While I recognise and sympathise with the troubles and suffering of others, for me the whole COVID thing has been pretty benign (once I stopped looking at the "Are you worried" thread!).
I have mostly been working from home for years, so no big change there. I'm getting somewhat used to also having Mrs MarkMas at home all the time - she used to be away about 10 days a month, which was, frankly, rather more restful for an introvert like me! (Yes, I am that most dangerous of creatures, a socially-adept introvert.)
My (part-time) recruitment work has been a little slow, but is just now suddenly super-busy (this is not an economic indicator, as my volume is so low that workload levels are random). The annual conference that I run just squeaked in before lockdown at the end of February, and I now need to decide by October how to handle a probably hybrid event next February - that is a bit stressful, and risky, but interesting too. My two sons (in their 20s) are in work and getting paid (as are their girlfriends) - one son is delighted to be WFH, the other a bit frustrated as he started a new role just before lockdown and has been mostly unable to get going properly. Literally nobody I know has been really ill, although many (including me) wonder if the cough they had sometime in December-April was the 'Big CV' . It has been a bit frustrating missing out on holidays and nice lunches etc. But then again, I have saved a fortune on fuel and bills.
Current data says that if you live fairly quietly, you have about a 1 in 2,000 chance of meeting someone with CV, then a 1 in 10 chance of getting it from them, and then a 1 in 100 chance of being seriously ill (or dead), so I'm not personally feeling very threatened.
BUT, my father is 91, and my sister (in her 60s) has lung problems, so I have been a bit concerned about them. But this concern is easing as the situation improves, and I am taking my father out to lunch this week (at his insistence), but not my more vulnerable sister.
I'm also not too worried about economic melt-down. I feel that we are experiencing a recession of demand and activity, not confidence (1929) or structure (2008), and I am optimistic about a significant demand-led rebound as we start to both actually mitigate and psychologically get used to the threat of the virus. My younger son who is supposed to understand these things, tells me that there is, after all, a 'magic money tree', so long as Rishi makes sure to give it to poor spenders not rich hoarders. The house that my family is trying to sell is getting lots of viewings at the moment.
I do understand that others have suffered a lot, mentally, personally, work-wise, etc (including, paradoxically, both unemployment and over-work), and my sister reminds me of her considerable and justified anxiety. But for me it has been, embarrassingly, pretty much ok, with my stress levels ranging from around 3-8 out of 100. I sometimes wonder if I should be more worried - for myself or sympathetically. But I'm not.
