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

Yep 5 minutes on an A or B road or a motorway is still 5 minutes in a car. Not sure if time takes longer on a motorway or if there is a vortex maybe that changes time when you go on a different road? Same applies!

This was toward the end of the pandemic when there were “test runs” of football stadiums packing in thousands of people. I had posted asking for advice on my conscience if I should let my very lonely SEN child who was struggling hugely, to his friends house to play for an afternoon (after they had been to school all day together). We had followed all rules prior.

I’ll never forget the very nasty poster who berated me, called me selfish, labelled me “anti science” (batshit!) and a host of other things; she was OTT awful and I avoid all threads I see her on now. Although most likely she’s name changed since.

And caused more

I honestly believe that the pandemic exposed an awful lot of undiagnosed mental illness.

I know a couple who still wear masks in their car. They also still only have socially distanced coffee mornings on their drive with the other residents in their cul-de-sac.
Their neighbourhood seems to be stuck in 2020.

Lol. On the motorway?

He/She also suggested that "key workers" should all be housed together, away from their homes and families, in some sort of 'centre'. So that they could just go to work and "stop the spread". Not as many people as you'd expect disagreed.

That poster went to reddit. They claimed on reddit that they had been banned from here. They were still posting the same nonsense "i'm afraid..." bullshit over on R as recently as last year.

I’ve just searched for some of N&J’s old posts.
I found one (which I challenged) that stated that once your eldest is 18 years old, they should leave home, and find their own place so not to expose the rest of the family to covid 😂

NannyAndJohn actually did pop up again under a variation of the same name to doom-monger about monkeypox. Seems to have gone again now.

I think they did get banned but came back with a totally original UN, John&Nanny perhaps. I can't remember exactly. Then when the expected Christmas 2021 lockdown never materialised they seem to vanish overnight and I've never seen the words baked in appear in posts since.

People said Nanny and John got banned during Omicron. Not sure if that's true. There was one from very far away who I think from the style and timing stayed much longer.

This. As I mentioned upthread, I do find it intriguing that all the most prolific covid doomers disappeared abruptly around the same time. It’s possible they all namechanged, of course, but I haven’t noticed anyone with the same posting style. Perhaps they were just too embarrassed to continue posting when their apocalyptic predictions failed to come to pass.

@AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta funnily enough I think I would have found it easier on my own - lots of quiet book reading, mumsnet- lol! And WhatsApp’s to friends and family - rather than sharing 24/7 with an H constantly ranting about stuff - I think family relationships and personalities were a big part of it too - as there were fewer external outlets and you are correct, security of income was a biggie as was whether there was a huge change to the day to day

You are spot on @Crikeyalmighty . I remember a thread during the early part of lockdown 1 where someone called them out on it (and referred to the as Dementors from Harry Potter who suck the joy out of everything) and they got incredibly huffy and defensive with lots of posts about how they were "only being realistic" 🙄.

Your FILs take is an interesting one, it's certainly not reflective of the elderly people I knew who found it horrendously isolating and lonely but were of the generation where they followed "the rules" unquestionably. I think it depended on people's set ups but whatever age they were, the ones who had a secure income and obviously lack of major life change did seem to enjoy sticking the boot into those less fortune.

@AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta I’m absolutely baffled about those who seemed to deride gleeful joy that it was all a bit of a shit show and extremely sad for many - can only conclude it wasn’t their business or livelihood and savings going to pot or they were getting paid for being off for months on end and were the kind happy in their own and immediate family company only and had plenty of space etc- my elderly fIL did comment about other elderly people he knew who seemed to actually revel in it -but then he pointed out that for many of them life wasn’t that much different - fixed incomes, not going out that much, fixating on the News - that’s him saying it - not me .

I should really stop remembering it because even half a decade on its still riling me. But just on the off chance those posters of doom who we all remember are reading this, then you were and remain an utter disgrace. I would hope you now feel some shame about your behaviour but unfortunately I cannot credit you with that much self awareness.

Carnage was the Christmas 2020 buzzword from those posters. So many posts of "well enjoy the Christmas Day that you don't seem willing to unselfishly do without, because it'll be absolute carnage in January". All because some posters, many of whom had been alone for weeks on end wanted one nice day to enjoy and try and have some normality at the end of an utterly grim year.

Yeah, same for the distances that you could travel for exercise, never existed in any of the legislation enacted in England, believe it may have been mentioned in Scottish or Welsh legislation, got cursed out quite a bit by pointing this out on a local news facebook post about reports of the police questioning people at our local beach car parks about where the people had come from.

Hah, I was exactly the same! 🤣

I don’t remember particular posters but I do remember “it’s going to be absolute carnage” and “this is going to take YEARS, get used to it” posts. They were so gleeful and all the doom upset me. You’d have to wonder what kind of lives these people lead.

Quite, no reluctance at all. My dad was already dying of advanced heart and kidney failure when he died in hospital. Ditto FIL was admitted to hospital with terminal cancer, sepsis (which he refused treatment for as he'd had enough), unstable diabetes and unstable AF. Both tested +ve once a couple of days before dying having been negative on admission but subsequently tested -ve more than once. Both had covid down as a cause of death though both had multiple causes listed. 1 positive test definitive, multiple negative tests ignored.

you’re also wrong about reluctance to put covid on death certificates. According to the bma, legislation changed in march 2020 to make it easier to put covid on death certificates - any medical practitioner, no need to be present or have attended the ceased, no need for a second signature (unlike other causes of death) and up to 28 days, electronic submission.

The data is harvested from e.g the office for national statistics.

’everything was marked spanish flu’ doesn’t account for the spike at the time because the data is per 1000 people, meaning that regardless of the marker for death, a spike is a spike.

Not sure where I said ‘all prevention strategies weren’t needed’. The point I was making was mainly about the restrictions and impact on younger generations - this is something I never voted for, agreed to or agree with now. My priority is children and young people.

The main factor in the spanish flu being so deadly was to do with that particular strain of virus and how it was linked to the ‘cytokine’ storm immune reaction - not because of poverty, lack of nhs or awareness of immunisations.

A woman who regularly walks her dog up my road in a small village is still wearing a very substantial mask today!

I remember Mumsnetters being terrified to order anything which might have come from China which ruled out a lot of Amazon.

In my local supermarket, a guy wearing an actual gas mask shouted at me because I inadvertently walked near him. I told him to get a grip.