To expand on how each of us have been coping. I've definitely turned into a lurker on this thread, so grateful for all the links to the articles. Often, I find myself going down the rabbit hole, one article leads to another and so on. By time I come back to the thread, I'm dozens of posts behind.
I'm soon to be mid 60's, still work full time, but thankfully from home (even before the pandemic). That being said, lots of things haven't changed for me. However, I take this virus very seriously, have great respect for its potential and choose to cocoon and avoid possible exposure. Being in healthcare gives me a different prospective I believe than the general public. What, to me - is just common sense, doesn't seem to resonate with the general public. I sincerely feel as if I'm living in an alternate reality. Living in NE TN, the population isn't especially large here, my county is about 160K. Our numbers keep going higher and higher and higher. We've had increases of around 50 - 129 new cases daily for past couple of weeks. We're now at almost 3400 cases for my county. The local healthcare system giving a weekly progress report, now 135 Covid patients within the system and they're starting again to divert elective procedures.
My social life has come to an absolute stand still during this pandemic. I can't say I'm happy with what is going on, but I have made the conscious choice to put all social activity on hold for now. I do think there will be an end to this surge, but I also think it will be longer than I had initially hoped. After a few months of cautiously venturing out to do shopping, fully masked and armed with my trusty hand sanitizers, I'm back to totally doing curbside pickup. To me, if it's not essential - I have no excuse to take risks. I have 5 beautiful grandchildren that I want to spend a couple more decades enjoying once this is over. I have not seen my 85-year-old mother or either of my sisters since last Christmas, with no plans to see them until spring probably. They are not taking this in stride and my Mom especially is convinced this is totally "political". As if the entire world has joined forces to conspire against the US.
I did break isolation during the summer and had my 2 youngest grandchildren for a week, after both I and their family quarantined for 2 weeks before they brought the children to me. My saving grace.
I have missed a family wedding and last week I missed my BIL's funeral (not Covid related)
I just have to keep my eye on the prize - time with my family eventually once it's safe that doesn't send me into a full-blown panic attack being around them.
I am so thankful for this forum - definitely somewhere I can come and not feel so out of the universe and alone.