> I was surprised how afraid many people are of being left to themselves in their own flats and what a big topic this was for them. Many people don't seem to ha

> I was surprised how afraid many people are of being left to themselves in their own flats and what a big topic this was for them. Many people don't seem to have any other interest than meeting other people. You were surprised by that? Humans are extremely social animals, you know. Borderline eusocial, even. Social isolation is a major risk factor for a variety of psychological issues. I'm sure those people do have interests other than meeting people, but in the same way a person deprived of food has an unwavering focus on eating, a person who is all alone can be expected to have a keen interest on socializing. I agree with you that the measures that were taken to try to mitigate the pandemic were very reasonable, in fact I think that masks and vaccines should be pushed a lot harder. But it shouldn't come as a surprise that people are fearful and uncomfortable about being required to isolate themselves from the social sphere. A pragmatic strategy for countering the pandemic should take that as an expectation and must have some way to account for it. The unemployment benefits and stimulus checks we got early on were a really good step in that direction imo: it really helps alleviate people's fear and discomfort if their financial anxieties are reduced.