Yes. And in most cases, sadly, it hasn't surprised me. It's not the virus that scares me so much as the response to it and all of the things being done in the name of COVID-19.
The people I thought were kind are still kind. The people I thought were nasty curtain twitching little Nazis or Stasi recruits in the making are still nasty little Nazis or Stasi recruits in the making though many do it in the guise of being good, obedient little citizens (the Good Girls' Club syndrome, I call it. Or Boys.) And the people I thought would blindly follow whatever the BBC and the Daily Mail, or the Guardian and the New Statesman, tell them to think without checking out the evidence for themselves still do so.
It's also been interesting to see how the health professionals I know have handled it, which is generally with professionalism, kindness, and common sense. Some held back a little in the first wave as they knew that this (so-called) second wave would almost certainly have more of an impact, and they didn't want to go into it exhausted from the start. They'll be able to be of more use now, and help support or take over from those exhausted in that first rush.
They tend to be the more experienced ones, though. It's not that they didn't help at the start, they just didn't rush to be on that very first frontline. This applies to people I know who have nursed patients through Ebola and Dengue Fever, although not in this country, or have worked on ICU wards (in this country), so I kind of figure they know what they're on about when it comes to infection control and PPE and not overstretching yourself.
I also know a couple of nurses with an excellent knowledge of history (it's practically their hobby), including various recorded plagues all the way back to the plague of St Justinian. And pretty much everything they have said is likely to happen, based on those historical precedents, has happened.
For me the pandemic has also revealed the true nature of our governments (especially in the US and the UK) and those who support their policies no matter how much human suffering they cause. It has especially revealed, once and for all. the true nature of the slithery little subhuman creatures behind the acceptable masks of the likes of BJ. (And I suspect there are even more slithery things behind them.) They always had this reduction in freedoms and various other fates for the Proles planned, this has just accelerated it beyond their wildest wet dreams.
Like others here, I've also been beyond angry and upset at how many people think they're untouchable because until now they've always had security in jobs, and homes, and food. And those people are perfectly happy for others, that they regard as inferior, to suffer, and head towards destitution. And I do mean destitution.
It didn't have to be quite as bad as this, if only people hadn't enabled this bunch of Austerity loving monsters 10 years ago. The mental health repercussions of this thing are only just beginning, but the "I'm all right Jack brigade" won't give a monkey's fig, since initially it will only affect the poor or non-Oxbridge educated Caucasians, and what do they matter. Time to get rid of a few of them, they're a drain on society, anyway. Camps, did you say? What a splendid idea..
I've also been beyond incandescent to see the likes of Bezos get richer and richer and richer while his employees, in the early stages, didn't even have the most basic of surgical masks and are being run ragged. And I'm as hypocritical as anyone; while I try to use smaller companies, local wherever possible, sometimes we have to resort to Amazon. But how can that immense gap in wealth possibly be right, morally? (Rhetorical question. I just don't know what we can do about it, practically, as I certainly can't see him setting up a humanitarian fund to help with education and healthcare any time soon, or many of the others.)
If you look at it from a traditional occult/religious point of view though then there are two main forces that motivate humanity/most living creatures, when you come down to it: Love, and Fear. And right now, the rulers of the world are most definitely feeding on our Fear.
I sometimes can't help feeling the aforesaid subhuman creatures most definitely have more knowledge of the occult than is safe in such hands. I'm almost at the stage where I'm seriously considering trying out the technique in A Wrinkle in Time (the book, not the film, which I haven't seen). In the story, the main character can't love the evil force working through her brother, but she CAN stand there and love her brother.
So on that note, I'm going to go and see if I can find a cuddly BJ or a cuddly Orange Wotsit. Failing which, I might have to make them and keep them on my computer and tell them every day how much I really, really, really love them. Right before I smother them in a hug or give them to the cats to play with for practice.... ;)