I’d say damn good. I just used common sense and didn’t do anything ego-driven to spite it.

By that I mean that I kept on living my life and making sales calls. I visited friends and family when the opportunity presented itself. I used common sense when it came to safety. I was respectful to others who feared the virus. I never wore a mask except when it was required. I used the time and isolation to my advantage and read more, worked more, saved more, and paid off debt. I continued to go to the gym throughout.

Neither myself nor my family nor any person I came in contact with caught covid.

I feel I did fine. I was overly cautious when it first got here, but moderated it when it became apparent that it was being overblown.

We always had lots of food stocked, never had to worry about paper products, and other than me losing my job, and getting a severance package, it was financially pretty normal.  But, now, we're much better off than we were a year ago.  

As far as fearing the beerflu... I stopped caring about it while everyone was still in a panic.  I'm not doing anything different other than having to wear a mask to do certain aspects of my job, but it's only for a few minutes at a time.

Pretty much the same thing here. Worked both jobs, cooked at home more, masked ONLY out of deference to others. Read and reloaded more. Things to do around the house got done. We both tested positive in December but had ZERO symptoms. Enjoyed my vacation from 12/15 -1/1. Had a few friends/co-workers that came down with it. All survived. I KNOW of a few acquaintances that died WITH C-19, but only a couple that died FROM it, but they had other health issues also. In those cases they caught the bug and in their weakened state they succumbed to it.

I doubt that we will ever get the real numbers of actual deaths actually attributable to C-19. But I am comfortable that number is more like 50-70,000, more in line with traditional influenza fatality rates. Yes I am aware that this variation of the Flu had some different symptoms and new short and long-term complications. And I am sympathetic to anyone who lost loved ones to the disease.

That being said, I feel the draconian overreaction by many state and local gubmints are responsible for far greater damage to people and their livelihoods.
Too bad there is no way for them to be held accountable for their fuckup.              




                 

I live in Miami and but for 8-10 weeks in the beginning, it's been business as usual.

I even flew to Los Angeles twice, for a total of 6-7 weeks and no issues.

And my gal and I eat dinner out 5-6 nights/days a week and we're often out at the big malls.

Chris

I did fine. I actually got a better job during the worse part of it, I did some extra work around the house and used the time wisely. It opened my eyes to some possible deficiencies, like needing more cash on hand and minimizing debt but that has been corrected already. I still went to the gym, actually worked out more than normal as I went for rucks, runs, etc more than normal during the shut down times. I also discovered that my favorite household cleaner (simple green) can be bought in concentrate form which will save me money and make me better prepared in the future, I simplified a lot of stuff as well. All and all I’m calling it win for me even though it was a huge loss for the country as a whole.

That last paragraph cannot be understated. Anytime I see someone virtue signaling about how they are still going to wear a mask “because they care” I remind them of the mostly unspoken horrors that their attitudes are perpetuating.

Most of them are too self-centered and righteous to even consider seeing it from a different angle.

Oh well, I tried.

Thankfully DH and I both kept working; my day job was considered essential and we have an FFL as a home-biz so it made money.

Only real concern was running out of paper towels as we go through 1-2 rolls daily just cleaning critter enclosures.  I mitigated that by cutting up a bunch of old clothing and making cleaning rags.  Also because of the critters we were well stocked on various cleansers and antiseptics already.

Never got close to running short on foods we eat regularly, but it helped that in January we pre-ordered and paid for a half beef that was ready to be picked up last May.  What didn't help was DH getting diagnosed with hypertension which meant he couldn't eat a lot of the canned foods we had stored up.  Over time I've been replacing high-salt canned goods with low-salt canned or (more often) frozen veggies, and figuring out how to change up favorite recipes to low/no salt versions.

I'd say OK.  It highlighted some shortfalls in my preps, but didn't cause hardship.  (Job is fairly secure, etc).

If they had done a hard "don't leave the house" style 2 week quarantine right at the start, things might have been a little tight.  That's been fixed.

