If there was another pandemic in your lifetime...

[GoodChat]

Would you follow all the rules as stringently as you did the first time around?

I was thinking about this today. I was completely law abiding the first time round - followed every single rule and guideline they put in place.

I had a 9 month old at the start of lockdown so it was nice to spend more time with her as I'd just come off maternity leave and then got furloughed. We were basically living in a little bubble and it was lovely.

I was made redundant which was crap, but it also opened up new opportunities for me and now I'm in a completely new industry, with a far better work life balance and better pay for a more relaxed life.

But... I now have an 18 month old and an almost 4 year old. I can't imagine only leaving the house for an hour a day and not being able to take them to parks etc. I don't know how people managed it. I think those who did are incredible. My mental health was battered by the end and I still get wary of groups in enclosed spaces without masks - even though I'm not scared of catching anything.

I also think any kind of lockdown/furlough scheme etc would destroy the economy beyond repair if it were to happen in the next 50 years or so. I imagine more people would die from poverty than die from infection next time.

I don't think id cope with a pandemic being managed as it was last time, and I don't think I could trust the government with the complete mockery they made of us before.

I think I'd approach it the next time with a stiff British upper lip of "keep calm and carry on".

What do you think? What did you do before and what would you do again? Would you be as fearful as you were at the start of covid?

Initially I thought no but actually I probably would. I mean I wouldn’t for covid again as things stand. But if it was something worse or covid had mutated and was much more dangerous then yes I would. But I’d be annoyed if I thought politicians were partying, I’d be worried about the economy.

And I’d also only abide by stuff which makes sense……so if I was told only exercise once a day…..well if I wanted to exercise twice a day I would.

It will be a hell of a lot easier to find people willing to meet up with next time.

So many rules were unnecessary, especially winter 2020/21. Why was it illegal for children aged 5+ but still young enough to require supervion to meet with friends even outdoors where it was very safe, for months? Adults could meet a friend for exercise. Young children were exempted. Half the children whose parents were of appropriate occupation were allowed into school. So why was I at risk of being fined by my over-zealous police force for supervising an 8 year old playing with his friend in the park 100m away from their half-filled classroom.

We know now that shutting down public services and isolating people for month after month after month often has devestating consequences no shit sherlock

The scale of prolonged restrictions beyond calming the initial wave was grossly disproportionate and we'll continue to be paying a heavy price for it for years.

Globally, death rates are still above 5 year averages even taking into account skewing from pre-vaccine spikes, and are disproportionate to the effect of Covid on the population. Covid can kill. So does lockdown and societal shutdown.

I'll definitely follow the rules. Covid pandemic is just merely over, we don't know true extent of the damage that virus do yet. I've just read the article today about the babies who were born to the mothers who had covid during pregnancy, and the research has only just stated.

So, any illness I can avoid, I'll do my best to avoid it as much as possible.

In case the virus went up your arse

I'd have loved for Chris Whitty to have explained that in the daily briefings!

As some others have said, we have already seen two pandemics- Swine flu and Covid.

Covid was relatively unknown, and I think it was important to take precautions whilst we were understanding the death rate/hospitalisation rate etc.

It's also worth bearing in mind that a lot of people were ill with Covid before vaccination- not necessarily ill enough to need hospital, but too ill to work etc. You wouldn't expect people to be able to work with the flu, and for a lot of people it was similar, and they felt exhausted afterwards.

I do know a teacher who's career was ended as she lost her voice due to covid etc. And part of the reasons schools couldn't open is because a lot of the staff were ill- at least too ill to be in work. And it's similar to what happened in January 2021- plus the unions were concerned because there were teachers dying at that time. This is similar to what happened with Swine flu, although school closures were a bit more adhoc.

I wouldn't be prepared to teach in a classroom/busy with an unknown illness doing the round for lots of reasons- and I do have colleagues who are "vulnerable" (but young and will live a normal lifespan) and I would want to protect them.

This...

But then everyone would stay indoors are there lies the problem...

I’ll follow most of the rules. E.g during Covid I didn’t follow the rule about one walk per day. I often took DD out twice. We didn’t go to crowded places, we’ve got big green area near by. The thing is that she has additional needs and can’t cope with a long walk, 2 short ones suits her better. Sometimes I took her out once and then went out without her the second time because I badly needed it for my mental health. otherwise we were really cautious and followed the rules but not because they were rules but because we didn’t want to get infected.

Ah the sit down /stand up game. That was the height of stupidity. Safe sitting down, bad standing up. Was that uk wide. I thought it was only a sturgeon diktat.

Nope, we had that in England too!

I think there'd probably be less tolerance for the more obviously silly ones next time round, even if we did have a lockdown or at least substantial restrictions and most people were on board with that. It's easier to make people buy into the idea of lockdown being essential than the dafter shit like rule of 6, tiers, substantial meal etc.

