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DAY 13: TOTAL CONFIRMED DEATHS 24,077 WORLDWIDE

Her country was now number one.

The overconfident residents always thought of themselves as the best, as better than people in other countries, as the most civilized and forward thinking: the smartest. In the past this may have been true to a certain extent, but in the past few decades other countries had surpassed her own in certain areas.

But now the country was back on top. Except this time it had earned a new inglorious title: country with the most confirmed cases of the virus- 85,991. This was even more than the country in which the disease originated, and in which there were over a billion residents. Her country was home to only 350 million.

The spread was nowhere close to being contained.

She saw a photo on the internet machine of health care workers in their scrubs, but they had added a new layer- these workers, who were out their on the front line, risking life and limb for the sick- were wearing some kind of bastardized personal protective gear in the form of black crinkly trash bags with holes cut out of them for their arms.

This great country was running out of necessary and essential protective gear.

How?

How could this even be possible?

Her beloved country was filled with millionaires and billionaires, yachts and sports cars, and businesses that only focused on one’s eyebrows. The amount of riches and pure unadulterated excess could be seen everywhere. The American Dream meant that any of its citizens could achieve such wild success!

Businesses were starting to donate gloves, masks, and aprons, but if felt too little too late. News of the virus first appeared in January. It was now March, and just now people were donating? Where was the government? How come individual hospitals were reliant on donations and the goodwill of others? The hospitals were supposed to be state of the art! The best in the world! The doctors and nurses, paramedics and police were also Grade A professionals!

A call went out to people who owned sewing machines. Someone released a pattern for how to make masks.

What was this, the dark ages?

The one group of people who were keeping the sick alive, who were the only helping hand and consoling voice when the dying left their bodies, they were now in danger. They were now dying.

Over 300 police officers had been infected in New York alone.

And this was just the beginning. How many doctors, nurses, paramedics, assistants, police officers, and firefighters would be left after this pandemic had ended?

It felt like her country was burning, hard and bright.

And all she could do, was watch.

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