A few weeks ago I lamented on Twitter that I need new friends. Chance let me know I’d gone too far—he thought I wanted to dump our friends over politics. That wasn’t it.

Two of my friends have died. Another had a stroke so severe he lost his ability to draw. Another just went to the hospital with a suspected blood clots and the doctors released him without bothering to test for one.

My boosted friends are experiencing a rolling storm of flus, COVID rebounds and mystery respiratory disease. I don’t need new friends because we disagree—I need new friends because I think they might die before we’re fifty.