Considering I didn't change my or my family's way of life, I would say we did fine.  My kid's school system screwed up a bunch of stuff but for us it was pretty much life as normal. I've been told to leave a couple of stores and gotten some hard stares for not wearing a mask but such is life.  We had plenty of TP, food and fuel on hand and didn't notice the issues for such thankfully.  I'm a first responder so my work was never in question.  My wife's company simply switched gears and had her work from home full time so, thankfully, neither of us lost our jobs.

I owe a lot of my family's "normalcy" during the scamdemic to this board and the people who offered their insight ahead of time!  Thank you! I hope that more people took this time to learn some lessons and hopefully will try to be a little better prepared for future issues.

From a population standpoint, I was surprised the 2020 China Flu death rate was so low compared to the 1918 Spanish Flu (in the US).  You could make the argument that the lockdowns and mask mandates may have saved 1,660,000 US citizens.  Of course, the same argument could be made that the death rate was lower due mainly to advances in medical treatment over the last 100 years.  Your theory is as good or bad as anyone else's or any gov't agency's.  Imagine how everyone would be acting if our actual dead numbered around 2,200,000 in 2020 like the Spanish Flu rate.  To add another perspective, 500,000 deaths is equal to about 12 years of traffic deaths but we're not shutting down the highways.  

China Flu 2020 :  500,000 / 330,000,000 = 0.15 percent mortality
Spanish Flu 1918 :  675,000 / 103,000,000 = 0.66 percent mortality

I was surprised at the panic run on paper products.  Since we're 1/2 hour away from grocery stores, we had a month's supply of most consumables, but my wife was worried we wouldn't be able to restock on TP if the panic was extended.  We already had a good food supply in storage, and now the paper panic is over we're stocking up on other non-food consumable products. Still can't get my mind around the price increases for wood building products.  The local logging companies say they're not getting any of that price increase and never slowed down their shipments to the mills, so who is making the profit from price gouging?

I really shook my head at those people shown on TV driving up to food distribution sites in their fancy cars (one clip from CA showed a woman driving a new Mercedes to get a box of free food).  If you really need food that bad, sell your expensive toys, and use the money to buy food and a cheap car.  Sell your McMansion and move into a double-wide if you have to, don't wait for the bank to take it.  You can always move back up the ladder when your finances and jobs improve.  I really expected to see a surge of home, boats, guns, 4-wheelers, RVs, etc coming up for sale when people started loosing their jobs due to the shutdowns, but the selloffs never really occurred.  In fact, home prices have increased, and the supply of used RVs and other toys have decreased.

Since we're retired, didn't have any job issues but my 401K lost 20% during the market crash.  When the market started to recover, I moved from 50% stocks to 60% stocks to take advantage of the rebound, and will shortly drop back to 35-40% stocks in the 401K since I'm 70 now.  We didn't need/want/ask for the stimulus payments, so bought a couple of guns, a fancy vacuum cleaner, and actually gave most of it away as large tips to the hard-working folk like hair dressers, restaurant workers, store clerks, etc.  In my area of MS/LA, many folk were making more money on unemployment than they did while working, so I was glad to help those who were working for less (not disparaging those who really wanted to work but could not find a job).

We did OK. I was on a detail assignment in Texas and my wife was still at our house in Virginia. A lot of my "preps" were up there. I did OK down here by myself. Reading the big Kung Flu thread helped me get ahead of the curve on getting proper PPE and such prior to its disappearing. We ended up selling our house in Virginia in June of last year and got what we were asking for it. I felt really good about that.

My only "surprise" was when TP evaporated. I had just bought a big multipack in February. March came and boom, no TP. I can't for the life of me figure out why, when they said sit at home for two WEEKS, immediately went out and bought two YEARS worth of toilet paper. Food, gloves, masks, garden seeds, tools, electronics, and a bunch of other things I could see stocking up on due to the impending shortages. But running out to buy that much TP made no sense. Since it made no sense, I didn't participate in that particular panic.

