Did covid screw anyone else's life up?

[girlmeetsboy]

Interested to hear on this as I have been reading a thread where people loved the solidarity of it all. For me it was redundancy, house lost, business lost and savings...

And not into Covid either that topic can wither

Maybe classics

I have for a long time thought it is important to acknowledge the collective trauma we have been through. Everyone has their own individual Covid story but on the whole it is a large collective trauma and slightly different in every country too. I feel there is also a low level national depression going on which leads to less happiness and productivity. It needs to be mourned and acknowledged. I think it will in the arts, in particular.

Yes, I agree. And wrt the arts, I think that is possible. Unfortunately the arts are a bit fucked at the moment, what with cutbacks and various other issues. Times like this that show up how we really need that outlet, though.

Same here re more lockdowns

Lockdown is not a synonym for wearing a mask in certain indoor settings (such as in medical settings or on public transport).

If we want to break NHS, then unchecked respiratory viruses (not just covid) is the way to do it. Both by filling the hospitals and making things such as cancer treatment unsafe.

That is why countries like Germany are reintroducing mask mandates - because their government is willing to act to protect their population and their health services.

This should be moved, does chat still get deleted I don’t know

No, they made 'chat' a permanent topic yonks ago

No, they made 'chat' a permanent topic yonks ago

Oh well still a great thread. Thanks to all telling their heartfelt stories. I’m glad people can post without any voices trying to close it down.

Mask laws for public spaces have already failed to prevent Omicron ripping through the population in the UK, and there's no reason to suppose they would do any better if reimplemented. Which they aren't going to be.

Hello everyone, just want to assure those who are worried that this thread will auto delete after 90 days - it will not. Hope that sets your minds at rest.
Best wishes,
MNHQ

The mask hysteria was unbelievable.

I think people were scared out of their wits, they lost all logic and masks just garnered a sacred status as being 'something you can do' to relieve the fear. I don't think they made one iota of physical difference, it was all about relieving the fear

Yes, I agree. And wrt the arts, I think that is possible. Unfortunately the arts are a bit fucked at the moment, what with cutbacks and various other issues. Times like this that show up how we really need that outlet, though.

Yet at the time, it was all about how irrelevant the arts were. We had to save lives by being hermits and isolating from all other humans - arts were just an unnecessary part of life. Following 'The Science' has a lot to answer for - we are not just a collection of cells to be examined under a microscope, as this thread shows

Yes, like Lord of the Flies.

Agree with the need to mourn and acknowledge. I hope we do see more of that, and an acknowledgement that it can’t just about mourning those who died, important though of course that is.

I wonder if we’ll see more of that in the arts start to come through with the younger generations as they start looking back at what we put them through. There’s already a fair bit of generational inequality in this country anyway and I don’t see that getting better when those who were struggling children/teens/young adults through all this look back at lockdowns.

@a1poshpaws No as people still need food, places still need Dr's and nurses, still need post etc etc. It builds up in the air and poor ventilation is a big factor. Only FFP2 grade or above is shown to be effective against omicron strains as the viral load needed is much lower then it originally was. Masks have been worn in hospital since the early days and it was still highly circulating due to ventilation systems etc. Telling everyone to use expensive FFP2 wouldn't work either as people would just reuse them continously and then it becomes a visual thing rather then performing any function. Masks have to be worn correctly for them to be effective majority of people don't.

If it wasn't so good at being contagious and airborne then lockdowns may have been more effective but it's very good at slipping the net future lockdowns isn't going to stop that and society has to function.

I hope your morning gets better, a walk sometimes help ease me after 15mins or so (then I usually walk to somewhere with cake!)

Well, I think there are priorities! If you're trying to save people's lives then yes, 'arts' takes a back seat. And tbh isolating is quite often a useful part of making art, so lockdown didn't necessarily preclude that.

The thing is that artists are humans, too, and are also processing and dealing with their own issues. I'm not sure we can expect people to churn out any meaningful responses on demand at the drop of a hat.

There have been a few initiatives to try and produce collective art responses - the handprints was a beautiful project, I thought, but I expect there will be more to come.

In some ways, though, I think we all want to put a bit of distance between now and what happened. And polemical work tends not to really work.

These things have to come in their own time.

Anyway, don't wish to derail the thread.

DH steadily became more right wing and has shut himself off and alienated a lot of his family with his extreme views. He started listening to podcasts during lockdown and the subject matter has just become more and more divisive and extreme. I now cannot make a comment on any topic without him having an extreme opinion which he then uses to completely shut me down. It sounds small compared to some of the things I've read on this thread but has had a huge impact on our relationship. To be honest it started with Brexit but got worse as his friends dropped him and he retreated into himself and the internet. Now I'm the only one left for him to rant to.

One friend had to shut her business down temporarily and she basically exercised, changed her lifestyle and came out of lockdown 100% better than more Covid. She always tells me lockdown was great for her.

In my situation, I was working truly long hours as a teacher - lessons had to be power points with voice overs and added to a streaming service - just like Oak Academy. Core subjects picked up extra lessons of teaching and we were scrutinised to ensure lessons were good enough. All children had to have feedback relentlessly and my working day was 8.00am - 11.30pm. In the midst of all that my DC had to be educated too and I had to be present with her zoom lessons as she was too young to do it independently. I felt burned out and depressed.

