Anita’s 72-year-old mom is immunocompromised, but she volunteers regularly at a hospital. That means she’s both more likely to come into contact with the coronavirus and, if she does, more likely to suffer from a severe case of the disease it causes, COVID-19. But despite her daughter’s pleas, she refuses to stop. “She doesn’t want to be inconvenienced or change her life,” Anita said. “But she wants the ‘older folks’ she knows to ‘be careful,’ and I’m like, ‘MOM, THAT IS YOU.’”

Jessica’s stepfather is 65, has multiple sclerosis, and recently underwent lung cancer surgery. His job as a truck driver takes him all along the I-5 corridor on the West Coast, including through the Seattle area. His company hasn’t issued any advisories on how to mitigate risk or change behaviors, and he’s laughed off attempts to encourage him to stock up on his medications, or even just get some hand sanitizer for his truck. “He just says he’s fine,” Jessica said, “and makes bad jokes like, ‘The safest thing is just not to breathe!’” She keeps texting him with updates and easy-to-understand articles, but thus far, it’s been of little use. “I don’t know what else to do,” she said.

Nichole’s grandmother is in her nineties and has been in poor health for some time. The family expects her to die within the next week and has begun planning a funeral service. “We’ve got a huge family, with all of her siblings over 80 and most of her kids (my aunts and uncles) over 60,” Nichole said. “And I have been trying to gently suggest we don’t have a big funeral and fly from all over the country right now.” She tried to coordinate with a few cousins to suggest a different option — to not have “a giant Catholic Mass with people from 14 states” — but the older members of the family want to do it “the right way.” “There’s a general attitude that we are making a big deal out of nothing,” Nichole said. “A lot of ‘we deal with the flu every year.’”

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