I used to like to drink Caffeine-Free Diet Dr Pepper late in the evening because I need de-caff late in the day or I don't go to sleep. Boom, disappeared. Wish I'd had a stash of that stuff. Came back briefly and stocked up but now it's gone again. Don't let anybody tell you we're over Egg Flu Yung yet. We're not.

The Great Texas Deep Freeze of 2021 caused huge disruptions in the food supply. Even worse disruptions than the Rice Rabies. Thankfully, it was very short lived and the stores are pretty much back to what passes for "normal" now.

As for the ChinaIsAsshoe virus, I haven't gotten it, continue to wear a real respirator mask when I'm going to be around a bunch of people in a confined area, and have a stash of HCQ and Ivermectin. I've been taking the Quercetin, Zinc, Vit B, C, and D, melatonin, and famotidine (which I take every night anyway). Was able to stock up on those by catching them as they would briefly come back into stock.

Overall, I'd rate how we did as pretty good. Not great, not terrible.

No complaints except that, intellectually, I knew the ammo/gun shortage/pricing was coming and I didn't go as deep as I should have in order to capitalize on the new pricing.
Also, when the market tanked last spring I regret not jumping back into it deeper.

As far as preps and lifestyle, absolutely no qualms or 'shoulda's. I see it as a great practice run for when things really get nuts.

Maybe already talked about on another post. Know people who got covid and no treatment and were ok. But heard about a lady who passed away around in January, that worked at the same plant I do, that she was put on vent and later died. Way story goes is after she was put on vent, her lower half rotted from inside out. Guessing lack of oxygen or blood-flow to extremities?? Don't understand why some people are affected differently than others even with health conditions. Does anyone else know why this could happen?

I thought the same, was hoping for some killer deals on stuff because folks needed the $...  With that said we are seeing the same thing in my AO here in northern NY.

I think people were able to make as much if not more on unemployment...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In regards to my situation review, life as normal minus the travel and the fun stuff.  Both my wife and I worked every day and life has been mostly normal to date.  We had plenty of extras to weather the shortages.  At one point we were prepped to use and reuse rags over paper towels to preserve them but we never had to.  I don't drive my truck everyday as I have a company car so I have made sure to keep it above 3/4 of a tank, if not full most of the time now.  I have also done a better job at keeping my gas storage topped off.

Fortunately, this wasn’t really a pandemic and it wasn’t as serious as hyped.  I was working in northern VA (since September 2019), and we were awaiting the green-light to relocate back to GA, where I live.  Everything was delayed and then COVID hit.  Wife and I were separated by 550 miles.  Work put us on a partial telework schedule which helped, but as soon as I heard we may not move until February of 2021, I was about to quit.  I was more prepared to bug home than bug-in in VA (living in a basement room I was renting).  Our contract got the green light to move and we received SECDEF memos for travel (seriously…I almost laughed) and I95 was a ghost-road late April as I moved back home...it made that normally chaotic drive peaceful.  

I was short on a few things and mostly because the wife was using some stocks and not replacing.  I don’t blame her, some of it she didn’t know were rotational items.  None of it was serious, but I had to go through and find a few gaps.  

Ironically, we were both able to work from home and my wife wanted to grow some peppers.  Just about every garden center around were low on garden plants and seeds.  It seemed everyone was at home gardening!  

Take your lessons learned, even the small ones, and fill those gaps, modify your plans, stock as needed.  I know it’s kind of funny about TP, but I didn’t have a ton of storage and shopped weekly when in Virginia.  TP disappeared fast and I was down to my last few rolls…it was just the thoughts of inconvenience, but it makes you realize how fragile our commercial supply system really is and it only took a few days for certain items to dry up.  I’m kicking myself as well.  About a month before, I had been in a Cabelas and saw cases and tons of .300 BO ammo.  I had several hundred rounds at home and wasn’t concerned (it’s not a primary shooter).  My son found my stash and helped himself to zero and try out his Sig MCX.  Ouch.  I have almost none right now.  Ammo really isn’t a concern, but I was shocked at how supply dries up so quickly.  For future reference, take note, those same critical items disappear first and fast.  Don’t wait, when available and affordable, stock it deep when your budget allows.  I’m ignoring ammo (no need), but there are other items that are now back on shelves that were hard to obtain during the initial “crisis”.  

