For many of us, it's tempting, and almost irresistible to track the COVID-19 stats in real time.
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It feels, perversely, like a way of keeping on top of things, of playing a part in the country's collective mission to flatten the curve, to see our way out of this crisis.
But it's also easy for us to forget that the numbers we can watch tracking on the screen represent real people who have real families.
Many of these real people are sick and suffering. Some have died.
And many of these people have family and friends who are grieving, or desperately worried and frightened for their loved ones, often isolated from them by necessity.
The revelations that one of the most recent victims of COVID-19 was the father-in-law of federal Labor MP Ged Kearney shouldn't have been a rude awakening. But for some of us, it was.
Ms Kearney took to social media to pay tribute to her late father-in-law, Mike who died in Canberra Hospital on Friday, becoming the ACT's second coronavirus death.
But it's also easy for us to forget that the numbers we can watch tracking on the screen represent real people who have real families.
She said people who saw there had been a 30th death might have framed in terms of numbers going up, or comparing Australia to other countries.
Either way, many people would have seen the death as a number, and nothing much more.
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"Please, don't let these figures just become nameless statistics to you," she said.
"Every death is sad and felt deeply by someone. I know most people are finding kindness and helping out at every turn, and I am feeling the caring nature of our community first hand."
It's a timely reminder that what we're all doing - staying at home, working out of the office, keeping away from family and friends at a time we may need them most - is important and, in many cases, life-saving.
The virus is little understood and, for many, has represented nothing more than mild symptoms and considerable inconvenience.
Many people can't relate to the panic, and understandably resent having their freedoms temporarily curtailed.
But while much of this crisis is inconvenient, uncomfortable, worrying and even depressing, there are many people who are truly struggling through this crisis.
There are small businesses that, just a month ago, were flourishing, and are now shuttered.
There are people who were, until recently, just getting by, and are now wondering where their next meal may come from.
People who don't have comfortable, warm and safe places to isolate as the days get colder.
People who have worked hard their whole lives are now claiming welfare benefits.
People with elderly parents in aged care facilities are prevented from visiting.
And still more are actually sick, and suffering.
And that's not even taking into account the calamity being faced by other countries, such as Spain, Italy and America, where people are dying in their thousands.
It's not too early to start deciding how we are going to tell this story once it is over.
It's not too much to hope that we will remember Australia as a country of compassion and empathy.
In the meantime, we should stop obsessing over the curve, and the numbers, and the modelling, and remember that sometimes the bigger picture isn't the only one.