Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

937 replies

mumofoneAlonebutokay · 23/04/2025 17:49

Inspired by chat on another thread - one woman was told not to pop to the shop for milk but to put butter in her coffee instead 😄

I wasn't on mumsnet then but would love to know the maddest comments you saw?

I myself went mad during the pandemic 🙈 and refused to leave the house and judged anybody that did, I'll admit 😬😄 - I wish I'd been calmer

Please share 🥰

Edit - I know how awful the pandemic was for those who lost loved ones, and how serious those losses are - this is just about the unnecessary hysteria and comments stemming from that, not to poke fun at those who lost someone or became ill. 💕

OP posts:
Thread gallery
20
LadyMonicaBaddingham · 23/04/2025 20:05

Not MN, but i will never forgot the irony of a colleague complaining about all the people 'gathered at X beach during a global pandemic', accompanied by a selfie of her and her DH. AT SAID BEACH...

StClabberts · 23/04/2025 20:05

I remember some incredibly smug and ignorant posts complaining about continued availability of alcohol and off licences. Also B and M!

The people concerned clearly had no idea that quick alcohol detox can be life threatening and that some people's only shop in walking distance is an offy that sells basic groceries too. Or that B and M sells a looooot of cheap food.

SeaSwim5 · 23/04/2025 20:05

LividRah · 23/04/2025 19:33

Thing is, we DIDN’T know.

We didn’t know this wasn’t going to kill loads of us. It’s easy to take the piss now, but (another March 2020 baby here that never met a soul for six months, and yes I probably have a sort of PTSD about it) we GENUINELY believed we could get sick and die if we caught covid. I’ve posted before but I believed my baby would die and anyone thinking that’s stupid now is missing the point of how it actually was then.

People scoffing about it have five years of hindsight. But nobody at the time ACTUALLY knew things wouldn’t be catastrophic.

I do worry about the next time a pandemic comes, cos it will. Say there’s one that kills kids. Say it has 10% mortality in under 10s or whatever absolute horror that is totally not impossible, statistically.

Nobody will bother following any procedures because they’ve all decided Covid was a farce and they remember the fiasco of rule of six and all the batshittery upthread. So what happens next time??

We did know pretty early though who was at high risk and which settings were particularly dangerous.

There was also very little attempt to balance tackling Covid with the very obvious harms of the measures themselves.

E.g. it was clear very early that outdoors was very low risk but still things like outdoor sports and hospitality were closed for months.

We also knew that young people were at very low risk, but again many received no education for months.

bookworm14 · 23/04/2025 20:04

I do find it interesting that all the most hysterical pro-lockdown posters (NannyandJohn, Hooves, PrincessNutNuts et al) have since vanished entirely. Although NandJ did briefly show up again during the Monkeypox panic.

XenoBitch · 23/04/2025 20:04

GeorgeMichaelsCat · 23/04/2025 20:03

I was told bread and milk were not essentials. There was an innocent thread asking about how many times a week we were shopping. I did one big shop on a Friday (no online slots) then topped up during the week with bread, milk, wine etc. I was told to have cereal for breakfast instead of toast. Hard to do that without milk and I haven't eaten cereal for about 25 years!

I had a security guard in a local shop tell me off for buying wine... said it was not essential. It was not the only thing I was buying, and at the time, it was very essential!
If it was on sale, then it was fine. Well, should have been fine. It was mad that Wales shut off clothing aisles in supermarkets.

theDudesmummy · 23/04/2025 20:04

We moved from the UK to Ireland the day before the start of lockdown. Our furniture and belongings followed in a moving truck a while later. I had bought industrial gallon bottles of antiviral liquid and everything was put in the garage, sprayed with antiviral and then left for a week before we let it into the house. I also did the sanitising of the shopping for months.

Peacepleaselouise · 23/04/2025 20:04

LividRah · 23/04/2025 19:33

Thing is, we DIDN’T know.

We didn’t know this wasn’t going to kill loads of us. It’s easy to take the piss now, but (another March 2020 baby here that never met a soul for six months, and yes I probably have a sort of PTSD about it) we GENUINELY believed we could get sick and die if we caught covid. I’ve posted before but I believed my baby would die and anyone thinking that’s stupid now is missing the point of how it actually was then.

People scoffing about it have five years of hindsight. But nobody at the time ACTUALLY knew things wouldn’t be catastrophic.

