TW: All of them

You. Do you think you’re special?

Early on they told you that it would be the vulnerable, the sick and elderly—people like me—who were most at risk of dying. You nodded your head with the required public empathy, but you didn’t really care. People saw your Facebook fundraiser for the Special Olympics and you were known to “light it up blue” every year so you were in the clear. You still planned on living your life as normal. Going out, partying, doing whatever. This isn’t a time of social distancing for you or community, it is days off from work for the time of your life.

You heard about ventilator rationing and “flattening the curve” but those are just social media trends, right? Not people pleading with you to do the right thing to save their life? These people were being overly dramatic—”attention whores” taking advantage of communal fear, right? It’s only the sick, disabled and elderly—and your neighbor’s wife Susan.

That was a little too close to comfort. She was sick that one time? Right? It was expected.

You push it out of your mind because you have somewhere to be. You have people you want to see and you cannot be realistically asked to halt everything you had planned so that someone that was going to “die anyway” because of their “underlying health problems” can live.

That’s life. People die.

You’re more important than any of them anyways. What are they called? Unnecessary eaters? That’s why the government is trying to dump them from their entitlements. That’s why they don’t deserve to eat and use your tax money for SNAP. You’re more valuable than them anyways. You can work. You can contribute to society. Fuck them, go see the cherry blossoms. Go on spring break. You deserve the fun—you’ve earned it.

I know peak bloom is beautiful and the weather couldn’t be any nicer, but can’t help thinking about social distancing when looking at these crowds. Let’s be safe!! #CherryBlossoms #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/EnkCeuW78l — Josh Rosenthal (@JoshRosenthalTV) March 20, 2020

They didn’t earn the right to live quite like you earned your fun.

But, let me ask you something. When was the last time you went to the doctor? When was the last time you worked up the nerve to? When was the last time you could afford it? How do you know you’re not at risk when you don’t know what’s going on in your own body?

You were so preoccupied thinking everyone else was disposable you didn’t realize you were throwing yourself away.

But let’s think beyond you for a moment. You’ve been doing enough of that. Who in your life are you willing to sacrifice? You seem to think that if you’re affected by COVID19, it rests with you. In only your lungs, it exists on only your skin.

Who are you willing to let go of? Your mother, your father, sibling or friend. School has been let out for the rest of the academic year, how many of your classmates do you expect will come back? How many of them will make it through this? How many of those you partied during a pandemic will their families bury without being able to see their bodies?

Wait, that’s right. You don’t care. You earned your fun. You don’t plan on counting the empty seats in class next fall. You don’t mind visiting the cherry blossoms with one less person in tow. You’ll still pour one out for the friends who don’t make it to next year’s spring break.

You’re special. You’ve earned the right to be a death sentence to anyone you come across. COVID19 has nothing on you.

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