What if your government threatens you with infecting you?

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This. Your boiler needs to be maintained by a specialist.
You can probably reasonably demand this specialist to wear a face mask and fresh disposable gloves to minimize risk of infecting you. You can spray everything he touched with isopropanol after he leaves.
But his job has to be done.

I don't know why people are talking about being rational, fears are never rational or proportional, they are instinctive. Telling someone their fear is irrational is discounting someone's feelings.

If you're this worried about getting covid from someone checking your gas then I think you have a good chance of getting out of it but don't get angry, just explain how worried you are and be prepared that they will try to persuade you. Stick to your point without getting angry and eventually they will give in. DON'T threaten anyone.

Good luck.

This is not normal thinking to feel justified into killing someone over COVID when they need to enter your home to fix the boiler.

If someone commits this such murder and they felt they were justified and saw it as self defense, I would think they were criminally insane and need to go to a mental hospital than prison.

OP - switch off the news and avoid reading the papers and, better yet, avoid reading anything about COVID on the internet.

It's obvious that the media has got you like this.

Most media have instilled fear and paranoia about Covid19 and ultimately THEY are to blame for the fear that this is causing so many vulnerable people. I perfectly understand the OP's fears but its the fault of the media hype and the governments with their lockdown regulations for a virus which ultimately isn't all that much more dangerous than a severe bout of flu - the fatalities are a tragedy yes, but a very small proportion of those who get infected.

I'm angry at the media for blowing the pandemic out of proportion just because it's a new disease. It's reached the point that I'm no longer interested in more Covid news or statistics.

It's understandable that you don't like people invading your personal space but I'd suggest contacting someone such as a social worker who works for the council, or contact whoever's responsible for health and safety and explain your concerns to them. The landlord is certainly not out to kill you - that would mean a financial loss to him/her and ruin his/her reputation. It's in his interest to keep you safe.

No, if anything they haven't highlighted how precarious this virus can be. The more time passes the more people develop symptoms, the more long-term damage is done to the brain etc. it seems. Where's the hype if hundreds of anti-mask protesters exist in practically every country? In a morbid way, it's kind of a problem taking care of itself, but they still go on to infect others who weren't of such a mindset, and this immense selfishness is despicable.

It's not out of proportion. This is only less devastating than the likes of the Ebola virus, but even then that isn't as infectious, and there's a vaccine for it too...

The amount of humans on this planet makes a number of severe cases of anything look like SO MANY if they are reported enough and focused on.

Currently about 881 thousand people worldwide have died after being tested positive with COVID. Although it may be a large number of (unlucky) people, compared to like 7.8 billion humans altogether this is a very tiny amount. Even if we didn't have lockdown the number of death cases still probably wouldn't have reached much more than a million, which still wouldn't have even made a dent in the large population of humans.

Yes I know nobody knows how their own body will react to COVID, even among the healthiest of people, but nobody knows and nobody will ever know what will kill them and when. If we carry on hiding away forever, we will all become snowflakes with no immunity to any of the other viruses we were once immune to, which is not healthy in the long term.

You're right Joe, we can't live in fear. Take precautions by all means but we must never get overwhelmed by this - it too will pass.

Yes, and these actually aren't my words - they're my mum's words, who is in the high risk group. She is taking the precautions but is still trying to live her life as much as she can. She hasn't been wrapped in bubble wrap in a closet with a gas mask on for these past few months.

Not more than a million? Do you have any any how exponential numbers work?

I said "not much more than a million". Do you have any idea how language works?

I don't think you can damage your immune system by avoiding infection. I think it takes quite a few generations of evolution before there's any noticeable effect, except possibly in young children. And some infections actually weaken the immune system if you catch them.

Well, as an emetophobe, that is kind of a relief. I kept imagining that if and when they find some sort of cure for COVID, more cases of norovirus and other stomach flus might rise drastically. Yes, to us emetophobes, catching a vomiting bug is more terrifying than catching COVID.
If I cough, I might worry a bit but just hope that I only get affected mildly. But if I feel nauseas, I'm like, "oh my God I've somehow caught a stomach flu, what am I going to do??"
It's because I had a bad experience with vomiting a couple of years ago and I am hoping to never get a vomiting bug again.

Oh, and if there are other viruses out there that can weaken the immune system, why doesn't society shut down for those?

From what I've read, Covid-19 is pretty dangerous to certain vulnerable groups, e.g. the elderly, people with weak immune systems, weak lungs, and diabetes. There's no immunization for it and no cure. And it's a lot more contagious than most of the viruses we've seen so far. That contagion rate makes a big difference. It's only the strong interventions that have been holding it back and making it look like it can't do any more harm than any other virus. Without strong intervention it will rapidly take hold and infect everybody. Testing capacity and hospitals will be overwhelmed. That's why practically every government in the world imposed severe lockdowns at massive expense even though governments nearly always put the economy before everything else.

I would guess that they haven't shut down to stop viruses that weaken the immune system because they're not so contagious so the numbers don't warrant it. HIV for example doesn't spread particularly easily. You can travel on a bus with an HIV patient but you won't catch it off them.

Norovirus is actually very catching too, and they haven't seemed to have found a vaccine for that. Although a lot of people get immune to norovirus, it is possible that a lot of people are potential carriers and can pass it on to more vulnerable people (elderly and those with diabetes) without knowing. I used to work in a nursing home and whenever there was an outbreak of norovirus a lot of elderly people died from dehydration or had to be hospitalised. And despite wearing masks and washing our hands, a lot of the staff still caught it and some were ill for days.
The only good thing is norovirus comes and goes and usually only during the wintertime, so it's not like a lingering threat to the world.
I'm pretty immune to stomach flus like that but even I caught it one Christmas when I worked there. I had a high temperature, aching in my arms and legs, very tired, and obviously vomited and had diarrhoea. My dad caught it and he was very ill with it, we thought he might of had to go to hospital but thankfully he started to recover. But he couldn't even get out of bed, and it's not like him to be that struck down by a stomach flu.

My boyfriend's aunt got COVID a few months ago. She's 60, has a weakened immune system due to health problems, and has COPD - but she actually only got mildly affected. She was forced to self-isolate for 2 weeks (which meant not going to work as a key worker), and while she was off with COVID she used that time to decorate the living-room! True story.