Thanks for clearing that up, looking back some of it was so absurd in saying that even at the time a lot of it was wtf.

I don't disagree that so.e of the rules and guidelines made no sense , I live in Bolton and at one point we had the highest rates of infection in the UK ,we had extra extea rules ( which I can't remember now( but we were not supposed to.go.to neighbouring towns to pubs or restaurants,which made no.sense when people were travelling in and out of Bolton every day for work ect ,but personally I do.think the initial lockdown was needed to stop.NHS, from being overwhelmed,wether it ended to.go on so long is another matter
the second school.closure was a farce though with suddenly everyone and their dog being a key worker and far more kids in school ,than the first time ,ether,schools needed disclose the second time or they didnt.

Oh yeah, people were definitely ripping the piss. I live in an area where we got to enjoy the local restrictions for most of the second half of 2020 as well as the lockdowns, and it was laughable. I remember all kinds of jokes about seeing other people being safe if there was a cash machine in the vicinity, about the entire population of one area decamping to the neighbouring one etc. Felt pretty bad for all the business owners in the extra restriction areas as we all toodled off to the neighbouring counties and boroughs to go out eating and drinking there, though.

Would people seriously be popping out socialising if day H1N5 starts transmitting human to human? It has a 50% death rate, including amongst children. Of course you’ll try to stay in and keep your children entertained at home. People try and pretend we knew as much about covid 3 years ago as we do now. We didn’t and we didn’t understand what the exact risk level was. So yes, I’d stick to lockdown rules again.

I live in Northamptonshire and that was tier 2 just before Christmas and all the surrounding counties were tier 4 like Beds and MK, we were like an oasis and the people all piled into our county to go out and get their shopping so it was even more packed.

Our M&S piled all the goods on the ground floor to sell because upstairs was closed off because that was where Covid was so you weren't allowed on the second floor of any shops.

My gut reaction is, No, sod it, sod off, but I am still vaguely and very cautiously living a bit of shielded lifestyle due to a family member’s life limiting illness. I’ve always got a mask in my pocket, always checking out how many people are in a space I need to enter. I don’t go to one of my old clubs due to the numbers that attend and the size of the hall.

I don’t think I could take a PM standing in front of a lectern in Downing Street on national TV telling me to stay at home (when they are likely to be doing anything they like). I think many will feel the same way. I suspect it will come down to how severe an impact it will have on my family and their life.

never thought I would be one to revolt but there’s a strong possibility I would.

Having lived through the last few years, if another pandemic happened and it was identified that by far the most severely affected group was children, a tiny part of me would be tempted to claim I intended to strut around potentially spreading it with abandon, saying things like "I'm not at risk, why should I have to change anything, if you're not under 12 you should be getting on with life not living in fear, why can't children just stay at home while the rest of us crack on, have you never heard of childhood diseases, it's natural that children will die of diseases anyway, we can't let a few vulnerable people be the reason fit, healthy taxpaying adults throw away years of their lives" etc. etc. — obviously I wouldn't actually do or say these things, and would do what I could to avoid spreading disease to vulnerable children, but I wouldn't be able to forget the dehumanising and callous way that some people spoke about their resentment at being asked to change their behaviour to protect the elderly, the CEV and the overweight during covid-19.

Yes if it was a disfiguring disease.
Yes if it killed anything and everything it came into contact with.

Otherwise not a chance in hell.

To an extent I would. But not to the extent of only going out in the fresh air once a day or whatever it was. Look at the hoo ha over the two women that met for a walk somewhere with a coffee, people wanted them publicly flogged.
I’ll never forget the hysteria on here regarding someone who admitted sitting on a bench when out walking/possibly running, it was ridiculous.

Simply because I'm not a rule or law breaker. Something I've never had to regret before.

The rules in Wales were quite firm and living 50 miles away from my family meant that for a fair time just travelling to them was strictly prohibited.

If something with a 50% fatality rate turned up, people wouldn't be going out to keep the shelves stocked or the lights on. We'd be more worried about trying to keep our children fed than entertained, and if past pandemics of this level are anything to go by, some of us would be out looking for scapegoats to murder.

Probably not if it were a covid type again , a horrid, new , flesh eating virus … I’m not sure
I’m in my 60s , so didn’t miss out too badly , DD in her early 20s suffered badly from anxiety being stuck at home with with us , though she says she was lucky in that she had a family home she could come back too , we broke a few rules here and there
We live in Wales , so we did have some spectacular stupid extra rules

Even at the start we knew it was the old and sick who were most affected.

I loved lockdown and so did many others I've spoken to, in fact I don't know anyone who complained about it. If it happened again I would comply.