Sad that the pandemic didn't make us better

Officially, we are still in the pandemic, just not the emergency phase (according to WHO and DHSC).

There were opportunities to do things better after lockdown. I think we were desperately unfortunate to have someone like Johnson at the helm. Sticking their fingers up at the country didn’t help - some will see that as reason to do the same, some will treat it like any other shitty behaviour and not want to be the same.

I’m one of too many with long covid after a mild infection - incidentally after covid was supposedly over. I’m lucky that I’m not one of the many parents with a child with long covid as that would be even worse.

This them?

Yes, I was quite vocal at the time saying that I thought it would make a kinder world, but Christ everyone has done a 180 and got even more selfish and with a "me me me" attitude.

I look at it as similar to the ‘Blitz spirit’ in that it was a response to the extraordinary circumstances, and thus not something that would be maintained when normal life resumed.

There is a strong aspect of self interest when it comes to practicing altruism, that is often overlooked.

Sadly the lasting memory for many is that our leaders partied whilst we suffered. I think it would have been different it May was still in power, or sunak to be honest. Boris destroyed peoples faith.

The usual right wing media sources worked very hard to crush anything that looked like it might shift society away from the status quo. (Just look at how WFH was and still is demonised)
A happy contented population is not good for buisiness!

I think people are the same post pandemic as they were before. 🤷‍♀️ It would take more than a few months of lockdowns and restrictions to mark a societal change.

Lockdown and the Covid years were terrible for a lot of people, not because of the threat of Covid itself but because they were kept away from family and friends, kids missing out on school and university, losing their jobs/businesses - the list is endless. I will never forgive the various governments across the world who’s cumulative travel restrictions meant I couldn’t see my parents or brother and sister for over two years, that my newborn was a toddler before they could meet her, and that my aunt died completely alone (not from Covid but cancer), no chance for any of us to say goodbye. Yes, deep down it probably has made me more selfish rather than less, seeing how it all played out, and it actually did make me rethink friendships with people who were pro lockdown. Not to mention the devastating effect on the economy which we’ll all be paying for for years through higher taxes. Humans are inherently selfish to a greater or lesser extent, it’s how we survive, but there’s nothing about the pandemic that would make me suddenly want to become more altruistic, the whole thing just made me quite angry in the end, and I was thankful when it was over and life returned to normal.

I feel that British people are quite self conscious people (generally), so mask wearing outside of a pamdemic is a bit uncomfortable.

It's a massive shame it didn't catch on, especially on public transport and in shops etc.

My surgery asks anyone with sniffles or a cold to wear a mask.

😬

And shovelling elderly people with covid form hospitals into care homes seeding it in them which I think it's the biggest scandal of the pandemic.

Re downing Street that's more complicated for me.
They were all immune to a degree because they all had it. Saying there were parties implies nightly raves when it was I believe one bday party sprung on Boris and one outdoor gathering with wine spread out.. Boris never wanted to shut us down and ironically shut us down too late which costs lives. He's a libertarian.

The point being he wasn't acting dictorially relishing locking us up whilst he went out gallavanting

I do think something snapped when the news about Downing Street parties broke. It really felt that we’d be stupid following the rules. So many people damaged their finances, children’s education, mental and physical health to help others, and then found out those in charge were effectively laughing at us for it.

It’s hardly surprising the response was sod that, not putting anyone else first again.

@JustASmallBear that's very noble to wear a mask.

Exactly, LlynTegid, and speaking of "Test and Trace" some of us remember all too well Hancock's facile remark about "putting the cherry on Dido's cake" when shovelling £37billion her way

We even remember loved ones dying alone while certain mass funerals were ignored, watching retail businesses on which owners had worked so hard go to the wall while entire groups of shops in some areas carried on unchecked, or seeing such as 40,000 at the UEFA game in early July 2021 when restrictions were supposedly still in place

And worst of all, it was so utterly predictable

We're human. One pandemic isn't going to stop us being that.

We are a massively altruistic, co-operative race, who are also massively individualistic, and so can be incredibly selfish. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have made us that way. A year or so of pandemic is barely a blip.

Whenever I've a cold and have to go grocery shopping I wear a mask so I don't give my cold to anyone else. I really suffer with viruses so don't want others to.

If I sneeze I call it a government sanctioned sneeze because I do it into my elbow not my hand, or freely into the air. LOL

Occasionally I might see someone wearing a mask, but it was one thing that I hoped might stick instead of us all wandering about giving colds, flu and covid to each other every year, particularly in winter when it really affects the country's productivity (you'd think the government would encourage it for that reason alone...).

I feel sad that it's not made people more aware of the need for fresh air and covering up when coughing or sneezing

I think may of us were prepared to change how we lived long term. There was a move to distance working which would help people with disabilities, and also give people more freedom about where they lived.

We followed strict rules, because we cared, only to find the government had been having parties, the health secretary had been shagging his mistress on cctv, MPs had been travelling from their homes to their second homes, and all sorts of other rules for us were plainly not rules for them.

So, ultimately, vast numbers of people concluded, fuck you, and have been living fuck you lives ever since.

Not very helpful, not very useful for a cohesive society, but the obvious outcome really.

That's not true though. Health care professionals put themselves at risk to save others, people volunteered to check on older people in their neighbourhoods and get shopping for them to protect them. Millions of people obeyed the rules to protect the most vulnerable. How is that not caring?

I actually think that's why the government parties and dodgy contracts have had such a response.

People did care. They cared and so many people worked hard to keep things going during it.

And they feel like they were used and conned. And feel a bit stupid for trusting the government to do the right thing and the reaction to that is "well fuck it, I'll look out for myself now".

That so many things didn't reopen post pandemic also meant the community feeling didn't rebuild in so any places.

I think that has had an impact. Started with Dominic Cummings 'testing his eyesight', and then when the Downing Street parties came to light. Then there was the dubious PPE purchasing, the expensive waste of a Test and Trace system, and no doubt many things.

With a vaguely competent government or indeed any other of the then possible Tory leaders, the impacts would have been much less.

My lifetime opposition to the death penalty is the only reason not to hang Boris Johnson.

There might have been lasting changes had the response to covid been honest and proportionate. It was not and helped bankrupt the country.

This is sad to hear. I wonder if there is an element that people feel a bit duped about lockdown. It's clear now that many of the measures were ineffective and OTT. I think maybe now suspect this is true of anyone that relies on an element of shielding to keep themselves safe. Such a shame!

I think people do feel duped.

I also think the fact that employers are so shit about illness also impacts it.

DD goes to a specialist school with lots of vulnerable children. One of the pupils died from Covid during the pandemic and one died relatively recently from flu. Yet the HT gets grief from the LA (and some parents) when she keeps staff who test positive for Covid, or have another obvious illness, away from the kids. Even though in their setting it is perfectly logical to do so!

Policy is that life goes on as normal, and people follow that, which totally minimises the impacts on people and makes you seem OTT if you do anything other than that.

You see it on here all the time if anyone mentions testing positive for Covid - the instant responses are "why did you test?"

I have a an ex friend who became an ex friend over knowingly exposing DD to Covid so as not to cancel a night out (I was babysitting her DD). Her attitude was "well it's never killed her so can't be that bad". She did look shame faced when I explained the exact details of her ICU stints, but I'd never trust her again.