Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can study without paying tens of thousands of dollars. There are also tons of productive uses of time that can be done during the pandemic. Now is a great time to volunteer.
Volunteer - unemployment is the worst for decades. There are literally half the population not working right now with nothing to do, its the least useful time to volunteer. (OK maybe I'm wrong)
1. Just because people aren't working doesn't mean they are volunteering. In fact, there's an exodus of volunteers, because retirees, the group which historically is most likely to volunteer, are also the most likely to isolate because they're at high risk from coronavirus. This is causing a massive shift in the demographic of volunteers. It's unclear to me whether the number of volunteers is going up or down overall, but it is clear that some organizations are being left short-handed by the change.
2. Quantity of volunteers does not necessarily mean that there's a good match between volunteer skillsets and the skills needed. The massive shift in volunteer demographics means that certain roles which were previously filled by people with a lot of experience, are now empty, and an excess of young enthusiastic volunteers doesn't fix that problem.
3. Unemployment also drastically increases the need felt by many communities. I'm not sure whether the supply of volunteers is up or down, but the demand for volunteers is clearly increased.
You don't have to trust me or x87678r: call your local charities and see if they need volunteers. I am confident you'll very quickly find that some do.
EDIT: My post is strongly worded, but I don't apologize. x87678r's comment is far more offensive than anything I said. If HN is more worried about some strong wording than about telling people not to volunteer in a time when millions of people desperately need help from volunteers, then our priorities are screwed up.