People spent more time with their families.
The government literally handed out free money to everyone.
A moratorium was placed on evictions.
For a lot of poorer people, this was a weird, but not necessary bad year.
At least in the UK, government support was not enough to replace full-time incomes, so those living month to month would have had a very tough time on a reduced income.
I know of lots of well paid people who were happily furloughed and took “free money”, and others who carried on working, with arguably better working conditions (from home, no committing, lower costs)
But for many people in lower paid jobs and with lower incomes I’m sure the situation has been very depressing at times. Not to mention those who I’ve been very ill or lost loved ones.
I have had a very positive COVID experience. Really all of the benefits and none of the downsides (so far). I expected many on HN will be the same. Most of us can comfortably work from home, many already did, and we are (on average) a well paid group.
But I’ve also felt incredibly guilty at times at how “happy” I’ve been at various points during lockdown, while knowing full well that many others are having the exact opposite experience.
Still, I don't think it will result in an increased number of suicides - because there is hope that things will be over soon.
When things reopen and the economy collapse / the recession hits / the bubble burst, I think we'll see more suicides.
>I’m tempted to wonder if people are misclassifying suicides as overdoses
Which would not surprise me in the least given the data is coming from CDC. Everyone from all sides seem to agree that CDC lost lots of credibility with coronavirus.