DP still works from home and has lost social skills, he is starting to get used to going out again socially but it has taken time.

As a family unit we were lucky - we didn’t lose anyone and there doesn’t appear to any serious long term MH issues. Some of the stories on this thread make me feel desperately sorry for people; it’s been a really traumatic time and I do wonder if the hangover of lockdown was worth it.

I really didn’t want to use this thread to vent but I am angry about the posters who said I was a shit mum because my autistic kids struggled with lock down, that the speech delay my son has was my fault for not speaking to him enough. To the women who told me I shouldn’t have got pregnant during a pandemic if I didn’t want to give birth alone and the posters who said I was selfish for not getting the vaccine and I should be locked out of society, despite me having covid antibodies and the people who said vaccine injuries were a myth (despite my Mil and my brother being hospitalised after having the vaccine) and kids are resilient and will bounce back. All of it said with such viciousness. This thread shows the dire reality of the lock downs, especially on the young. I’m so sorry, so many people in here went through so much worse then my family. My heart breaking over some of these. Especially to the people that lost loved ones and couldn’t say goodbye. The cruelest thing we did, let people die alone. I doubt it saved one life and will have left role with trauma that will not be easily forgotten.

Maybe we all need a bit of a vent, Mycatsgoldtooth.

@ArabellaScott 💐

So poignant and tragically true, I am sorry for your hardships, and all on this board.

My faith in governance and human kind was lost during lockdown, it did not 'bring out the best' it showed what utter viterol people are capable of.

I got screamed at in the face for walking along a beach, and the police were called. I had received some tragic news an hour earlier, and needed the space. All over the local facebook group, about putting everyone at risk for his little walk.

It was a time of judgement, and I am sorry to say a real indicator of the haves and have nots, and society is broken.

It has certainly set me back years of progress in terms of mental health and social networks, so I could say yes but try to be optimistic for DC.

I had finally sought help for terrible PND and that help was withdrawn.

There was no opportunity to build a support network of other mums as playdates were illegal and then something people didn't do for a long time.

We lost so many friends and are very isolated now. It's hard enough building and maintaining friendships with a baby/ toddler but lockdown and subsequent restrictions killed many.

I think in social terms, anyone who was going through a transitional period during lockdown was majorly screwed over. I'm thinking new/ early parents and people like students starting university.

Well, I think there are priorities! If you're trying to save people's lives then yes, 'arts' takes a back seat.

The fundamental disagreement here is probably that almost all of these measures made no difference at all and didn't 'save lives' and worse, probably caused lives to be ruined

Oh!!! Sorry @EmmaH2022, I can't seem to private message - I hadn't previously made the connection with your old username but I think you shared this story under that one too. A couple of us were worried when you stopped posting as you'd been talking about suicide a lot, kept taking abuse from various posters and then suddenly disappeared. I still think about you every so often but had resigned myself to probably never finding out what happened, so if you are the same person I'm very glad to learn you're still here, although sorry thar you're still struggling.

Didn't Rishi come up with a poster showing a ballerina with a caption something like "she doesn't know it yet, but she's going to be a computer programmer" - basically telling people screwed by the covid restrictions (and lack of support) to retrain as something else!

This is what people can not get their heads around, there is no solid evidence that lockdowns, rule of 6, masks, social distancing had any positive impact on the spread of the virus.

However, this thread shows, that there are thousands of cases of negative, real life impact upon mental health and literal life or death.

Well, I think there are priorities! If you're trying to save people's lives then yes, 'arts' takes a back seat. And tbh isolating is quite often a useful part of making art, so lockdown didn't necessarily preclude that.

To you, they may have been just 'arts'.

To the artists, they are their livelihood.

A great many people working in the arts were PAYE Freelancers (so unable to claim either SEISS or furlough), or Limited Company Directors (so unable to claim either SEISS or furlough), or had gone self employed after April 2019 (so unable to claim either SEISS or furlough) or had more than one job in the years they looked at for calculating SEISS, even if they had gone full time self employed in the arts since then (e.g. in TY2018/19 deriving 51% of your income from a bar job and 49% of your income from being self employed in the arts, but your career was taking off and you went full time self employed in April 2019 - you'd be unable to claim either SEISS or furlough).

Artists retreats are a thing, yes. To avoid the distractions of everyday life, and focus. But it's really very hard to focus on creating art when you're in a state of terror because you've been banned from working, given no financial support, and are in great danger of being made homeless because you cannot pay your rent. That's not an artists retreat, that's enforced poverty.

You may view the theatre, art galleries, live events, craft fayres, weddings and suchlike as frivolities that we can do without. You would have a very different view if that was how you paid your rent and fed your kids.

@ArabellaScott

If you're trying to save people's lives then yes, 'arts' takes a back seat.

Yes, of course, but the point is more that those working in the "arts" were generally excluded from the covid support schemes. Many were "self employed" by virtue of the way the Arts works, i.e. short contracts, multiple jobs, etc., and were excluded when they fell through the cracks (chasms) in Rishi's support schemes.

Most of the theatres etc got support in the form of grants & loans but used them to pay their overheads, premises costs, permanent staff wages, etc., rather than paying their, mostly, freelancer performing and stage support workers, who weren't "employees" and didn't qualify for furlough.