Sunday 9th March 2025 is Covid Day of Reflection.

Do you remember the " Italy" conversations? How it was supposed to be bad there due to multi generational living. Similar tale from Bradford.

It was madness. A picnic that wasn't a picnic. You must buy something if you touch it in a supermarket and so on!

Tragic for some people though.

Allira

MayBee70

When my family first heard about what was happening in Italy we started protecting ourselves and, when it was necessary we locked down to protect ourselves and protect others. And, if it happened again we would do the same. Do people really have such short memories of the vast numbers of people that were dying, so little knowledge of the virus and, at the time no vaccine? And then, when there was a vaccine, the realisation that the vaccine would reduce the symptoms but not prevent further infections.

I heard about something strange happening in Wuhan late 2019 via people from there who were working in Australia. Everything was being kept secret and people in Wuhan were frightened.

Although he has since turned out to be a bit loony John Campbell was warning people in January 2020. And for a long time I found his advice invaluable.

Yes it was madness, maybe understandable but madness none the less. I am a bit ashamed that I didnt think more about what it would mean to lockdown. To children, to society, etc.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Weren’t we daft? Swings taped up, benches in the park like a crime scene, stupid useless porous masks, schools closed, ‘Save the NHS’. I could cry at the way we were coerced and manipulated. What are your ‘reflective thoughts’?

The BBC, Sky, the Press, Starmer, Sturgeon, Drakeford, Hancock, the teaching unions, Whitty and his idiot side kick whose name I can't remember, the Behavioural Insights Team, your curtain twitching neighbours, .... family bubbles, Rules of Six.

And the Great Barrington authors have been vindicated after all. And our stupid ‘National inquiry’ costing millions still rumbles on. And the Wuhan labs? Don’t get me started.

All very well in hindsight...
If it was all SO wrong...how would you have dealt with it?
What would YOU have done?
Did you go to work every day.. not knowing if you would come home at the end of your shift... or if the next patient would be someone you knew or loved?

It's not a case of what would we have done, it's a case of learning from what happened, or what is the point.

Our neighbours on one side work for NHS, a senior nurse and a clinical nurse manager.

Their house was party central throughout all lockdowns.

We have two lockdown GC babies, along with GC who were let down with online learning.

I will never let any government dictate who, when or how many people can access my home.

I was classified as vulnerable, my lungs, my life, my choice.

Imo during the pandemic we weren’t just responsible for our own lives but the lives of others. And I took that very seriously.

And the Great Barrington authors have been vindicated after all.

I do think a balance needed to be found between trying to avoid unnecessary deaths and the mental health of the population, particularly our children. Most are resilient but some are still suffering from social anxiety due to the effects of lockdowns.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Weren’t we daft? Swings taped up, benches in the park like a crime scene, stupid useless porous masks, schools closed, ‘Save the NHS’. I could cry at the way we were coerced and manipulated. What are your ‘reflective thoughts’?

The BBC, Sky, the Press, Starmer, Sturgeon, Drakeford, Hancock, the teaching unions, Whitty and his idiot side kick whose name I can't remember, the Behavioural Insights Team, your curtain twitching neighbours, .... family bubbles, Rules of Six.

And the Great Barrington authors have been vindicated after all. And our stupid ‘National inquiry’ costing millions still rumbles on. And the Wuhan labs? Don’t get me started.

Oh dear.

GrannyGravy13

Our neighbours on one side work for NHS, a senior nurse and a clinical nurse manager.

Their house was party central throughout all lockdowns.

We have two lockdown GC babies, along with GC who were let down with online learning.

I will never let any government dictate who, when or how many people can access my home.

I was classified as vulnerable, my lungs, my life, my choice.

Yes, I was classed as vulnerable and took responsibility for myself.

We should have taken responsibility for the welfare of children, and we didnt.

Galaxy

We should have taken responsibility for the welfare of children, and we didnt.

So true

I don’t actually think you can say “well it’s my choice” when it comes to a virus. I don’t go to the cinema or meet with friends if I know I’ve got a bad cold, let alone a virus that could kill somebody else.

Galaxy

We should have taken responsibility for the welfare of children, and we didnt.

Yes.

It affected all ages but only those who took GCSEs just after lockdowns were given consideration.

www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/24/pupils-in-england-facing-worst-exam-results-in-decades-after-covid-closures-says-study

Not just England, I would think.

I can hardly bear to look back at it. It certainly doesn’t occur to me that any of it was daft. My daughter was and still is a frontline NHS nurse and her husband a firefighter. Their children at the start of it all were 13 and 11.

After many years of providing childcare care we were separated and reduced to video calls. I could see my daughter looking stressed and unwell most evenings when they’d video call me for a catch up. She’d be home from work to try and have some normality with the children who’d been home alone with online learning while she did 12-13 hours at work in horrendous circumstances.