While I trust no politicians, the democratic method is to govern by crisis, so I expect another crisis or three before the 2022 elections and then a few big ones before the 2024 elections.  They rule by fear and they create that fear every election cycle.  Except a few more artificial crisis that will stress our supply and distribution systems.  

ROCK6

Prepping/laying in extra supplies definitely paid off.
Gave away extra food supplies to family during initial food shortage/run on tp and paper towels. Converted one cousin into a “prepper” by doing so.

Only two items were unobtainium for me:
No Salt Added Ketchup. My daughter is a ketchup fiend (she’s 5) and the wife insists on the no salt Heinz stuff. We didn’t  have that stacked too deep and ran out. Still not being stocked on local shelves.

Small pistol primers. I normally buy primers at gun shows-strike a good deal and grab 20-30k at a time.
Haven’t been to one in a couple years and didn’t realize my SP stock was really low until I decided to run a batch of 380. Turns out I had 100 left. Went around scrounging lgs for months and now have a whopping 600.

Eta: this big ass sham has been a vindication for me about prepping.
Every couple days, wife: news says there’s a run on xyz, should we drive down to town and pick some up?
Me: nah, we’re good.

I think we've experienced alot of issues over the last year including more than just the Plandemic, so I'll focus on everything.

1 year ago I was not fully prepared. I didn't have masks, alcohol gel, etc all the nonsense they scammed us into buying. BUT much like all of us I paid attention to the Intel and acted early. Before everything was out of stock I placed ordered for N95s, gallons of alcohol gel for refilling, vitamin C and E supplements, he'll Uneven snagged some Tvvex suits and goggles.
In hind sight, not necessary. BUT while everyone else was denying a pandemic coming to the US, I was stocking up. While everyone was desperately hunting for mask, etc, I was adding to food stores.

Toilet paper wasn't an issue. I usually keep about 100 rolls on hand at a given time.
I enjoyed going to the stores and seeing the bare shelves because there was nothing I NEEDED. Canned goods and fresh meat were gone. Baking supplies also, but again nothing I needed right away. I was confident we could eat normal for over a month without buying anything, but if things were available I got em just in case.

Then we had the gun shortage. Not a problem for me. Of the course there were things I would LIKE to get that I haven't gotten but nothing I NEED. A lot of coworkers and friends were desperately searching for AR15's, handguns, and shotguns. I didn't sell anything, but I did do my best to help find friends deals (which I enjoy). No $400 ARs, but I did get some friends reasonable deals considering the times.

Next came the ammo shortage. Again, I was good in this category by any reasonable persons standard..... But we're not reasonable people. I think more than having and using guns/ammo/accessories, I enjoy finding the deals on em. So when I found deals in ammo I did jump. Why? Idk. But $400 for a case of 7.62x39 when it's averaging .85/rd was a hell of a deal and I fought to get it.

Prior to the Plandemic I was prepared for localized emergencies. A few weeks to months I'd be fine. Complete collapse? I'd only be buying time for the inevitable. In this last year I have begun storing bull dry foods such as rice/beans and have expanded my long term calorie storage by a million calories and I keep going.

The pandemic has impressed into me the most important part of survival is a resilient mind and paying attention.

I learned a lot about human responses to fear. The scariest part was seeing first hand how easy it was for .Gov to manipulate, control, and condition entire populations of AMERICANS to give up freedoms and accept conditions for life based on lies.
When you are 9500 feet up on a trail in an actual wilderness area and you encounter people wearing masks something is VERY wrong.
The best thing that I’ve ever done was move to a part of the country that is extremely suspicious of anything .gov says and become even more self reliant and surround myself and family with like minded people.

