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When a 23-year-old young man in Minnesota found himself trapped at home while anxiously awaiting the results of his virus test, he had to find a way to pass the time and distract himself.
What better way than cruising Grindr?
But the gay dating app did more than just distract. In pandemic times, Grindr and collectivism merged to provide necessities.
Tarik Dobbs, a 23-year-old young man living in Minnesota, began to feel possible symptoms of the virus on Friday, March 13, BuzzFeed News reports. He described initially feeling aches and a fever, which reached as high as 103 degrees.
Dobbs then acted on his concerns. He called a doctor, described his symptoms and took their advice to go receive a drive-thru virus test, which his home state of Minnesota does have.
A "really unpleasant and very strange" experience at the drive-thru would be Dobbs' last efficient maneuver.
On March 21, Dobbs told BuzzFeed News that he'd been spending the week since the test in isolation with a couple roommates—an undoubtedly anxious period.
So, he took the obvious next step any gay 23-year-old would do while horrified about the possibility of contracting the virus that has decimated the rhythms of daily life around the globe.
He hung around on the dating app, Grindr with no real intention of meeting in person.
Dobbs had plenty to chat with matches about. After all, awaiting test results in quarantine is rather timely and interesting these days.
One of his matches was a guy named Gary in his mid-50s who would catapult their chat into total pragmatism almost immediately, as Gary told BuzzFeed.
"I have a hard time trying to stay out of doctor mode."
"I felt bad for him and he didn't have any food and there was no one there to help him. To me, it seemed like a no-brainer."
Gary—who apparently did not advertise his MD on his Grindr bio—kicked it into high gear when Dobbs shared that he was far from family who could help.
He arrived on Dobbs' doorstep with food, leaving it outside the door, of course. The moment of tenderness amidst such chaos was apparently too heartwarming to not share with the world.
Dobbs sent a photo and his story to the viral Instagram account, Humans of NY, which reposted his tale.
Not surprisingly, the internet was waiting for a positive news story.
Plenty of people were stoked to have something to rejoice about.
Twitter was clamoring for positivity as well.
Here's hoping the internet populates itself with more stories like this: positive outcomes and everybody following the guidelines.