When despite the isolation and difficulties and people being terribly ill and dying, there was this feeling of something good might come out of this great reset of society?
No? I remember feeling scared and sad that we were doing all the wrong things and everyone was trying to use the chaos to profit, often making things much worse.
I remember that as the first months of slimey opportunists trying to get rich by hoarding toilet paper and hand sanitizer but I think it passed. I think there are, have been and will always be assholes that try to ride the wave of fucking other people over. But they did so a major exposure of their assholeness then, definitely.
Idk, I remember being frustrated with people that didn't care or even try, but I wasn't really scared other than that my mum might catch it because people are selfish dicks.
There were a lot of positive things happening, like breweries devoting production to making hand sanitizer at zero profit because it was the right thing to do. People coming up with clever solutions to necessary interactions and stuff like that.
Aside from the death and fear it was great. All plans canceled. Lots of distant community. Lots of processes that seemed impossible (like work from home) suddenly were easy.
Then fuckers started whining. Place started opening too early and raising infection rates. More people died.
Fuckers started selling counterfeit masks. Medical misinformation ran rampant.
As USA N95 supplies drop due to fired inspectors, and misinformation increases, this next pandemic will suck.
Yes, ironically I hadn't felt so close to people in years.
It was incredible how reduction in emissions seem to instantly have an effect on the health of regions. Everything seemed to be up in the air as we adapted to find new ways of doing things in order to keep our vulnerable members safe. I really thought this was our chance to change things for the better.
Obviously the deadly virus that killed millions was tragic, but I did have a sense that things might actually get better for everyone overall.
Maybe it was different at different places, but I think here it grew stronger with time though it transformed from the celebrities singing on social media and applauding nurses to general acceptance of communal hardships and everybody pulling together to get through it. I think despite the hardships and suffering there was a communal spirit that is rare nowadays.
There were these things like smog clearing up, I hoped that would bring about something. Mostly I was worried that people would get radicalised by the isolation and anti-lockdown grifters though.
I was in LA during the lockdowns and Floyd protests. I think the greatest example of people coming together was when entire neighborhoods would start shooting fireworks at police helicopters that were flying around, telling everyone to go inside after 8pm or whenever curfew was.
I didn't mean it that way. I just meant to remind you, that our brains do this, that's why I wrote "could".
For example, I was in the military many years ago. Now when I look back, I immediately remember all the fun we had doing exercizes in the forest, marching in lockstep, helping each other, good food from the military cooks, my seargent walking around laughing and wielding two machine guns, etc.. But when it was so nice, why did I quit? I have to concentrate hard to remember that is was actually one of the worst times I had in my life. No privacy, bad bunk beds, constantly exhausted, drinking alcohol to be able to sleep when deployed to noisy environments, everything was dangerous all the time, always being ready to kill randos, just because their boss sent them to war, etc.. It wasn't fun overall, but it's getting harder to remember every year.
I only remember printing out (Germany) home schooling stuff for the kid before my shift, and trying to work in home office and doing school stuff with them in parrallel. Man was I tired.
Well, I do remember being worried about whether I could ever be within 2 metres of anyone else ever again...
That said, I have learned really that it takes an event that kills millions spread all over the world at essentially the same time for people and our legislatures to act. I thought nothing would ever get us to do anything seriously about the climate crisis but when we all stayed home for a bit we actually managed to reverse the upward trend in emissions for a time.
I remember going to work on site Monday to Saturday because my employer dictated that we were essential and working remotely was or part time was out of question, we were given cheap masks and a carpet on the floor with a bit of sanitizer for our safety and the customers (several customers died... Especially the older ones that didn't want to use masks, which were required to enter the place).
That is all I remember mate, ah and covering the turns of the people that they were forced to go home for months full paid by the country laws (no home office) because of higher risk due to medical reasons... Fun times.