Every time I hear someone talk about life when a modicum of COVID concern existed in western countries it's basically them saying they're scared of coughing in public, not because they're scared of spreading COVID but because they don't want people to think they have COVID. It seems like the idea they might have COVID doesn't even enter the picture, at least initially. As well as other similar examples of their self-orientated lives.

Obviously most people dropping the masks as soon as possible as well as refusing to learn how to use them (or even what kind of masks in the first place) reveal this a bit as well. It seems, to me in my small social world at least, that the people around me literally only cared about themselves during the pandemic and how awkward it was for them. My existence isn't inside a particularly great slice of humanity though.

Even in left-ish spaces you see maybe a vocal minority of people who care, like some people on here, doing anti-COVID acts as part of a larger understanding of the world: either out of empathy or at least a greater self-interest in seeing society not crumble. But everyone else is basically only doing "good" so far as everyone else forces or allows them to.

Again, my world is pretty small but getting really tired of hearing saying "during COVID" in pass-tense around/to me as I wear a fucking mask in front of them. Haven't heard of any great empathy from people broadly. And the shallow bloomer excuses don't really convince me otherwise.