Lots of people are taking significant risks, and this is normalizing the idea of taking significant risk - this can be confusing: Can it really be unsafe if so many people are doing it? Am I too uptight? Making a big deal of nothing?

Yes: it can really be a significant risk even if lots of seemingly reasonable and likeable people are doing it.

All the birds can fly in the wrong direction. It happens all the time.

But a lot our moral discernment and risk assessments come from comparing ourselves from others. It can also be dangerous to stand apart, to be an outlier. . Outliers can be more susceptible to dangers from outside forces without the safety of numbers

So: we are going to be, unconscious weighing dangers against each other: more dangerous to expose myself to others? Or more dangerous, consequential to remove myself from those I see as peers?

So: when you experience confusion about risk and exposure in the upcoming months- realize that you are lilely experiencing a conflict between two sets of opposing fears.

Fear of contamination/infection
Fear of being alienated/ostracized.

Alienation/ostracization is the safer choice when the confused herd is running toward danger.

And those who are taking significant risks may also be doing so intentionally and consciously- weighing the dangers of the virus against the dangers of poverty, eviction, hunger. They may be making a prudent choice for themselves- & it may or may not be a prudent choice for you

Each of us is going ro need to rely on our own discernment between fears & risks.

I’d suggest that some significant risks are likely worth it for essentials, and not worth it for comforts, indulgences or luxuries.
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It’s probably worth facing the anxieties of being an outlier for anything other than necessities.

This is going to require ongoing and practically continuous discernment.

And discernment is a labor intensive kind of thinking, and lots of people are going to get tired and just defer to the path of least resistance- even if it is the most dangerous path.