To ask what we SHOULD have done during the COVID pandemic

So, we drove to a remote nature reserve once a month to walk with my mum. Halfway between our houses, 30 mins in the car. This was absolutely vital for everyone. We didn't do it during the really hardcore April - June 2020 bit, but from summer 2020 onwards. My mum was in an abusive relationship at the time and a lifeline for her, plus she's DS's only really involved grandparent and he was at an age where he'd forget her. I truly believe this was a sensible bending of the rules but if I'd posted on here at the time people would have just been like you're not supposed to travel to exercise, what part of stay at home do you not understand, you fucking idiot, etc. If we'd done a supermarket shop on the way home from meeting my mum that would have somehow made it fine because you were allowed to travel to shop.

There was so much emphasis on petty, irrelevant stuff like whether you were holding a coffee when you were walking. I think the main problem with the lockdowns was that the tories' internal division led to these weird contradictions, and a push-pull between authority and liberty. The tiers, the scotch eggs being a substantial meal etc. A more balanced approach would have led to e.g. schools being open but pupils attending on alternate days, with social distancing, most learning outside, windows open etc.

The thinking on type 1 prior to covid was that you are born with the propensity to develop it and at some point it is triggered by a virus. It makes sense that diagnoses increased at that time. I guess the longer term research will be interesting - did covid just trigger the same people who would have triggered at some point anyway or has covid itself triggered type 1? Baring in mind that diagnosis was, inexplicably, on the increase anyway. It will many years, I suspect, to begin to unravel it.

I know, all countries are different. But the UK politicans could also have admitted to not being experts and leave it to your state epidemiologist (I assume you have one?).

This is what exh did and he might as well be a victim of the pandemic as he wasn’t the same again

His brain now doesn’t function properly. He won’t get assessed but he definitely has some form of dementia.

I just think that we tested for Covid each day and then just went about our business as usual

I worked throughout the pandemic where I could. My issue was I was shoulder to shoulder with lots of other people during a work day but once finished we had to keep 2M apart. We couldn’t gave a chat or do anything together because “we would be spreading the virus”

It was ridiculous

No it was confirmed at the enquiry by Whitty

If you think about the difference in borders you can see the issue

And the hospitals would have been unable to admit the number of patients needing inpatient treatment if Covid had been allowed a free for all in communities. Inpatients weren’t just the elderly and CEV.

Actually, that's wrong. The economies that fared the best were those with the fewest covid deaths.

I agree that I don't think anyone could have got it "right".
It was a novel virus so guess work will always be part of planning.

However the fact we didn't have readiness planning was a mistake.

The fact the government has wanton disregard for the rules we all had to follow is unforgivable.

What I think should have happened was more meeting and planning and making rules with clear indication of why rather than this making rules up because of media pressure of because Johnson just thought it sounded good and gave him more tv time.

Also government clarifying the rules more clearly. Johnson's inability to communicate effectively was a major issue with covid. There never was a rule about 1 hour a day exercise.

If pubs could open they should have had rules in place and there was no need to food to be involved and clarifying what constituted a meal.

The government allowed the media to use covid as click bait far too readily.

This was a pandemic. Measures needed to be in place. I don't disagree with the original lockdown whilst we figured out how to manage the pandemic.

But the complete lack or clarity and consistency was unacceptable.

First of all, they should have seen it coming since a pandemic had been right at the top of the national risk register for years. Then they should have followed the experience of the pandemic planning operations held in the 2010s.

None of the rules were necessary. The only people that should have been in lockdown were the elderly or the ones with core morbidities. And there is nothing discriminatory about it. The lockdowns destroyed the economy and people’s well being which have caused more excess deaths because of the restrictions than Covid itself.

But we all know why the policies were adopted. So that corrupt government officials and leeching civil servants could funnel public money to their cronies and back into their own pockets.

Lesson? Never ever trust the government when they tell you to follow the science.

We should have started lock down earlier. We had about 2 weeks where it was in mainland Europe.

In Spain people were in lockdown, but the UK allowed Spaniards to travel unrestricted to a football match in Liverpool. I don't blame the Spanish fans, they had tickets and had paid for travel that probably cost a fortune.

Even if we had not gone in to lockdown there are things that could have been done. Atletico Madrid's fans are probably mostly located near Madrid. A charter flight (or more likely a fleet) from Madrid to Liverpool would have kept people off trains and ferries.

That was mistake one.

Possibly a very short (4 week?) initial lockdown, by which time we would have realised that it was unnecessary.
A push to get the vaccine programme up and running - which we actually did.
Nothing else - no masks, no restrictions, no stupid rules. They were all pointless. We should have been prioritising keeping children in school.
The Government were not "immoral" - they were pragmatic, because they knew the restrictions were stupid, but sadly couldn't find a way to get out of them.

Ok, how?

NZ option wasn't possible here - it was possible; not easy of course, but then none of the options were easy.

You can't take the Swedish approach without the Swedish infrastructure. More financial security, better working rights / sick leave, more living space etc

^
This.
When your previously fit and well husband is in ITU ventilated , with a tracheotomy, dialysed and comatosed for 5 months and then somehow miraculously survives albeit with lifelong disabilities and has to spend the next 6 months in a different hospital learning to walk again and do basic self-care tasks; please try living that horror while looking after 2 young children.
So yes, schooling etc was disrupted, freedoms curtailed, but do you know what? That was the very least of mine and my children's worries.

Politics comes into absolutely everything.

New Zealand would not have been able to do what they did if the other countries in the world hadn't agreed to take on the responsibility of hosting their stranded citizens for open ended periods, for example.

I remember telling my DH a week or so before the closure that we need to stop people coming into the UK.

Those 'people' you were talking about were mainly British citizens. Do you honestly think we should've shut our borders and trapped our citizens overseas, like Australia did? I thought that was an appalling policy. You pretty much assume in life that you can always go home, will always have a right to return to and reside in your country of citizenship. How would you have felt if you'd been on holiday or a business trip and the border had just been closed, trapping you overseas?

tweaks

Politically does not come into it when thousands of lives are at stake. The repercussions of closing the borders would have been problematical and teaks and nuances would have been needed but that does not mean it should not have been done. The things that were done were problematical, but that does not mean they should not have been done.

We knew it was a load of crap and lies from day one and didn't follow any of it expect when they put a stupid five mile travel distance for exercise and actually had police cars positioned in certain places to stop and question people. Foe he most part we did get around it but some days had to divert when we saw a police car.

I think it was more what we did do, was done too late. They fannyed about deciding whether to close schools, let massive sorting events go ahead, not to mention the government hypocrites. Anything done after that was irrelevant and too late.

Sorry. It RTFT but I remember telling my DH a week or so before the closure that we need to stop people coming into the UK.
It would have been much more sensible to get people working from home where possible
Other than closing borders, stopping as much interaction as possible, throwing open all the windows in public places to keep the air circulating

Multi generational families?
Carers?
The fact that not all vulnerable are old

What a narrow minded simplistic view

The 3 weeks to flatten the curve/help the NHS should have been adhered to. Shielding for the vulnerable if they wanted. Then maybe some restrictions in tge lead up to Christmas.

Once the vaccines were out it should have been back to normal quicker.