If we did nothing and didn't talk about it. At all.  You would have never even known their was a problem.
At worst a couple articles about a bad flu season in nursing homes.  And we would have come out of it in better shape.

This

The chinavirus did not test my preps at all.

About the only thing prepping related that was affected was my ability to go to the gym. I now have a home gym.

The whole process on a national level, made me far more keen on prepping and woke a few friends up.  I have easily doubled things like food, pm, and a couple of tactical force multipliers.

We generally saw no impact.

We always keep a supply of toilet paper, paper towels, food, water, etc.

I have been social distancing for years,
my wife just thought I was a cranky, old guy that dislikes people in general.

She's not wrong, but now she understands....  

The only thing that tested our preps in the past year was the snowpocolypse we had here in Texas.

At the time the 'rona started, what we saw was people being welded into their homes in China, or the walking-dead keeling over suddenly in the street.  People clicking elevator buttons with toothpicks.  Rapid-assembly prison/hospital/coof camps.  An R0 number that we thought was up around 5 and a lethality rate up to 0.4 or 0.5% ... or more.


My ARF-related supplies were good and ready. I had about an afternoon of work to get that checked out and set.

Food was fair and would have lasted me about a month with no store visits.  I did catch that I was missing variety and started to correct that.

I was under-prepared for a biological threat other than normal sanitation, so I was behind the curve on masks, gloves, sanitizers, and the like.  I'm a mask- and lockdown-skeptic now, because we know much more about what the risk factors actually are.  But at the time, things seemed a lot more dire, and I was behind.

Morale was good.  I took it as an opportunity to do more around my home during daylight hours, and to reach out and do more for friends and fam.  We got video comms set up pretty fast.  



Over all, I'd rate myself passing, with significant gaps.  To improve, I'd trivially say  that more is better.  But, more importantly, think about variety. Variety of supplies to keep yourself and your morale up.  Variety of situations, and not just the usual storm or crime or road/power/services out of service.

9/10. Although my experience will be different than most since both my wife and I were not very affected work wise. She had her hours cut slightly, but nothing that we really felt. After all there was nowhere to go and no guns or ammo to spend money on anyway, so it was probably a net positive. Arfcom actually did allow us to be ahead of the crowd. GD was way ahead of the media on reporting what was going on in China, and we started increasing our grocery stockpile before most of the general population even knew what what was going on. We usually don't live grocery store trip to grocery store trip, so I didn't need to go crazy, just filled in some gaps. COVID was useful in justifying and expediting things that were in future plans. I bought a commercial vacuum sealer and some radio gear I had been wanting, and the COVID craziness was just enough to justify bumping it up.

A couple things I was not expecting/ready for: a lack of seeds for spring gardening (not just food, but flowers too), $8 2x4s but $0.89/gal gas, people readily excepting the media reporting even when it was contradictory, people who actually make things for a living are not considered "essential" by the .gov, most "work" can be accomplished by remote means (and that companies haven't tapped into this to save on commercial real estate costs prior to the pandemic is surprising), and the thing that I was most unprepared for was how LONG people were willing to accept 'temporary emergency measures'. Would have never guessed we would still be wearing face diapers and having occupancy restrictions a year later.

Things that did NOT surprise me: people are idiots, people are prone to panic, government would exploit the fear and stupidity, people prefer a government check to working, most don't have more than a weeks worth of groceries to include TP and other items beyond food, and lockdowns only work so long as the streaming sevice works and the amazon trucks are running.

Hopefully COVID has provided a lot of lessons for the unprepared and unaware, but I remain pesimistic

I didn't give it a minutes thought. No face diaper, met with people, worked in a large operation where 300 people a day would come in, most not wearing face diapers. Its a disease, but hammered as death and doom by the media. Fuck all that bullshit, I ain't got time for that.

