The president of our nation, and several other national figures he recently associated with, are among the 7.4 million Americans stricken with COVID-19. Like him or loathe him, let’s all come together as a nation in hoping for his strong recovery.

We also hope President Donald Trump and millions of other Americans learn a lesson from this experience. He has downplayed the pandemic that has killed more than 210,000 Americans and more than a million people worldwide, has urged more and faster reopenings with fewer precautions, and has criticized people who take the coronavirus more seriously.

He recently hosted a event in the White House Rose Garden — outdoors but crowded and unmasked — to introduce his new Supreme Court nominee, and quite a few people who were there have since tested positive. It was a bad idea to host that event in that way, as the consequences now show.

Now he is being cared for nurses and doctors and many other excellent people. Health care workers are widely acknowledged as the heroes of 2020 — although they never stopped being heroes. For them, taking precautions against the spread of the coronavirus is the most obvious, common-sense thing in the world. Let’s all learn from their appropriate caution, as well as from their hard work, knowledge and sacrifices.

Hopefully the president’s sickness will be brief, but also instructive. The coronavirus is not political. It is real. It can mess you up or kill you. Please take it seriously.