If you are living in a part of the world where there are still strict Covid restrictions know that you have my sympathy. Most of the people I know and also most of my family members are living under such restrictions as well. A few of them got so fed up with it that they actually moved outside of the United States and are not going to come back until as one of them said "the government gets their heads outta their asses."
Now I don't really even know how to think about the lockdowns, the social distancing, the mask vs no mask argument, because other than for a few weeks, I have never been subjected to it. Vietnam might be one of the most free places in the world right now because if you walk outside you will not be told where you can and can not go, you will see packed bars and restaurants, you will see beaches full of people (well, if you live at the beach) you see amusement parks that are open, and outside of very specific (and somewhat strange) situations, you are never required to wear a mask or maintain any sort of distance from anyone.
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We never really were in any state of emergency and the few times that a scare did pop up, the media didn't have any particular reason to make a big deal out of it... well, not the domestic media. I didn't see it but I am sure the North American and European press were probably chomping at the bit and hoping that Vietnam actually would have an outbreak. This is because the media sucks and Vietnam is a country that has been almost completely out of the news as far as Covid is concerned because there was no horror stories to tell.
This continues to this day.
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While watching sports taking place in the western world I notice spaced out crowds or no crowd at all. I do not like soccer but I like my friends who like soccer so I went to go see a Man U match and there was no one in the crowd at all. We have capacity crowds or more like as many tickets as they can sell crowds at all of the events, we even have concerts and rooftop parties that would probably get you arrested unless you are a politician or celebrity in USA - it certainly would if you are in Canada.
There isn't much in the way of English news available in Vietnam, but the few that do exist mostly don't even talk about Covid anymore. If they do talk about it, it is in relation to other countries and normally is just a repeat of something from The Associated Press. I suspect that the media is tightly controlled by the government here so who knows what is really going on but all I have to do is walk out my front door to realize that there is exactly zero Covid hysteria here. When you see a person wearing a mask this is normally a roadway pollution thing, not a virus prevention thing.
The only place I ever have to wear a mask is to get past the gatekeeper at the local shopping mall and even he is totally aware of the fact that everyone, foreign and Vietnamese alike, almost immediately take their masks off as soon as they get past the gate.
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There was a time that temperature checks were required at one point but we found it quite amusing that the guy was just going through the motions because most of our temperatures were so low that we would have to be already dead to have a body temperature that low. The anti-covid security dude doesn't give AF, he is just doing what he was told to do. Even back then most people would have their masks off once inside because I don't know if you have ever been to a shopping mall, but a lot of the things inside involve sitting down and eating / drinking something and no one was ever required to wear masks there.
Outside of a few weeks our movie theaters, bowling alleys, and ice-skating rinks (yes, i'm not making that up, we have ice-skating rinks in Vietnam) were always open and always selling as many tickets as possible.
So I'm thinkin that I accidentally ended up in one of the most awesome places that a person possibly can be in the world in relation to Covid if you are the type of person that hates being told what to do by the government.
We literally have no restrictions at all. If it seems like I am bragging I probably am a little bit but also know that I feel bad for you if you are in a society (especially USA) where your overlords are constantly moving the goalposts in regards to this virus. I guess I just got very lucky and it was a spur of the moment decision on my part to move here 5 years ago anyway. What a wonderful mistake that was!
The only issue is that if I leave, I wont be able to come back until the world changes back to "normal" - whatever that means. So I can't visit my family and they can't visit me. So that part of it sucks... the rest is pretty awesome.