In that context, then, you have my full support and agreement on flipping that bird.
Estate planning and wills and all of the above are... extremely necessary. But I hope that you can keep some hope, and find a way through this despite the odds. Statistically speaking, the odds may be something that are extremely not in your favor, and they are very much not in the favor of myself and a number of those close to me. I am hopeful that my wife and I both make it through this, or at least her if I'm not able to. Our own mortality is something a lot of us are staring in the face right now.
Even so, statistically, despite the stupidity of those in power and a ton of heartbreaking stories already, it's not certain that death is in any particular individual's near future. Even amongst the most vulnerable populations with the most exacerbating of conditions (pollution, pre-existing conditions, etc), the mortality rates are something like 15% max (you're 75+ years of age and have a health problem), although that is something I'm suspicious of for a few reasons. I think infection numbers are under-represented, so the mortality rates are probably much lower in reality.
The rates of hospitalization are another matter, and if the system gets flooded so that there are not enough respirators for those who need the ICU, then the mortality rates skyrocket because of people who died who could have been saved. Aka, what is happening in Italy with most everyone over 65 who needs ICU support, unfortunately.
My point being, it's good to have our affairs in order, and if you take a group of 100 people such as us, it's entirely reasonable to think that anywhere from 6-15 of those people will die in the next year. That's an enormous loss of life, and it's hugely tragic and will affect pretty much everyone the world over in indirect fashions. But at the same time, it's not a definite death sentence for much of anybody, even those on the short lists... and amongst adults it's also not a guarantee that anyone NOT on the shortlist won't be one of those 6 to 15 individuals instead of someone on the shortlist.
So I mean... personally I'm mentally preparing myself for some people around me that I care about to die. I don't know who, although I know which people it's more likely to be compared to others. My wife, my ex, and myself are among the people who are more likely rather than less, which is not comforting in the least. But it's also possible that all three of us will be just fine. Someone perfectly healthy that I know and care about, who has no reason to be thought of right now, may instead be the one who goes.
I feel like the reality is it's going to be a lot of a giant mix of things, and all sorts of people are going to die, and it's going to be confusing and sad and a terrible time. But it's not a guarantee who lives and dies, and I hope that we are both still seeing each other around for years to come here on the forums. But the odds are very very high that several someones from the forums won't make it through the next year, and we'll probably never know who it was that didn't.
I dunno. It's a lot to process. Our own personal mortality, and those of everyone around us. But that's how I've been thinking about things.
