We thought Things were Bad, because people were dying. And then more people died, and more people died, and more people died.
What happens when you combine a highly contagious disease with individual selfishness and collective confusion and instituional dysfunction and political ruthlessness is no longer a rhetorical question.
A thing that money buys you is distance. A thing that distance buys you is safety.
Distance is relative. Safety is relational. Deaths are mere statistics until you know their names.