Didn't have to go out for the first few weeks...had everything we needed. After that, I was the only one that was allowed to go out. I'm the healthiest in the household.
My 2 disabled parents, sister, wife and grand daughter live in the house as well.
About 3 months after it started, the wife and mother also started venturing out and things went back to normal.
As others have said, use common sense and you'll be fine. None of us got sick. Had a couple scares and got tested twice, but we were ok.
I'm a bit of a germaphobe to begin with, so that helped haha.

Joys of being a business owner, right?
We ran out coffee, milk and toilet paper. Let's just say that my little sister (ok, 6'3, 320 lbs) is not easily trained to conserve. Would have been fine for at least 3 months otherwise.

Just goes to show there is always something you will be short on.

Luckily we had no problems . I've been retired and after the wifes work shut down for 2 months she enjoyed it so much that after they opened back up she put in her notice . We kept the freezers full and always had paper products . We also kept her  parents well stocked . We had friends who worked at grocery stores , we knew when items that were scarce would be in stock . We had great success with the garden . As an added bonus , our neighbor helped at a church that supplied  folks with fresh vegetables .  He said that at the end of the week whatever was left over was given to those who worked the pantry to give to anyone they knew . There were a lot of weeks that they had extra no matter how much they tried to get the word out to anyone who needed it . I can only remember a few weeks that he didn't have extra . I still went every week and and shot clay pigeons with about 9-10 other guys ( me being the youngest at 62 ) no one wore mask .
My kids did well also . Everyone of them and their spouses worked all year .

My wife and daughter and I just kept living Our Lives. Went to restaurants for takeout as soon as they were open we went for sit-down dinners. We finally caught it in December, and it was a nothingburger. My wife had a slight cough and that's all. I had a fever and chills one night and some stomach distress for a couple days I was weak and tired for 5 or 6 days. And my daughter had something in between. My wife and I are both in their sixties by the way.

After we had confirmed antibodies my wife and I went to Tahiti and Moorea in the French Polynesia, we figured what better time to go.

I'm not sure this needed a "response."

I saw some of the folks on here complaining about the TP situation about 3-4 weeks before it hit us, so I'd picked up a few more packs.  Also the chatter on the main coronavirus thread, when it was still new, got me grabbing some PPE before it ran out locally.  

We aren't much of a hand sanitizer family, had plenty of soap.  My wife likes Lysol wipes, so we ran out of those, but had other cleaning supplies for the house.  I found some sanitizer online in April and sent a bunch to her (which she shared).

I deployed in the beginning, wife held down the homefront, and basically home school'd and shopped via things like Amazon.  Before I deployed I was making runs to the grocery store (had access to N95s) and trying to get lots of water and dried/canned goods to help them minimize movement.  Had some ordered-in dinners from restaurants that went to delivery models (except the ones that had infected co-workers).  

Our area never went into a full on lockdown.  Kids could still run around outside (yard and park, etc), but didn't play with friends.  They were in 1st and Pre-K last year, so the home-school was pretty minimal.  Like an hour or two a day, and we're friends with the Pre-K teacher.  She knew my son was getting enough stimulation at home, if he missed a day or something.  

I'm not sure we even broke in to any "preps."

I'm going to rate my families response as EXCELLENT!

I stopped traveling for work, we're closer as a family, we spent a ton of time riding and racing motocross and hare scrambles, we got a ton done around the house and despite the shortages my gun and ammo collection grew! Oh and because of the increased demand and my lack of travel the wife went from flexi to a point position at work. We'll get killed on taxes (again) but that's the case every year.

None of us contracted the ick

4 adults two children under 4

I ran the quercetin  protocol as I’m the oldest. If a cold poppped up I dosed them with zinc C etc.

kept ivermectin on hand

Basic good hygiene, plenty of TP masks and gloves as needed.

I have been full tim in the shop since last May, my son the same wife working from home

We traveled to Florida,AZ for vacation, saw our friends and family as we liked
I travelled to AL, GA, NC, and SC for work. No issues.

