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COVID cringe memories (light hearted)

1000 replies

Floogal · 14/08/2023 13:52

Looking back at the pandemic, especially at its height in 2020, what made your toes curl?

  1. "Imagine". Enough said.
  2. The Marsh family.
  3. On the local news, footage was shown of the Thursday clap (may or June). There was a parade of bhangra drummers and smarmy bratty kids doing the irritating floss dance. Was that point the 'applause' was seen as having had it's day.

I know some people may mention the dancing nurses, I only saw tiny clips on the news. Even that made me cringe.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
19
Hoooodoyouthink · 15/08/2023 06:56

The birthday cards being taped off in Tesco's for being "non essential"

Those pointless plastic sheets people would wear over their faces instead of a mask.

The woman raging on our local Fb page who lived next to a nature reserve and would sit in her window counting the cars going into the car park for what she deemed unnecessary walks. She said they were spreading the covid on their car tyres.

I often wonder, if there was another outbreak of something, would the government try and implement similar measures, and if so how many people would go "fuck that, I'll take my chances".

CloudyMcCloud · 15/08/2023 07:05

Alighttouchonthetiller · 15/08/2023 06:48

Agreed.

It's OK to be sneery about things now, but at the time we really didn't know much about how Covid spread and many people really were getting very, very poorly and dying. It's easy to forget, or repress, how uncertain and unsettling it was.

It wasn’t unknown for very long, we knew how it spread and the risk early on.

AvengedQuince · 15/08/2023 07:10

CeeceeBloomingdale · 15/08/2023 06:53

Daily walks needed by those who would normally drive their car to the end of the street rather than walk a few paces

A walk isn't just about exercise, people need to get out for the mental wellbeing too, and there weren't many options other than a walk. Also, the more healthy choices the better, better a walk than staying at home sitting and drinking.

FannythePinkFlamingo · 15/08/2023 07:25

My DM worked in a supermarket. All workers over 70, or who were vulnerable were paid to stay at home before furlough became a thing. She went there one day to do her shopping and was banned from the store.

When I called up to find out why, I was told by the store manager that they were paying her to stay at home and at home she should stay. They told me I should shop for her instead. I may have got a bit angry at the ridiculousness of it. Firstly for assuming that I could/would shop for her, and secondly because she seemingly could go to any other shop, but not theirs. Madness.

PuzzledWatermelon · 15/08/2023 07:36

Zone2NorthLondon · 14/08/2023 22:59

Marching you say? Oh I sashayed like a catwalk queen flashing that lanyard Presumably you did not have to fit in grocery shopping around 14hr days
the piss take is folk like you thinking staff getting to shop with their bloody pass was a perk

i am sorry you felt aggrieved or hard done to
but you in no way are justified in your criticism
your unpaid caring responsibilities were to a defined & familiar group.
In nhs our duty of care was to anyone who presented unfamiliar,unknown and posing a risk to us

👏 Zone2NorthLondon thank you!

SamW98 · 15/08/2023 07:44

Never heard of the Marsh family so googled and still none the wiser - they completely passed me by. Thankfully by looks of it

User15387500 · 15/08/2023 07:45

Didn't NHS admin staff who some probably wfh, also get passes to shop.

User15387500 · 15/08/2023 07:46

I also have not heard of the Marsh family but I don't use TikTok or Facebook if they were on there

Badbadbunny · 15/08/2023 07:58

OH should have started chemo in March 2020 and it was cancelled on the morning it should have started. It didn't restart until July after he'd had to constantly chase them - it was always "we'll ring you back" but they never did!

Then when it restarted, he was told he'd need to make an appointment for a covid test at the hospital first - it had to be "official" and they wouldn't accept a home test! He asked whether that extended to me as I'd be going with him, but they didn't know and said they'd check and ring back, which they didn't! So again, he chased them and apparently, no I didn't need a covid test even thought I'd be going into the same room where lots of ECV people were being treated! Anyway I did my own test at home!

