I am strongly in the "work from home on my laptop" category, with a SAHM and three kids not in daycare. We leave the house everyday on foot to walk the neighborhood. Trick or Treating was even slower than usual, we had some "candy poopers" set up, mostly bowls on the porch and a few people handing out candy with masks on. It seem like a safe activity to us, we were only within 6 feet of people for 1 minute or less and everyone wore a mask. We go to stores pretty normally for us, just with masks on.
As sort of an aside on the mask conversation - why is being required to wear a mask different than "shirt and shoes required" or requiring women to wear torso coverings in public? I am fully willing to believe that covering my mouth is about as polite as covering my penis, just as I believe that there are appropriate situations in which to not wear a mask and to not wear bottoms.
Closing places where people congregate only makes sense to me in the context trying to reduce strain on Hospitals. I think of conflicting priorities here and the greatest being something mustachians have taught me to appreciate the most. Financial Freedom. So called essential workers strike me as people in the most vulnerable work situation. Low wage, unsecure employment. Food workers, emergency personnel, nurses, child care providers, teachers, are we expected to believe that these people can choose to stay home from their jobs and not get paid if they deem the risk to their health too large? Are they not in fact forced to work in an unsafe environment?
When I write the words this way I realize that the answer is "yes". People who do not have financial liberty are often forced to work in an unsafe environment. The ultimate barrier to workplace danger would be fully informed, financially free employees. And we fall back into debating the risks associated with the quickly becoming common virus in relation to the other common risks we accept without concern.
Covid-19 is scary because it is new and it could be very dangerous, like polio was. But we have familiar risks that are very dangerous, even more dangerous than polio. Risks like increasing the levels of carbon dioxide, water, and methane in the atmosphere.
edited to remove "low skill" as an adjective describing nurses, emergency workers and teachers, all highly skilled people.