President Trump now is one of the 7.2 million Americans who have tested positive for covid-19.

Everyone should be able to put themselves in these shoes.

Maybe everyone doesn’t have a grandma in a nursing home or a husband working in a hospital. Maybe everyone doesn’t work frontline in a grocery store or on an ambulance or in a prison.

Maybe we don’t all have diabetes or asthma. Maybe we don’t all have obesity or other preexisting conditions that increase the risks during the coronavirus pandemic.

But we do all have one thing that knits us together — the most precious thing. We have our lives.

And Trump’s diagnosis and the news he and the first lady have mild symptoms are examples of the dangers of the disease.

It does not respect authority or privilege. It does not care if you are the leader of a superpower. It does not care if you have money or fame. It does not care if you have family or friends. The virus is egalitarian. To covid-19, all men really are created equal.

That is why there is no room for crowing from Trump’s detractors now, and it is on party leaders big and small to be role models.

There should be the standard statements of support and sympathy, such as those offered by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden or Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who had a mild case of covid-19 in the spring.

COVID-19 is a serious illness that has impacted millions of American families. I wish President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump a speedy recovery following their positive test. I will keep them in my prayers.

— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) October 2, 2020

But there should be sterner messages, too — such as Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s straightforward condemnation, in which he called cruelty and celebration of the news “wholly inappropriate.”

Any sarcastic, cruel, or celebratory sentiments are wholly inappropriate and violate basic decency.

— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) October 2, 2020

That is important, not just from a karma and humanity standpoint. It’s probably true few of us can remember a time when politics took a backseat to anything, but it absolutely has to do so here.

For seven months, the pandemic has been an unfairly us-or-them situation. The disease and the response have been painted in shades of red and blue that are completely wrong and those feelings at the top have contributed to conflict on the ground. It cannot be ignored that the Trump administration has sent conflicting signals since the pandemic began in March, especially with the president’s reluctance to wear face masks and his embrace of large rallies with questionable social distancing.

But the president’s illness should illustrate to everyone the disease doesn’t care about party, either.

To date, more than 207,000 Americans have died from covid-19. We should all be hoping and praying — and working to ensure — that there is not one more death.

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