When we got to the hospital, there was a security guy on the door who wanted to see his appointment letter before they let us in, at the Chemo department, the door was locked and we had to ring the buzzer. Someone came and told us to wait, so we waited in a waiting area, where of course, 2 out of 3 chairs were taped off, so we couldn't sit together! Then when we were called in, they did a temperature test on OH, but said I didn't need one! Then we spent the rest of the day sat together in a small Chemo treatment room, crammed in like sardines with about a dozen other people and their partners, literally inches from each other!

Which clown sets these things up? Completely nonsensical.

Same at the follow up consultant appointments. The huge "first" waiting area at reception was "socially distanced", i.e. 2 out of 3 chairs taped off, but once you've checked in and they take you through to the waiting area outside the consulting rooms, you're packed like sardines, chairs touching each other, none taped off, and unlike the main reception/waiting area which was deserted, the area outside the consulting room was heaving with people - all seeing an oncologist so most would be ECV!

Complete madness. No wonder covid spread like wildfire within hospitals - they hadn't a clue!

GenieGenealogy · 15/08/2023 08:03

AFAIK the cheese in coffee thing is a misquote - the poster said that milk was not an essential because we all had water in the taps to drink and you could get your calcium from cheese.

Everyone with collective amnesia about how awful things were on MN and other forums - it's all there on the Covid board archived to read. Researchers in the future will be trawling through the threads about whether it's essential to buy bread, and making word clouds of the frequency of words like deluded, sadly, selfish, covidiot.

We got into geocaching in summer 2020 to give the walking a purpose, so many people took their geocaches away and the system refused to publish new caches in case you caught covid off a wee plastic tube hanging in the trees.

Clawdy · 15/08/2023 08:11

Friend's daughter had a miscarriage, and came to see her mum a few days later. Friend said to me "She really wanted a hug, but of course I couldn't do that." When I said "But how could you NOT give her a hug??" her reply was: "She'd been on a train, she could be carrying covid, and if she gave it to me and I died, she'd never forgive herself...."

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 15/08/2023 08:12

The people who thought our lockdown wasn’t severe enough and we could defeat covid completely by everybody getting supplies in and then nobody leaves their house for a fortnight for any purpose whatsoever. Even if the house burns down.

TheCrystalPalace · 15/08/2023 08:16

In the summer of 2020, when things began to open up a bit, dh and I went to a pub in the New Forest for lunch.
We sat outside (of course) and had to go on a lengthy one-way route to get to the loos.
Clearly, some lackey had been sent in to tape off half the hand basins to avoid us being too close and splashing each other. However, the message must have got misconstrued because, if you imagine six basins, numbered 1-6, instead of taping off nos 2,4 and 6, they had done 4,5 and 6, leaving us three right next to each other.

PinkCherryBlossoms · 15/08/2023 08:21

illiterato · 15/08/2023 03:35

And twinned with that “ we’re an island like NZ- why can’t we just do what they’re doing?”

I mean do these people not ever thing about really obvious things like how freight gets into each country/ population density etc?

Invariably not.

user1471538283 · 15/08/2023 08:42

The clapping. I did it once. My awful neighbors were out every week and every weekend had a very loud party with loads of people. They had a lovely lockdown playing music in the sun and in their rank, uncleaned hot tub. Whilst I worked 12 hour days.

Captain Tom and the idea that the NHS was a charity worried me.

The panic buying, the selfishness, the VE street parties. The once mooted idea that cats shouldn't go outside because they would bring COVID inside.

I love the idea of the cat thinking the clapping was for him!

PinkCherryBlossoms · 15/08/2023 08:45

Hoooodoyouthink · 15/08/2023 06:56

The birthday cards being taped off in Tesco's for being "non essential"

Those pointless plastic sheets people would wear over their faces instead of a mask.

The woman raging on our local Fb page who lived next to a nature reserve and would sit in her window counting the cars going into the car park for what she deemed unnecessary walks. She said they were spreading the covid on their car tyres.

I often wonder, if there was another outbreak of something, would the government try and implement similar measures, and if so how many people would go "fuck that, I'll take my chances".

That's the $34,000 question, isn't it?