Some days without food and just gulps of water in between changing PPE. Trying to act normal with the children and hear about how they managed their online school work without any home support while both parents were at work all day.

My daughter is still traumatised by her experiences in the early months of the pandemic.

Imagine the horror of admitting previously healthy patients, maybe only in their 20’s/30’s and in the course of your shift seeing them rapidly go downhill and reaching the stage of requiring to go on a ventilator to give them any chance of survival. Or having a 15 min window to make a video call via an iPad to give their loved ones a chance to say their goodbyes as there’s no chance of survival.

Galaxy

We should have taken responsibility for the welfare of children, and we didnt.

Oh this!!!

Covid was a horrible, horrible time for me for reasons which still deeply affect me now so much I find it impossible to talk about... traumatic in every sense of the word.

Yet, if I was told to do what I had to again in order to protect the vulnerable (and I include myself here) yes, I would do the same again.

Except- I wouldn't go out and clap (ridiculous idea) and certainly wouldn't give any money to any dodgy charity appeals.

The repercussions of having a GC born in the middle of lockdown are still being felt in my family, and very serious ones they are.

I didn't know it was a designated 'day' tomorrow but I don't need one. I reflect on it every single day.

In my opinion one of the biggest problems with the lockdowns was the enforcement of some irrational rules. A few examples....

My midwife niece could be working alongside other midwives barely a foot apart while tending labouring mothers, but at the end of the shift those two would have to exit the hospital (into the open air) 2 metres apart.

I could meet my father alone in a park or other open space as long as we kept 2 metres apart. If I wished I could meet my mother separately (even though she lived with my father) at a later time. However I could sit 2 metres apart from a family of 6 strangers quite legally.

Primary age children couldn't go to school unless they were the children of key workers when they could go to school and mix with other children not related to them, most of whom came from families likely to be more exposed to the virus, hence their key worker status. I had a niece at university who was forbidden to travel back to the family home so spent weeks in a tiny university dorm room with no interactions except for zoom classes and facetime calls to friends and family. That was inhuman.

I respected there had to be some rules and restrictions but too many had no basis in common sense. The awful consequences of social isolation on mental health didn't seem to be considered at all. Maybe because too many who were making these rules up weren't observing them themselves. In another such situation I will form a company with my extended family and then we'd be able to have work meetings and maintain contact!

Galaxy

Yes it was madness, maybe understandable but madness none the less. I am a bit ashamed that I didnt think more about what it would mean to lockdown. To children, to society, etc.

No one knew at the time that children wouldn’t be badly affected by the virus. And no one knows that any future pandemic won’t target younger people. The Spanish flu did, I believe.

My daughter's friend is a doctor. She had gone back to work 2 days a week because of the shortage of GPs. When Covid hit she went to work at one of our large hospitals. 72 hours a week, away from home so she only saw her husband a few times when he drove to see her with clean laundry. She is a highly experienced doctor, and a biochemist, and she said it was like no disease they had faced before. Victims were dying before they could even move them out of A&E. Lock Down was bad, but she was totally behind it. She was in no doubt what would happen if it was allowed to spread freely through the population.

Yes my oldest grandson's education was badly affected, but his father's health problems meant that he would never have survived catching it. I think my grandson would rather have his father here than have better exam results.

Rosie51

Very good post 👏👏👏

But people were DYING.

ExDancer

But people were DYING.

….people have forgotten that…

Some of the rules did seem silly.

I thought it was strange that people needed those specific rules and couldn’t just apply a principle of stay away from other people (even the ones you love) as much as possible.

I guess it was the people who said “but I need to see my mates\ hug my grandchild/visit my mum/ make my choice that meant there had to be rules.

I shielded for two years. My physical and mental health suffered, I was deemed too vulnerable to attend hospital, no bloods done for two years, daughter due to be married on the first day of Lockdown, second heart attack in the middle of the pandemic ( terrifying, as no safe bed could be found and I was sent home) a DNR put on file, because those with a chance had priority over me for a bed in ICU and being advised that I would probably die if I caught Covid.

Nothing like this had ever been seen before and some of those stupid rules kept me alive, before vaccinations and anti virals became available.
We had no idea how to deal with this vile virus.

I will be forever grateful to the NHS and to one of my former consultants, who came out of retirement at 72, against the wishes of his family, to take care of his former patients. My new consultant had been seconded to Covid ICU and could not take car of his RA patients.
So many sacrifices made by so many.

MayBee70

ExDancer

But people were DYING.

….people have forgotten that…

Yes turning on the news and seeing it rising day by day, wondering how high it would go

There was no win really. The social consequences of Lockdown vs the social consequences of deaths in the family.