There was a severe mask shortage where I lived (Netherlands), so any masks, gloves, etc went to the hospitals.
The government also did not advise masking up for that reason, they only recommended staying at home, distancing and sneezing in your elbow. So that is what I did for the first wave of the virus. Stay at home, and when I needed to go out for food I distanced myself as much as possible.
I mostly managed fine. People were pretty good at keeping distance, and I didn’t catch the virus till a year orso into the pandemic.
Though, there is one interaction I recall at the cash register at the Lidl. I am keeping 1.5m distance to the guy in front of me, so I put my items at the end of the conveyor belt. The guy behind me clearly does not appreciate that and stands as close to me as possible. After about a minute orso of him breathing down my neck, I try to politely ask the guy to please keep some distance, after which he threatens to beat my up in the parking lot for even daring to ask that.
I never went back to that supermarket for the rest of the pandemic.
Edit: There is also an interaction I recall where I was the asshole. During the early days of the pandemic I occasionally went cycling (since outdoors exercise was one of the few activities that was advised)
Two ladies are stopped at a traffic light, with some distance between them. I was just cycling on autopilot, so I stop slightly back from them between them, the way I always would. In hindsight it was obviously too close, but I didn’t register that immediately at the time.
They obviously call me out on that and ask me to please stay back, after which I had to awkwardly reverse and apologize.
There was a severe mask shortage where I lived (Netherlands), so any masks, gloves, etc went to the hospitals.
The government also did not advise masking up for that reason, they only recommended staying at home, distancing and sneezing in your elbow. So that is what I did for the first wave of the virus. Stay at home, and when I needed to go out for food I distanced myself as much as possible.
I mostly managed fine. People were pretty good at keeping distance, and I didn’t catch the virus till a year orso into the pandemic.
Though, there is one interaction I recall at the cash register at the Lidl. I am keeping 1.5m distance to the guy in front of me, so I put my items at the end of the conveyor belt. The guy behind me clearly does not appreciate that and stands as close to me as possible. After about a minute orso of him breathing down my neck, I try to politely ask the guy to please keep some distance, after which he threatens to beat my up in the parking lot for even daring to ask that.
I never went back to that supermarket for the rest of the pandemic.
Edit: There is also an interaction I recall where I was the asshole. During the early days of the pandemic I occasionally went cycling (since outdoors exercise was one of the few activities that was advised)
Two ladies are stopped at a traffic light, with some distance between them. I was just cycling on autopilot, so I stop slightly back from them between them, the way I always would. In hindsight it was obviously too close, but I didn’t register that immediately at the time.
They obviously call me out on that and ask me to please stay back, after which I had to awkwardly reverse and apologize.