Clearly it couldn't happen again in the near future. The 'sweet spot' where people are scared enough to voluntarily restrict their behaviour a lot but not so scared that essential workers refuse to play ball was never a massive space in the first place. But it's shrunk even further now. We have neither the levels of trust nor the willingness to pay that it would need. However things may be different in 20, 30, 40 years.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 15/08/2023 08:56

justasking111 · 15/08/2023 00:13

The çhecking on the train that your journey was essential put me in mind of those old war films when the German searched trains.

Did that actually happen in the UK? I didn't go on a train until about October 2020, so didn't experience train travel during lockdown. I did go to visit my mum in the summer but drove.

Loads of people said they couldn't see their elderly parents - they didn't seem to realise there was a care exemption right from day one (care homes excluded of course).

As for the once a day thing you could easily get round that. Run for exercise. Then walk to shop to get milk. Then walk dog. Then take out child one. Then take out child two. Then walk dog again. Then go out to get something else. I don't have a dog and didn't need to accompany my child, but I did do long walks "the long way round" to the shops.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 15/08/2023 08:58

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 15/08/2023 08:12

The people who thought our lockdown wasn’t severe enough and we could defeat covid completely by everybody getting supplies in and then nobody leaves their house for a fortnight for any purpose whatsoever. Even if the house burns down.

Yes and constantly referring to the lockdown in Spain and how it was so much better because it was ludicrously harsh,

Whatever you say about Boris, we did avoid some ridiculous rules. Sadly not all of them.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 15/08/2023 09:01

AuntieEsther · 15/08/2023 03:54

My office had a sign on the loos (the main door) saying you had to lock the main door after you so only one person could use the entire bank of loos at a time. Some people did it as well! I thought it was stupid and never did, and the looks on some people's faces when they walked in and found me washing my hands after expecting it to be empty was like I'd jumped on them and licked their face

Oh I remember that - there was a loo with four cubicles and only one person was meant to go in at a time. This must have been in the summer of 2021.

People were dutifully waiting outside and then I said "oh just go in, the windows are open, plenty of fresh air". Of course I got a woman turn around and sanctimoniously say "oh well we want to keep people safe don't we". She annoyed me so much that I then went in and ignored her cats bum face.

(others followed me in after that)

countrygirl99 · 15/08/2023 09:02

My dad (90s with a complex medical history) nearly died in the 1st lockdown because he his GP wouldn't see him face to face. Mum has alzheimer's and although it's early stage couldn't understand that she couldn't visit him in hospital and virtually stopped eating. After that I decided I was going round weekly come what may and heaven help anyone who tried to stop me. My parents were terrified I would be arrested as I live an hour away so I used to carry a few packs of DHs medication and a used insulin and told them if anyone stopped me I'd tell them I was bringing emergency medicine so they would relax. I always had to phone up when I got home to reassure them I wasn't in jail.

justasking111 · 15/08/2023 09:06

Re driving to the shops the police did randomly stop folks and ask where they were going. We had police patrols too. On one walk we passed sons house we stopped to say hello because he and the children were in the garden ten feet away. The patrol car cruised past we ignored it because we were on the pavement. On their second lap they slowed right down and stared. We still ignored it. BUT it felt horrible. This was batty Wales though.

Blabla81 · 15/08/2023 09:08

Everyone telling everyone to “stay safe”.
The fact I now have a very unhealthy obsession with making sure we have a “healthy” a number of toilet rolls next to each toilet.

Floopyfloop · 15/08/2023 09:11

QueenBitch666 · 15/08/2023 00:51

Sam Smith sat on his door step crying. Fking melt 🤡

This made me chuckle!

justasking111 · 15/08/2023 09:16

Batshit you tube video on FB on how to wash your shopping amongst other things.

SamW98 · 15/08/2023 09:32

justasking111 · 15/08/2023 09:06

Re driving to the shops the police did randomly stop folks and ask where they were going. We had police patrols too. On one walk we passed sons house we stopped to say hello because he and the children were in the garden ten feet away. The patrol car cruised past we ignored it because we were on the pavement. On their second lap they slowed right down and stared. We still ignored it. BUT it felt horrible. This was batty Wales though.

My friend was putting petrol on his car on way to work at 6am and a police car pulled up and asked him where he was going and why.
When he said he was working he was asked if he had evidence of his journey being essential

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