As COVID-19 continues to disrupt… well, everything, people might ask, “What would Captain Kirk do?” “What would Captain Janeway do?” “What would Spock’s brother Sybok do?” 

Okay, there’s probably no one asking that last one. 

However, with his recent turn on TV and his time helming an Enterprise or two, people might genuinely ask, “What would Captain Picard do?” The show The Current put that question to Sir Patrick Stewart, the man who brings Jean-Luc Picard to life. His answer: More than a lot of today’s leaders. According to a report from the CBC, “…Stewart thinks his fictional alter ego […] would have responded to the spread of COVID-19 ‘very much quicker than either the U.S. government or the U.K. government did.

“‘There were good examples around the world of how best to handle this dangerous and difficult situation, and it wasn't taken up,’ said Stewart, adding, ‘I think that Picard would not have hesitated in finding, if not solutions, at least ways of minimizing the risk and the danger to individuals…’”

Stewart said initial delays in dealing with the spread of the virus were “profoundly disconcerting [and] worrying…” He also pointed out that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson testing positive for COVID-19 shows that the virus “has no respect for power.”

Sobering as his words are, Stewart’s not given in to gloom and despair. From his perspective, “the situation is now being handled as it should have been from the beginning, and taken seriously, and not just something to make political points with.”

One certainly hopes so.

By the way, the answer to the earlier questions: stay inside when you can, maintain social distancing, and wash your hands. That’s what they would all do. 

Even Sybok.