about the world.

We can hope Mr. Trump will grow, and learn. George Washington probably had no idea what a mess the colonies’ forces were in when he took command. Franklin Delano Roosevelt likely could not have imagined that it would take World War II to wrap up the Great Depression.

Mr. Trump may grow. If he is elected again, he may shake off some of the basic character faults that hamper gravely his ability to lead us today. He had better grow. But as of this moment, the United States is speeding down the track toward catastrophe or global irrelevance. I am not used to either. I think most Americans aren’t either.