I do worry about the next time a pandemic comes, cos it will. Say there’s one that kills kids. Say it has 10% mortality in under 10s or whatever absolute horror that is totally not impossible, statistically.

Nobody will bother following any procedures because they’ve all decided Covid was a farce and they remember the fiasco of rule of six and all the batshittery upthread. So what happens next time??

I’m so sorry you went through a traumatic time and I can see how it happened with the messaging coming out.

There was quite a bit of evidence about the risk of catching it at any given time and also the risk of serious and illness or death depending on various factors.

I also had a baby and did not isolate myself more than I absolutely had to. Nowhere in England was forced to be 6months alone, that was a choice made from anxiety rather than facts. Again, I totally understand how that happened. But many of us did point out it’s wasn’t going to do people a lot of good with their mental health and we were ignored.

I took all reasonable precautions and was vaccinated as soon as I could, but the level of lockdown was totally unnecessary and in many cases did more harm than good.

StartingAgainFGS · 23/04/2025 20:04

UnstableMonkey · 23/04/2025 19:35

I wouldn’t be surprised. I think this was leading up to Christmas, or a bit before. Interesting looking back, and how news spread.

Show quote history

I missed the whole start of lock down, schools closing etc as I was in bed feeling horrificly ill with some mystery illness which had been lingering for ages then finally struck me down. When I came to a few days later it seemed like the world had changed!

GeorgeMichaelsCat · 23/04/2025 20:03

I was told bread and milk were not essentials. There was an innocent thread asking about how many times a week we were shopping. I did one big shop on a Friday (no online slots) then topped up during the week with bread, milk, wine etc. I was told to have cereal for breakfast instead of toast. Hard to do that without milk and I haven't eaten cereal for about 25 years!

FatherFrosty · 23/04/2025 20:02

MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel · 23/04/2025 19:56

The thing is, by May 2020 was had a pretty good idea what covid was all about. We knew who was most at risk, what the transference rate was, that for most people it was just a cold, and that yo-yo lockdowns didn't flatten the curve just delayed things and as soon as we "opened up" it just ran again.

Ultimately, we knew it wasn't the deadly disease we thought it could be in February/March. But by then the world was in full blown panic and the Daily Death Show just emphasised it to the public and spawned the kind of crazy we're discussing here.

We knew how it was spread etc but we still had a decimated nhs workforce, teachers and Essential workers shielding and we didn’t know how we would get out of it as we were still waiting on vaccines.

hindsight is a wonderful thing

driftingintheair · 23/04/2025 20:01

The thread where a primary school teacher - I think she was Reception/Year 1 - had ordered the parents of her pupils (age 4-6 years) who had tested positive to be isolated in their bedrooms for 10 days. She was adamant that they had to be isolated from the rest of their family and their age was irrelevant.

The woman who was in a hotel and had tested positive. Her boyfriend was sick and couldn’t drive to get her, so her only option was to get the train (think the journey was an hour or two, can’t quite recall). She was told to isolate at the hotel for 10 days, despite saying she simply had no money to do so, otherwise she was spreading disease everywhere on the train and to think of all the people she might kill with her selfishness. No idea what she did in the end as she stopped replying.

Original poster
mumofoneAlonebutokay · 23/04/2025 20:01

Coldbacon · 23/04/2025 19:50

I really thought there'd be some sort of horror afterwards at what "we" let them do. More outrage that such inhumane behaviour was just accepted.

DH was admitted to hospital by ambulance and we didn't see him again for 3 months. During that time he was told, alone and by telephone that his cancer was terminal. He never met his oncologist because the doctor was shielding. He'd call me in the middle of the night crying in pain and I couldn't speak to anyone to find out what was going on, and because his death wasn't imminent, I wasn't allowed to visit.

He eventually came home to die, unrecogniable from the man who'd left and had 3 months where he wasn't allowed to see anyone, although by that point I took the view that anyone who was willing to visit was helping with care and therefore, it was allowed, but many people still felt they shouldn't.

In what world did "we" not only allow it to happen, but so many seemed to relish it.

Show quote history

I'm sorry 😞❤️

OP posts:
XenoBitch · 23/04/2025 20:01

SlightlyJaded · 23/04/2025 20:00

Facebook covered in sanctimonious posts of people's profile pictures in a digital NHS rainbow frame with the words I'm Staying Home.

