The stock market got off to a very rocky start Monday morning, with Dow futures falling another 1200 points on fears of the coronavirus, triggering an automatic suspension of trading.

Also hurting confidence was a big drop in Asian markets caused by a plunge in oil prices. With people cutting back on travel to avoid the disease, oil producers have been thrown into panic by the possibility of a worldwide glut of oil, exacerbated by a price war between Russia and OPEC. Some experts say that could send oil plunging to as little as $20 a barrel this year.

While really cheap oil and gas seems great for consumers, it won’t help the US if the underlying cause of it slows down the economy worldwide, or if oil prices are so low that American producers can’t stay afloat.

Of course, what’s fueling all this isn’t really disease but uncertainty. The market is reacting to panicky reports and worst-case scenarios. By this time next year, if we’re careful, lucky and blessed, we might be looking back on this turmoil in relief that it all passed quickly and wondering why we let ourselves be so spooked by it. At least, let’s hope so.

In the meantime, keep doing whatever you can to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. To help, here is advice from the CDC:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention-treatment.html

And here’s that same info in more entertaining form, a music video out of Vietnam called “Jealous Coronavirus.”

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.

Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.