I sometimes drive my automobile for non-essential reasons too despite that being one of my largest risk factors, much larger than covid.
I'm a rock climber and I've gotten into enough tricky situations on the cliffs. So long as you can take action the fear is manageable. It's when there is seemingly no viable action to take that the bad fear sets in.
Thing is, the risks I take personally as a climber aren't as big as the risk were taking collectively as a civilization by not acting on climate change, even though the risks I take go well beyond what most people would accept if they understand what they were in for.
I mean it's okay that you were, you don't have to do the macho act to save face or anything. It's a very common response even irrational fear (and is unfortunately exploited). I was not saying that's the "wrong" way to feel or live, just that it saddens me to think of people feeling like that.
I know, because I had some understanding of the risks. All without being terrified! In fact there may even have been some correlation there.
> But most of us weren’t 70+ and couldn’t really empathize with those that were.
Speak for yourself.
- you understood 1.5% 70+ who get the disease will probably die
- you empathized with them
- you weren't terrified of 10s of millions of people, possibly your loved ones, dying
But still, if you had some empathy for those who are older or much younger (not even born yet), their would be a lot of guilt in this thinking, the shame would be deserved.
You might want to consider whether to have children though, they change the way you think about the future.