I have a good friend in Kolkata whom I communicate with every day.

He is so frightened right now. He just told me this morning that people are buying up bottled oxygen and hoarding it or selling it on the black market. Hospitals are full, and beds are not available.

He found out yesterday that his beloved childhood dance instructor just died of covid.

His WhatsApp is full of urgent pleas from sick or dying people who need help but can’t get it. Worse are the pleas from the poor who don’t have the resources to bury or cremate their dead.

He is fortunate to be able to isolate with his family in a nice apartment and stay as safe as possible, but the existential dread he is experiencing is eating at him.