I'm a little sad that it's removed. Votes on HN are a fickle beast, a popularity contest. IMO, it's usually worth saying what you really think even if it might not be received too well. Especially if it's a unique and genuine perspective, rather than spam or mindless snark. IMO, if you've never been downvoted to -4, you've probably never said anything really interesting either.

“ By not leaving my apartment for a year except for shopping” this is entirely foreign to me. Where do you live?!

Where do you live where you _have_ been leaving your home for non-essential reasons? I recognize that different countries have had differing levels of effect from COVID, but I'm not aware of any that hasn't had at least _some_ impact.

Midwest US. Restaurants and "non essential" businesses were closed here for a little while but everything reopened (with some capacity limitations) by about June 2020. Supermarkets, department stores such as Target, Walmart, never closed.

I've been working from home but going shopping, going to the gym, etc. as normal since the reopening last June. I never was much for eating at restaurants but they have been open also.

Other places in the US were far more locked down. I'm glad I don't live there.

The US. While many businesses (especially restaurants) shuttered in 2020, most retail businesses reopened rather quickly though usually with a limited capacity (Home Depot, a massive store, was permitting something crazy small like 200 people in at a time here last spring and early summer).

Hiking trails and state parks in CO opened up by late spring or summer 2020. Restaurants and bars were really the places most impacted from what I saw of last year in the US as they went a much longer stretch without allowing indoor dining.

Many schools in the US also went remote. I think indoor dining/bars and schools are the things that were significantly restricted more than a few weeks in the US.

(work from home isn't really comparable to those I think; I worked from home for months and liked it, and I think for people that don't like it, it still isn't as impactful as the restrictions for restaurants and schools)

True. I have a blind spot around the schools situation since I don't have kids of my own. I tend to forget the full extent of it as it didn't impact me or my immediate friends much (school closures) as I have few friends with school aged kids anymore (they're all infant to toddler or college aged or older).

Restaurants, bars, and schools were the things most consistently closed. Around here, they opened up for this current (now finishing) school year but had frequent closures based on COVID cases amongst the students/staff with an option to stay home the whole time if desired.

I live in the US too. I wasn't asking "where wasn't shut-down?", I was asking "where was it _safe and responsible_ to leave your home for non-essential reasons?". Just because a facility has opened, does not magically make it safe to attend.

I live in a small city in Vietnam. There have been about four weeks of lockdown in the past year, besides that my life has been pretty much normal, dinner parties, festivals, hiking, island hopping. I've traveled a lot around Vietnam over the past year, there's so much to see here.

The only thing that's really changed is that there are no foreign tourists, but the local tourists seem to be making up for it.

Im in the southeastern United States, we never really totally shut down. We had a few weeks but then yea it pretty much ramped back up to near normal-ish levels.

On the US west coast, and other than bars / restaurants being closed a few times last year, I've been out and about as normal.

I live in Charleston, South Carolina. Moved here in September because LA was so locked down. I go out pretty much anywhere I want here all the time, and nothing is locked down whatsoever. Could not have been happier to move to somewhere where they don't chain up the swings and let nobody into the parks except the homeless.

Where do you live? I live in Portland, Oregon. I haven't left the home except to go on walks around the neighborhood and to pick up groceries from the store (I order them online and they bring them out to my car) since last March. I'm seriously dreading the end of the pandemic. I love never having plans to go anywhere.

You’re (likely) seriously overreacting. I’ve lived in Portland. Live in Midwest now. I would’ve been hiking non stop in pandemic times should I be in PDX area.

[Removed by myself to obey voting result of being a bad post.

Please do not beat the posts' corpse any further :) Thank you!]

“ easiest way to not die” are you super high risk? B/c you’ve already likely deceased your chance of dying by just not driving compared to Covid. But if you’re over 65 or have other major health issues then makes some semblance of sense.

Have you given any thought on how you plan on reintegrating into society, and the negative health effects of this type of isolation? I’m curious what the balance is between covid risk and isolation risk.

What negsibe health effects? Plenty of people live isolated lives and enjoy it.

Social isolation is, on a population level, associated with poor health outcomes. The data shows this most strongly in the elderly, but it’s true at all ages.

Of course, certain individuals may enjoy and thrive in isolated environments.

https://www.cdc.gov/aging/publications/features/lonely-older...

I was saying that there are people who live long lives in relative isolation. People in rural parts of the US and places like Alaska.

Frankly, I believe those types of studies rreally about happiness with ones social life, not about ones social life relative to others. But that's just my take.

Or think they enjoy it. People can fool themselves in many ways.

There are however negative health effects, and have been studied quite well.

Are there studies that actually show that? It seem to me that lower life expectancy might be true in some cases but not all. I think it's mostly tied to ones enjoyment of being alone (more relative than absolute). Sure some people would not fare well, bit I fo believe other can be truly happy and do fair well. I know a guy in his 70s that lives pretty remotely in Alaska (and have you ever read one man's wilderness). I'm not saying it's for everyone. I am saying that it's essentially stereotyping to say it not for anyone.

>I'm not saying it's for everyone. I am saying that it's essentially stereotyping to say it not for anyone.

Well, someone can smoke for 60 years, from 20 year old onwards, and never get cancer either. Actually, tons do just that. But lung cancer from smoking is not "stereotyping", it's a causual mechanism and a statistical reality.

It's not like that you mechanically and deterministically die or your health becomes predictably worse at the individual level.

Not to mention there's also the psychological health and the developmental effect.

[Removed by myself to obey voting result of being a bad post.

Please do not beat the post's corpse any further :) Thank you! :)]

Very interesting response. Thanks for sharing!

It would be interesting to hear if this desire for isolation goes away as you start spending more time around people (which, if I’m reading your comment correctly, it seems you will do). Wish you all the best, either way.

Are there outside places to hike outside? That might be a healthy and safe. Frankly it doesn’t sound healthy to not leave home but you aren’t the only one who’s been shut in for a year. Millions of people.

[Removed by myself to obey voting result of being a bad post.

Please do not beat the posts' corpse any further :) Thank you.]

Deleting all your comments after there are replies is a shitty thing to do.

Dilution is generally the point when a specific threshold must be breached to succumb to infection. You can always where a mask, like a serious gas mask. People wi think you're weird, but fuck them.

Anywhere in the world due to covid the related fear/concern.

Can you share what meals you enjoy making? :)