UN-F**King Believable.

[calimary]

17. That feels like a punch in the gut.

EVERY number in that 325,000 is a person. A living, loving, caring human being with a family full of loved ones, all shapes, sizes, colors, nationalities, ages - the youngest I heard of this week was a five-year-old.

This just FUCKING HURTS! And I don't even know any of these people. It doesn't matter. They're fellow travelers, all bozos on this bus called Planet Earth. And they have feelings and cares and worries and loves, and people who care about them. They laugh and they cry. And now they're the object of tears - gone. Lost forever down a dark hole called COVID. Leaving a trail of aching hearts and lit votive candles. And the holidays are coming. I bet there were a few of these COVID victims for whom a special Christmas gift had already been purchased or ordered, or made by hand.

And it didn't have to end this way. They didn't have to die.

Damn.