This morning I talked with a friend who lost his sister to covid Friday. I learned about that on a professional mailing list my friend and I share; another member of the list also said he’d lost a family member to covid.

I then talked with a family member of someone who is close to me, and is very sick and may well pass, well, any minute now. This person had covid a couple of months ago, and we thought they had recovered from it, but now it appears possibly not.

And last night I saw a tweet from someone who lost their mother to covid a few days ago, and is expecting to lose their father to covid any day now.

Please do not leave any condolence replies here. We do not deserve them; we are among the fortunate and blessed.

But please do wash your hands regularly and thoroughly, practice social distancing when you can and wear a mask where social distancing is impractical.