Think of someone you love. Now imagine watching as they slowly die, their body shutting down because one or more of their vital organs can no longer function well enough to sustain the fragile balancing act that is human life. Then, suddenly, that person you love is gone forever.

Sit with the fact that this is what happens when someone has a fatal case of COVID-19, except their loved ones are unable to be with them as they die. Really stop and think about that. Put yourself in that family's shoes and imagine how you'd feel. How it'd change you.

Understand that your responsibility is not about whether you infect someone who ends up dying. It's not even about whether you infect someone period. It's about whether you provide the virus with a human host in which it can survive, replicate, and spread. That is in your power.

Please respect the fact that your choices affect whether you're likely to harbor and spread the virus. Please don't lose sight of the terrible place that can lead: a sterile room where a good person is dying alone. It is a terrible burden. Please take it seriously.

That person won't be dead because the virus decided to kill them: viruses aren't sentient. They won't be dead because you decided to infect them: you don't even know them. They'll be dead because the virus was allowed to spread. The crime isn't murder. The crime is carelessness.

That's why it's disheartening to see so many people being so flippant about the spread of infection. I'm not judging their individual choices based on whether or not someone dies as a direct result. I'm just outraged, dumbfounded, and deeply saddened that they don't seem to care.

We all have bills to pay, lives and relationships to sustain. We all have to make compromises.

But please do one thing.

However cautious or nonchalant you may be; whatever moral gray areas you tread: just recognize that you have a grave responsibility. Don't take it lightly.