22 People Share How Much They’re Really Drinking During the Pandemic

There’s Meryl, swathed in a plush white bathrobe making herself a cocktail. But not before she takes a sip straight from the damn bottle, gifting us our latest quarantine meme gold. Or what about Stanley Tucci, inviting the world to collectively lust after him and his quarentinis. We’ll have what he’s having (a negroni, for the record).

Since March, when many states across the country began issuing shelter-in-place orders to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, alcohol-centric content has been even more all over social media than usual. Maybe your friend sent you the one that jokes, “When my grandkids ask about the quarantine of 2020 [I’ll tell them] ‘To be honest, I was drunk for most of it.’” Or the one that says, “When this is all over, which meeting should I attend first? Weight Watchers or AA?” OK, that last one is rude. But the inspiration behind jokes like those is resonating with many of us because, well, we are drinking a lot right now.

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The data confirms this; alcohol sales rose 55% in the week ending March 21, and 243% for online purchases. And also, it just makes sense. The world as we knew it has ended and everyone—at least seemingly, according to the internet—is turning to booze to cope with the stress and stave off boredom. The prevailing “screw it” mentality has seemingly given all of us permission to say yes to one (or two) more rounds than we might normally would. The thing is, when you’re home alone and all the days and nights are passing by as one big blur, it can be hard to tell if you’re overdoing it during this time when a lot of us are probably overdoing it. So, Prevention.com asked men and women across the country: How much are you actually drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic? Their answers might surprise you.