Fucking Hell. Smug as well as complicit.

ps. I did this.

Or the frame about being vaccinated. Still see a lot of people using that one 😂

DrPrunesqualer · 23/04/2025 20:00

mumofoneAlonebutokay · 23/04/2025 19:55

I was the same 😄

Show quote history

@SlightlyJaded
we walked the dog round and found the garden. We didn’t go further afield at all because everyone decided the fields near us was the place to take their dogs.

Then there’s the cars turning up at all hours down our country lane. Parking incognito. Two cars. One gets out of car A, goes into car B. Car B starts rocking, bit steamy. Everyone gets back into their own cars and drive off. And repeat.

I know everyone local that’s into dogging and having affairs after Covid lockdowns 🤣🤣🤣.

WestwardHo1 · 23/04/2025 20:00

MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel · 23/04/2025 19:56

The thing is, by May 2020 was had a pretty good idea what covid was all about. We knew who was most at risk, what the transference rate was, that for most people it was just a cold, and that yo-yo lockdowns didn't flatten the curve just delayed things and as soon as we "opened up" it just ran again.

Ultimately, we knew it wasn't the deadly disease we thought it could be in February/March. But by then the world was in full blown panic and the Daily Death Show just emphasised it to the public and spawned the kind of crazy we're discussing here.

Absolutely.

And let's remember that this government when they were in Opposition were constantly calling for longer, harder lockdowns (hilarious given how much they are struggling to cope with the economy as it is)

Original poster
mumofoneAlonebutokay · 23/04/2025 20:00

MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel · 23/04/2025 19:40

Right! People seem to think it was just 2020..

My sister died in January 2022, and due to the stupid covid rules I missed seeing her as we could only visit one at a time by appointment and only one person per day. There was 7 of us who wanted to see her.

My appt was Friday 22nd January at 10am, my sister died at just gone midnight that day. And then, when we rushed to the hospital when being told she was taking her last breath they wouldn't let us through the door until we had scrubbed and put on masks etc and so missed her passing by 2 minutes. Me, and her children could have held her hands, instead she died alone.

Meanwhile, folk were lamenting the loss of furlough!

Show quote history

I'm really sorry for your losses, @MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel &

@MistressoftheDarkSide 💕😞

OP posts:
SlightlyJaded · 23/04/2025 20:00

Facebook covered in sanctimonious posts of people's profile pictures in a digital NHS rainbow frame with the words I'm Staying Home.

Fucking Hell. Smug as well as complicit.

ps. I did this.

JandamiHash · 23/04/2025 20:00

SnoozingFox · 23/04/2025 18:14

It was all the bile thrown at those of us who questioned whether you were actually going to murder a granny by sitting on a bench with a packet of crisps. All the posters who were so horrible to people who broke their own version of the "roolz" by going out too long, or too often, or buying what some posters considered non-essentials.

People being told that they absolutely could not go to deal with a parent with dementia, or teenager isolated in uni halls, or any other sort of emergency because "what part of stay at home don't you understand"?

Some people were frightened and I get that. A large percentage though just revelled in being completely nasty and vile to other posters, patronising and mocking them, refusing to believe that they were actually exempt from wearing a mask or whatever and being backed up on threads by their fellow dementors.

I'd like to think that 5 years on they look back and think that actually they were pretty mean and awful. But I don't think they do.

100% agree. If I were a pettier person I’d call them out by name and ask if they feel rather silly now

MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel · 23/04/2025 20:00

Of course, the most bonkers thing about covid was the BLOODY WEATHER!!

Amazing sunshine from March, all through summer and we weren't fecking allowed out!!

Haven't had such a protracted period of sunshine since.

QuiteUnbelievable · 23/04/2025 19:59

@PandoraSoxx rifling trollies for what??

TheKeatingFive · 23/04/2025 19:58

The Irish government playing a blinder when they decided booze and power tools were essential items, but not children's shoes.

Turns out no women were in the room when that decision was taken 🙄

MissPobjoysPonies · 23/04/2025 19:57

The reason I stopped MN for a Loooong time. It’s was crackers

PandoraSoxx · 23/04/2025 19:57

I remember some approval on MN for this idiot:

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-police-backtrack-after-chief-threatened-to-search-shoppers-trolleys-11971269