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...

At our son's Uni, they have an on-campus GP surgery. They actually put up khaki coloured army-styled field tents in the car park, the plan being to "see" patients in the car park tents! In reality, they were never used as the GP surgery was never open, and the few students granted a "face to face" appointment had to go to the town centre surgery (to be seen in a portacabin in that car park!). What a waste of time and money to set up a facility that was never used - just like some of the Nightingale hospitals.

Just remember folkes when you see Matt Hancock on I’m a celebrity. He feels he has nothing to be sorry for. It’s all just one big joke to him. He is now on a comedy show and we are all just supposed to forget the rules he helped make, the people he helped ostracise and the rules he set and then broke.
‘Whoopsie- oh we’ll never mind let’s just all love on whilst I provide light entertainment on prime time TV’ No. it’s not forgiven.

YY @PurpleWisteria1 I posted this on another thread.

Hancock the hypocrite who told everyone else not to kill Granny while shoving people with Covid into care homes. Hancock who told everyone they musnt see family and now we all know what he was doing at the time. This time two years ago we had just started the November lockdown after the ridiculous tiers. (this was Lockdown 2 despite the next one often being labelled as the second one) and the Government and media were just starting to ramp up the emotional blackmail about how we shouldnt see family at Christmas despite the November lockdown being sold to us as being done so we could see our families at Christmas. I really hope most of the memories of the Im a Celeb audience is as good as mine!!!!!

Ours was dire. Saucepans being banged fit to beat New Year's Eve in Ireland, and a factory at the edge of a neighbouring village setting off what sounded like an air-raid siren. Our place is set back and at the top of a hill, so no one would have likely noticed if we were standing on the steps clapping like performing seals but even so we had no intention of capitulating.

There were some neighbours over the road playing Vera Lynn at full blast for the VE commemoration. In the front garden rather than the back, of course, so as many people as possible could see.

The school WhatsApp group, which I muted, had some parents - one in particular backed up by just a couple of others - trying to police who met who for walking out of doors. They actually went so far as to report this to the school, who sent out a letter to all parents telling them off like naughty children.

I broke The Rules on one occasion when my alcoholic, traumatised brother bottomed out to the extent I feared we'd lose him. Lockdown was horrific for addicts and this happened a lot, with their support meetings no longer taking place. I took him to a rehab facility some 70 miles away. I don't care that it was breaking The Rules and would do the same again in a heartbeat. No loving sister would abandon a sibling who was in such a state; he needed me.

I stayed off the COVID boards for the duration, barring about 2-3 occasions when they came up as trending topics. Attitudes on there were sickening, and in some cases gave the distinct impression that people were so happy telling others what to do they didn't want it to end, and likely hadn't felt this important since their prefect days.

This pandemic really did bring out the very worst of what's now the reverse of community spirit. Informing on your neighbours has never been a good look and history isn't apt to judge that kind of behaviour kindly.

Thousands of children needing help with speech and language because of lockdowns.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-63373804

Yes. I believe it contributed to the break up of my marriage. We may have still separated at some point, but being under each other's feet constantly for months (we were shielding our daughter) definitely took a toll on our relationship and it never recovered

I was in the UK for the lockdowns and never saw mini marquee tents outside any of our local pharmacies. Where were they?

We never did the clapping but on NYE 2020 we went into Torquay, we live in south devon so not far. All the cruise liners that had been sheltering in the bay for months sounded their horns at midnight as a way of saying thank you for the support they had from the community, they must have communicated with each other as they didn't all do it at once it sort of rolled round the bay. Obviously it was dark and cold and the sound was haunting, very moving.

I picked GS up in Torquay last week and saw a liner and that night came back to me. I still get goosebumps thinking about it, it sounded a bit like the end of the world. It was sort of tragic/beautiful/moving/haunting I'm sure someone poetic could explain it.

We had them here in London, for people to queue up in out of the weather whilst waiting for vaccine appointments, still have them now outside some chemist for the latest rounds covid/flu jabs.
that sounds so beautiful ancientgran & very evocative of time & place.

We just waited outside in the rain. Tough nuts in Devon.

Yes it was beautiful and something I will always remember.

Thousands of children needing help with speech and language because of lockdowns.

Shocker.

I was told DD2 needed to be more resilient on here when she lost so much of her language fluency and clarity.

That is not surprising although still so sad re SLT

I broke The Rules on one occasion when my alcoholic, traumatised brother bottomed out to the extent I feared we'd lose him. Lockdown was horrific for addicts and this happened a lot, with their support meetings no longer taking place. I took him to a rehab facility some 70 miles away. I don't care that it was breaking The Rules and would do the same again in a heartbeat. No loving sister would abandon a sibling who was in such a state; he needed me

That wasn't breaking the rules, there was a care exemption from day one.

Hancock the hypocrite who told everyone else not to kill Granny while shoving people with Covid into care homes

With respect this just isn't true. "Bed blocking" is a big issue again now and it was in early 2020. People weren't going to be kept in hospital when they could be sent home. They lived in care homes, they weren't dumped in them deliberately to pass around covid (or any other hospital-acquired illnesses). In hindsight they should have been tested first, but they were only going home.

