This weekend while at a petrol station, I struck up a conversation with the attendant, who proceeded to tell me that COVID-19 is fake, a ploy to get donor funds. That broke me, because my father died of COVID-19.

I also contracted the virus, and had to mourn my dad in almost complete solitude. I cannot think of anything worse.

And then there's the constant, all-consuming thoughts of how my dad spent his final days. Alone. Unable to be with those who loved him the most.

So as we talk about how the virus has a low death rate, or how it isn't that serious, or how Africa has been "spared", remember that people have lost loved ones to this. It has taken the person I loved the most. We are in agony.

This thing is real. Complacence is our worst enemy.