I want to say we lead an 87% normal life

DOubble

About like I would if my sister married a paroled MS-13 gang enforcer. At first I'd keep the hell away from him, even if my sister and half my family kept telling me how "he's reformed" and "it didn't go down like they said" and "he's not like that anymore."

Eventually, after seeing that he hasn't killed anybody yet, I'd maybe be present at the same family function, but wouldn't intentionally try to get close to him.

After even more time I might even allow myself to be around him in a smaller setting.

But I will never turn my back on him, and I will never, ever believe that he isn't dangerous.

It's been a mixed bag....

I'm in the middle of a divorce.  A great deal of my preps were and still are in my former house.  Its kind of ironic to spend 20 years prepping, then not having those preps when needed...

However, I've come thru this even more convinced of some things:  Don't prep for the zombie apocalypse until you are well prepped for more mundane, more realistic SHTF events, and cash is still a great prep.

Prep for the reasonable and expected:  This pandemic was one of those.  We live in an globalized world, and both people and products travel the world in hours.  As a result, bugs and microbes and disease travels farther faster.  If we can bring Dutch Elm disease to the USA in 1900, we surely can bring SARS, Bird Flu or WuFLu to USA in a couple days....  This won't be our last go around with pandemic

Cash still works:  Even in a pandemic, I was able to quickly re-establish a minimal, functional base of supplies.  Some food, a few meds, basic tools and equipment.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, a 12 month supply of freeze dried mylar packed instant meals is stupid.  Its all salt, and its super expensive.  Go third world:  Rice, beans, basic staples....

What really were the true fall-outs of this pandemic?:  One of the biggest was unemployment and reduced or eliminated household incomes.  We haven't seen a massive bust yet, but that is only because the government is handing out buckets of cash and holding off on evictions.  Cash still worked at a tool.  I am, however, unsure of how well actual American Dollars will continue to work:  Thanks to BOTH parties, the national debt and the USA addiction to "bread and circuses" spending, is Zimbabwe style inflation coming???

This is a great point.  The people least impacted were the ones who work in essential industries.  Young folks especially should take note when choosing a career.

never did anything differently, been to work everyday since it began, no quarantine, been to as many stores and restaurants as i could get to, wore a mask if the store required it, otherwise no masks, no distancing

Did very well. Plenty of food on the front end. Stocked up on canned stuff that we went through always replenishing and replacing. No one in my household got the sick. We went out regularly. Still have stuff in the chest freezer that we stocked in the early throes of the WuFlu. Had plenty of TP as I bulk order it and just happened to have bulk ordered before the the SHTF. Never ran out and actually gave some out a bunch of times to coworkers that needed it. Saved a bucket of money by not eating out.

I’m extremely careful, even after being fully vaccinated  since 3 February.  

I was initially very spooked with tp shortage and such.  I delivered many six packs to friends that were short sighted.  I was always thinking ahead about purchasing for months in advance.  

Fuel was a concern for a while but turned out to be a non-issue. No shortage at local stations.

I have worked at perhaps 25 mass vaccine clinics in the last two months working tomorrow, Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well.  Many folks, imho, still don’t get it.

I'd say good, and bad:

The good:
1) Advanced Monitoring - I had early warning and was well prepared for this because I had contacts in China as it was coming out....I literally had intel from the first week directly from the field.
2) Supplies - I needed nothing, including PPE.
3) Decon - First week, I began pretreating everything from the outside through an improvised decon station.
4) Knowledge - Connecting with people on various sites, and here, got me some great detail on how COVID infects, spreads, injures...along with potential preventatives.
5) Personal Habits - I've lost weight, increased muscle mass by lifting weights more often, not snacking, etc....


The bad:
1) Financially I was not prepared for the downturn my personal business has undergone.  I depend on large, capital projects that implement enterprise IT applications and processes. Went to zero pretty quick and I have not recovered.  In a big hole now.

About the only thing we did different was not visit my mom for 3 or 4 months (her choice) and wear masks when we went into a store.

Several family members got it, we never did.  

We are pretty much doing what we always did (except for the masks when going into stores.)