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Original poster

To ask what we SHOULD have done during the COVID pandemic

504 replies

tunainatin · 10/11/2024 05:48

So I realise the government made mistakes at the time of COVID. They also acted completely immorally by not following the rules they imposed on everyone else.
However, I suspect any government in this country would have been criticized whatever their response.

I was mulling over the rules and restrictions and trying to work out which ones were actually worthwhile. Some rules seemed so petty (e.g. the one a day walk) but there has to be a line drawn somewhere, otherwise the parks would have been full of people.

Once we were allowed to attend things with restrictions in place, I went to an event which was meant to have masks and social distancing but everyone kind of got carried away and forgot about. Everyone got COVID, including me, badly, and one person was hospitalised.

So if you were the government what would you have done during the pandemic. Which of the bizarre rules we followed do you think saved lives, and which just causes stress or distress?

OP posts:
LameBorzoi · 10/11/2024 06:20

It was a tricky line to walk. We hadn't really dealt with anything quite like it in recent decades, so they were flying blind. They had to err on the side of caution, because it was really hard to damp down once it got away

GiraffeTree · 10/11/2024 06:05

I have nothing but contempt for Boris and his mates throwing parties.

But when it comes to people like Chris Whitty who set the rules, I think they were doing the best they could with the information they had. I personally think that with the benefit of hindsight the rules were too strict, but I'm not sure they could have known that at the time.

usererror99 · 10/11/2024 05:58

Anyone in at risk categories - anyone in receipt of old age pension or CEV should have been told to stay home and the rest of us should have got on with it

RhaenysRocks · 10/11/2024 05:55

I agree that it's easy with hindsight to look back and say we should have done x,y or z and that one would have been more effective than another. I do think the tier system was ludicrous and unenforceable and the 6 people in a house thing ..I remember threads about whether a baby asleep upstairs counted and the venom and vitriol and lack of ability to employ a bit of common sense was quite terrifying. People bring arrested for having a coffee outside.
The one outing a day thing also..leaving aside the entirely wrong belief that it could only be an hour, if you have children or caring responsibilities or needed to shop or work it was impossible to stick to. I tried to keep my distance from parents who had vulnerability but other than that, I was definitely at the "laxer" end of the spectrum.

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