I have a lot of friends and relatives in NYC. At a certain point, volunteer medics started discouraging people in their neighborhoods from going to the hospital because nobody was coming back alive. Because family members were barred from visiting and staying with their loved one, there were people literally dressing up as hospital staff and “sneaking” their loved one out of the hospital because they were hearing terrifying reports of the high mortality rates there. Really crazy.
There is evidence coming from China that people who had the virus and recovered became re-infected. Which means there is no certainty at this point on immunity.
I am aware of that, but there is still doubt in that data. Apparently the tests used in a lot of Chinese people have really bad false positive and false negative rates, so it could lead do conclusions such as apparent reinfection. We'll have to wait and see if it happens with more people, especially in regions with more accurate testing.
Many more people would use masks and gloves if they were available for purchase. This could never be implemented in the US unless the government was supplying everyone with masks. At this point it’s almost criminal to buy masks for yourself when health workers don’t have access to enough of them.
