It's too bad our local, state and federal health officials — and president — can't figure out how to act on the threats of coronavirus as quickly as Tennessee Attorney Gen. Herbert Slatery.

Following the road to Coronavirus, USA, we have arrived at the intersection of science and politics — right here in Tennessee.

When all the pandemic confusion subsides, we hope the news is better than we expect, and the mood here and across the world can lighten.

On the same day Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declared a state of emergency to step up Tennessee's response to the COVID-19, the number of Volunteer State cases doubled from nine to 18.

First, we here in Hamilton County learned that all dash camera footage for 130 Hamilton County patrol deputies taken between Oct. 25, 2018, and Jan. 23, 2020, was lost after a software failure on Jan. 13.

Nothing has made the case for why we need good government more than the new and novel coronavirus known as COVID-19.

Are we there yet? Are we at the intersection of fear and dread? Are we afraid yet? In some ways, yes.

There is a very fine line between political will and leadership. Political will is what we lack today to take necessary but difficult actions, and leadership is what it will take to create political will.

A long-running joke about Tennessee weather has been that if you don't like it, just hang around a few minutes and it will change. But the joke is starting to be not so funny. The extremes of climate change are turning our normal quirky weather changes into extremes. And into extreme killers.

You know that saying about the only thing needed for bad to triumph is for good people to say nothing?

Drum roll, please The headlines are seductive:

If you've ever doubted that all politics are local, read on.

If Gov. Bill Lee and the National Rifle Association have their way, Tennessee will become a state that might as well make its new label something like, "Tennessee — where we let you shoot first, and we'll ask questions later."

It seems far too early to call it panic - the fact that every conversation spoken or overheard in recent days at some point includes a mention of coronavirus.

Surely Harvey Weinstein never expected to find himself handcuffed and led off to a jail cell.

Remember when the juiciest follow-the-money stories about President Donald Trump were his six bankruptcies? Gosh, that seems like a 100 years ago. Now we run out of fingers counting the serial money scandals of our 45th president. Here's a laundry list to help put this wheeling, self-dealing presidency into perspective:

We've seen the ruinous effect of President Donald Trump's placement of a de facto Roy Cohn — William Barr — at the top of the Department of Justice. And we're about to see that same kind of ruin with Trump's appointment of propagandist Richard Grenell as acting director of national intelligence.

Now that was a debate.

While Donald Trump rode "the Beast" limousine around the Daytona 500 track on Sunday — ostensibly to connect with "real Americans at Daytona," real Americans in Chattanooga had been turning out to vote during the Volunteer State's first days of early voting for the 2020 Super Tuesday primary.

We're hearing so much talk about Bernie Sanders and that boogeyman "socialism," and there is so little time to stop the nonsense before the elections of 2020.

There is good news and bad news about climate change and our adaptations to it.

Hamilton County has never been immune to dirty politics. To the contrary, we have seemed to have more than our share of it. And it's often carried out over and over — thanks to political grudges carried for years.

Impeachment came and went, with key Republicans musing that Donald Trump had "learned his lesson" and would be a good boy. The rest of us scoffed and sat back to watch.