Mumsnet during the beginning of the Pandemic - please tell me your stories of the maddest comments you saw

I absolutely agree with this. There would be far less compliance a second time around. Or they will just bring in martial law…….

Same. Comparing it to either colds or flu needs to be retired permanently. Neither of these things describe the severity of symptoms and they can both be anything from asymptomatic to fatal! So what point anyone thought they were making, I do not know.

This discussion always went the same way at the time, and still apparently goes the same way today.

Someone says "Well, it's only old people dying", as if old people can just fuck off (hey, let's save 5% of GDP by not treating anyone over 80, think of all the meals in chain restaurants we could buy for that).

Then when it's pointed out that lots of younger/disabled/brown people were vulnerable too, when it would look a bit bad to propose that they just fuck off, some handwaving idea to "protect" or "shield" them is proposed, without any explanation of how you suddenly rewire the whole logistics of the country to separate, house, and feed several million individuals, while the people who have to do that also try not to pass on the virus.

Then there's some "well well well well erm the government and the EU should just sort it out, waaaah waaaah, I just want to go to the pub".

The big problem, and this doesn't fall into the funny stories category, is that it was never possible to protect all the vulnerable because some of them had directly competing interests.

This is also why moralising is generally unconvincing.

"It's just a cold" was a common phrase and it still annoys me. As if anyone actually wants to get a cold.

Covid has killed about 10 times as many people as the Hong Kong flu outbreak (https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1968-pandemic.html).

All the "this is the new normal, get used to it, life will never be the same" bollocks. Seeing a crowded airport/ music venue/pub makes my heart soar now knowing that wasn't true and was never going to be.

The overwhelming majority of people who died from COVID were extremely elderly with existing serious health conditions.

So I'm not remotely interested in your jingoistic hyperbole.

I was, and am, of the mindset we should protect the vulnerable and everyone else go about daily life with minimal restrictions. I'm old enough to recall the Hong Kong flu outbreak in the late 60s when I believe more people died than of covid. We all carried on as normal, society didn't collapse and I personally didn't know anyone who died of it, even elderly relatives.

My husband's lovely aunt was dying of cancer during lockdown ,at home fortunately, and I was damned if I wasn't going to see her and give her a last hug, even if it was against "the rules".

Yes my main recollection was the gleefulness of the people who loved lockdown.

I think Japan avoided harsher restrictions too

I think we’d have an attitude change if it only affected 20 year olds

Or they could have been much younger with respiratory issues or other disabilities. Some ethnic groups were also disproportionately affected. But maybe those people deserved to take a death lottery ticket too, to avoid "decimating the country" (in some way that over a million deaths wouldn't)?

But the person cutting the pack and getting the Ace of Spades would, in all likelihood, also be over 80 and have other serious health issues.

98% survival means one person in 50 dying. It's the odds of cutting a pack of cards and getting the ace of spades. I suspect that "Only one in 50 of you will die in immense distress" on Boris's nightly updates would not have gone down very well.

I stayed away from those threads at the time, and now I remember why!

Better to experience in hindsight I think.

I’m one of the ones who embraced the fallout of hairdressers being shut. 😁

Sweden isn’t the only country that didn’t lock down. Taiwan, Uruguay and Iceland are others. It was not the only option.

I vaguely recall that too, which was funny because round my way many of them were still very much continuing to offer their services on the quiet! Especially during the second lockdown.

The frothing crazed, I'm afraid.

We knew very early on that over 98% of people who caught COVID would survive. To decimate this country in the way we did just to ostensibly save people who were already extremely elderly/frail was immoral and madness.

In the first lock down my neighbour ranted at me because i dared to go on a walk. I lived in a flat at the time and my granddad had just been sectioned. I really needed to get out for some air.

@EasternStandard Goodness no. I hated the idea when presented back than as much as I do now, as per my responses above. The comparisons then between Sweden and the UK were apples and oranges. to me, no logic as completely different cultures, mindset, family approaches and the infrastructure also vastly different. Held no water then and still do not today.

I got into so much trouble at work over the rule of six thing - I worked in a cafe and had let a group of six in and seated them. Another table knocked over a full tray of drinks which made a huge mess so I went to the cleaning cupboard to grab to mop. Got it sorted and was dragged into the office by my manager who yelled at me for seating seven people together... 😡 I got a written warning for that and she wouldn't listen to anything I said. I fucking hate her guts to this day. Fuck you Julie T!

@EasternStandard I’m honestly not sure - I had an 80 year old FIL in UK and a pretty fit one who had been widowed the previous year and who I love a lot- so my heart would probably have ruled -

The Rule of 6, Eat out to Help out, Clap for the NHS....

Seriously WTAF?! 😂