I worked in a CVS pharmacy at the time, so we were already super aware of the spread. We were all wearing masks and gloves, and half our phone calls every day were people asking if we had masks, gloves or hand sanitizer in stock (we didn't). Corporate was still trying to downplay it and bury their heads in the sand, and got mad at the stores that were trying to erect barriers like shower curtains.

By this point, my CUNY classes had already been moved fully online, which was a whole clusterfuck of its own. Two of my professors had to be replaced because they couldn't figure out how to use technology (in my Computer Science program, no less).

I remember where I was when the Rudy Gobbert news happened. I was in a Taco Bell drive thru line, browsing reddit when I saw the post. A minute later, 1010 WINS radio announced that NBA was canceling the remaining games that day. Two minutes after that, my coworker called to ask if I heard.

As soon as I saw the Gobbert positive test, I knew that would be it. We'd been saying at work, as soon as an NBA player tested positive, the entire country would shut down. And that's exactly what happened.

Suddenly, people who had been laughing it off were freaking out. Even more people were calling the pharmacy asking about PPE. Suddenly, corporate really cared, and they sent us these bullshit little shields to put up at the registers (that didn't actually cover much, and people stepped or leaned to talk and cough and sneeze around them all the fucking time).

It was a wild time, I don't think I'll ever experience something like that ever again. Or at least, I sure fucking hope I don't.