99-43-28-14
The number of days it took the United States to add one million cases of Covid-19 to its total. 99 for the first million, 43 for the second, 28 for the third, 14 days for the fourth million, the fruits of heedlessly 're-opening'.
He stared at the numbers. 99-43-28-14. Not a football play. Not the combination to a safe. It was the exponential, viral spread of the disease. He understood that they could reasonably expect the next million cases to accrue in a week.