German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks to the Chancellery while accompanied by her bodyguards in Berlin on May 13, 2020. | Michael Kappeler/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

What the pandemic says — and doesn’t say — about gender and power around the world.

Chancellor Angela Merkel began her March 18 speech to the German people by acknowledging their pain.

“The coronavirus is currently dramatically changing our lives,” she said. “Our understanding of normality, of public life, of social togetherness — all this is being tested as never before.”

Then she called on Germans to work together to keep each other safe.

“I firmly believe that we will manage this task if all citizens see it as their task,” Merkel said. “This is serious. Take it seriously.”

Meanwhile, around the same time, President Donald Trump was blaming the media and Democrats for overhyping the “situation,” promising