Anyway what happened next in care homes was far worse. More or less keeping elderly people prisoners and not allowing visits, even after vaccinations happened.

Agree. Elderly isolated to that extent was inhumane. I remember a man talking about his wife just changing beyond all recognition after a period of extended isolation. So sad

Sorry you haven't got the whole story, homes were put under pressure to accept new residents being discharged from hospital, they weren't all going home. At the home where I work the manager was pressured to take people even though we were at maximum numbers. It did actually happen at the home where an elderly relative lives, it was very early on so I'm not sure they were as aware at that stage but new resident arrived from hospital and he was positive and it did spread in the home. Fortunately no deaths.

It was a very strange time.

@GrannyRose15 Thanks for your message, which I just saw. He was also diagnosed with dyslexia last year so he's already at risk of disengaging. We have just found a lovely tutor for him once a week now, a very reliable retired teacher who really enjoys one-on-one time with kids and who immediately identified that he is struggling. There have also been friendship issues which we're working on.

He's swimming a few times a week with us and cooking with me in the kitchen every night which is chaotic but I think there is learning happening there. Some kind of club or afterschool activity is going to be the next step... along with getting him out of my bed at night. He is incredibly energetic and creative and needs constant attention but if he gets steered through his day he's great.

The entire paediatric SLT system is collapsing - friend works as a newly qualified band 5 in a small city near me... caseload of 150. I get nagged for taking on too many when I hit about 15 by my line manager (I work adults who are usually quite complex cases)! Can't get in to see a private SLT either for your child - they have waiting lists hitting around the 6 month level at a best case scenario - and they're bloody desperately trying to recruit to meet demand.

If my daughter's language was messed up by it all - with a mum who used to primary teach and was partway through a SLT degree at the time the pandemic hit - what the hell hope do some other families have of repairing the damage?! Terrifying!

C. 2015 I knew a newly qualified speech and language therapist who was very worried about finding her first graduate job because there were significantly more SLT graduates than jobs available that year. In the end she went and did something totally different as her first graduate job; I don't know if she ever went back to SLT.

The NHS often runs a very lean sort of operation, but that is an utter waste of 4 years NHS funded training.

@reigatecastle

In hindsight they should have been tested first

Err Yes! That's the point. It doesn't matter where they were being discharged to, i.e. their previous care home or a new/different care home. The fact was that no one gave a moment's thought to them spreading covid! Hospitals are hot-spots for spread of infection - they shouldn't be, but we know that they are. Care homes are full of vulnerable people! People managing the discharging should have bloody well applied a bit of common sense and made sure that the patients had been tested for covid before they were sent out to potentially infect vulnerable people! It's not rocket science. It really shouldn't need a diktat from central government to do the bleeding obvious surely?

It's just like the stupidity we experienced with my DH and his cancer. We had to go to a different hospital to pick up his chemo drugs. Oncologist told us that he'd need to have a covid test before they'd allow him onto the ward. I asked whether I'd need one too as I'd be going with him. Oncologist didn't know? Err what?? She phoned the ward to ask, only to be told, no I didn't! So, he got tested, negative, all fine. We went to the ward, he was asked if he'd been checked for covid (they didn't bother looking on their records) so he could have lied if he hadn't, but they never asked me. They checked his temperature but didn't check mine. We went together, checked in at reception desk, waited together in the waiting room, went into the consulting room together, etc. I can't fathom why they bothered testing him, when they didn't test me, despite us being together the whole time. It's just nonsense! What was more nonsense was why we had to go into an area full of vulnerable people anyway, just to pick up a bag of drugs. They could have reduced the risk by asking us to wait outside and bringing the bag to us, or even better they could have let us pick it all up at the hospital pharmacy (which we now do after months of asking them to do it that way).

What scares me (much more than covid) was the general populations willingness to adhere to rules that were clearly crazy, disproportionate and cruel from day 1.

That is terrifying as is the fact that so many people actually relished in keeping to the rules and dobbing their neighbours in.

That people willingly gave up their personal freedom of choice and liberties so easily is so depressing.

The personal cost of lockdown for my dd and I has been huge and we're still feeling the effects now.

There was a 300% increase in teens developing anorexia and other EDs as well, including my dd.

During lockdown there was a lot of emphasis on keeping healthy and people like Joe Wicks encouraging exercise. My dd started doing the Joe wicks sessions, moved onto other exercise videos and then started running. At the same time massively cut down on her food consumption and before I knew it she had full blown anorexia.

I honestly believe it was lockdown that created the opportunity for this to develop and had she continued to go to school and see her friends it wouldn't have happened.

I have spoken with loads of other parents in my support group where the exact same thing happened with their child during lockdown.

So many people on this thread sharing experiences, but during lock down there were hardly any dissenting voices on here and the sceptics were monstered. Interesting to know how many people changes their opinions?

mycatsgoldtooth What was different then was that there was no space to reflect - my kids were with me all the time, we had lost all our work, there was no vaccine, i couldn't get home to see my family. It was like being in a state of constant high alert. I didn't monster anyone online, but now that I look back it does feel like a kind of collective madness descended that we are only just making sense of. I'm not in the UK though and the monstering there does sound pretty unique and terrifying!