Yes, I had hoped, more people actually would show signs of it. And they were there, but seldom. The rally in Berlin was therefore an important experience for me.

What made me so stunned during this time was that everyone was supposedly afraid. I didn't see any fear of illness (except for the exceptions), it seemed more like a pretext based on the behaviour I had observed from my colleagues. As soon as everyone wore a mask, it was business as usual for them. They joked and laughed and really got a lot closer to each other than they usually did. That was how crazy it was.

This whole thing just seemed to be something they had been waiting for so they could finally act out their heroic performances like in a film. I was as horrified by it as I was disgusted by this "solidarity", everything immediately reminded me of propaganda and how everyone rolled up their sleeves and wanted to be the first to "help". But I knew from day one of the lockdown that both the very young children and the very old would be the ones isolated, the sick left to die alone and all the bureaucratic madness that followed. It was a terrible time.

Good for you that some people turned into friends.