I'm finding it quite surreal how on the ball we were at reading the patterns of what was going on and how rapidly it's being exposed. It would be a relief if it wasn't for the vitriol we faced for holding our opinions and the time. I'm glad that we were right, but I can't even articulate the double injustice of having to exist through unnecessary measures, their negative consequences, and the toll of having to supress our thoughts about it or face abuse/ alienation for it.
Heck we even got to the stage of reading the cycles of stories and predicting how they'd preceed new restrictions/ vaccine drives. Want to push people to take up the booster? Publish stories about "healthy" morbidly obese teenagers that died a month earlier to remind people that no age group is safe. It's weird seeing it confirmed that we were absolutely correct about the game that was being played in the media and with our lives.
I spent so long simmering in anger or numb, and that's not healthy. It took so much life and energy from me and I don't want it to consume more of me, but they can't just walk away like it never happened either.
What I still fail to wrap my head around is that it's not just Hancock and his cronies throwing their weight around, it was a global political contaminent with few governments resisting. I went to another Eurpoean country in 2021... I thought the UK had been bad, but it was like going back 12m to summer 2020.
And in the meantime I never saw MiL again because of the travel/ health/ care restrictions then the fragility of her health. The DCs were 9 & 11 when they went to her funeral... they were 6 & 8 the last time they saw her in late 2019 before her rapid decline facilitated by isolation and neglected healthcare (not NHS).
I don't know how influential restrictions were towards the depression and suicide of my younger cousin last year.