Have we ever had a lockdown before covid?

[Owlyhedgehog]

Just that really....
Im 41 and have never heard of it before, just wondering if there ever was once before covid?

I don't think so.

Schools, prisons, hospitals etc can have lockdowns in an emergency where no one is allowed to enter or leave but I've not heard of a covid-type lockdown before.

There was a lockdown of sorts during the Black Death. There was a documentary on it during/just after lockdown to compare the two.

There was a small scale one in Birmingham I think, in the 70s, for smallpox. I read a fascinating article on it during lockdown. I try and find it.

Weren’t there periods during the war when people were advised to stay inside?

I think there were places closed after WW1 when 'Spanish flu' was rampant. The civilian population endured a range of restrictions during WW1 and WW2. And, of course, drastic 'plague' measures were taken in different regions long before that, coastal areas were subject to restrictions when invasion was a threat . But, different times ... with air travel, high geographical mobility and a novel virus, something more than public information was needed.

Not In our time, no. But I’m sure there was during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic?

there was no lockdown during the 2009 swine flu pandemic, but there may have been some minor, localised restrictions in some areas? Don’t remember any in my area though.

Nope and it wasn't in the pandemic plan which focused on isolation of the sick (voluntary) and hand washing. It's very interesting we responded to a flu virus like it was Ebola!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2020/nov/21/it-was-a-total-invasion-the-virus-that-came-back-from-the-dead

I've just skimmed again, not full lockdown but contact tracing and quarantine. Really interesting article

Eyam during the Black Death

Quarantine was the more common term

Ww1 flu outbreak
That one they analysed the economic impact by us state - those that did harder and faster lockdowns recovered better economically afterwards

Im 41 and have never heard of it before, just wondering if there ever was once before covid?

No, of course not.

Totally irrational and evil response, destroying the lives of millions of people.

AND never in our history has a Govt told grandparents that they couldn't cuddle their grandchildren, or WHO they could have in their homes.

It is NO BUSINESS of Govt to do that, they are supposed to work for us, not dictate what we can and can't do.

I can't believe people went along with it.

I know.

The world went fucking mad.

And I will add NEVER in our history has a Govt convinced people that HEALTHY PEOPLE could make other people sick.

Just deranged that people fell for this nonsense.

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Why-Is-Eyam-Significant/

Plague, Spanish flu

Oh for goodness sake the Eyam nonsense and Spanish flu.

Do better . . .

Not lockdown, but I reread loads of mid 20th century school stories over lockdown, and they forever missing school because of being in quarantine with mumps or measles or whatever.

Right so sick people were quarantined.

Never EVER in our history have we told HEALTHY PEOPLE to quarantine.

Absolutely fucking ridiculous and irrational.

You were GROOMED into believing you were vectors of disease when you were PERFECTLY HEALTHY.

Honestly, I can't believe people went along with such nonsense.

Keith at The Black Dog used to have a lock in on Saturday nights. That was back in the 1980’s if I recall correctly. Mostly around Wincanton area was affected.

Not lockdown as we experienced it, but there have been other instances of country wide government imposed restrictions on the population.

The blackout regulations, and the mass evacuation of school children from major cities to the countryside, during World War II for example.

Actually, thinking about it, people were always in quarantine in Enid Blyton's books. Sometimes they weren't actually ill but had been in contact with someone who was ill so had to quarantine just in case. In one of the St Clare's books, the twins had to be in quarantine for 2 weeks because they'd been in contact with someone who had mumps. So healthy people were told to quarantine.

Yes, exactly that, and they had to have health certificates (one of the Malory Towers girls always lost hers.) Smallpox was about the only inoculation available when Blyton (and most of the other school story writers) was writing - polio would have come in towards the end of her life, and possibly measles right at the end, but quarantine was pretty much the only way to avoid them spreading.

I have an early edition of Mrs Beeton, which talks about preparing a sick room - soaking sheets in antiseptic and hanging them round the sickness (like hospital curtains.)

The Victorians codified whi h diseases were notifiable, to help track potential epidemics - we still have notifiable diseases, though presumably the list of diseases has changed, and back when I was working in a medical library, so presumably still today, you got weekly stats on prevalence and precedence (total cases and new cases) of morbidity and mortality of diseases. Though there may be quite some gap between what epidemiologists think is the best way to manage an epidemic and what a government will do.

@Owlyhedgehog

Yes they have. For a variety of different situations globally and in emergency situations.

I don’t think a capital letter rant by @EmilyBrontesGhost is particularly helpful as it seems to infer that it was something done to ‘just us’ by ‘the government’. It was a global emergency where health systems couldn’t cope and most of humanity was in lockdown.

Lockdowns were horrific - but until someone answers the problem in a better way i.e : your health system is collapsing because there are not enough resources/manpower to cope with demand - then I think lockdowns will be used again as they were fairly recently in Uganda with an Ebola outbreak.

The swine flu one would have gone the same way had it got bigger. That it was smaller allowed strict individual or household quarantines (shall never forget the 2am ‘just checking you’re still at home’ phone calls).

I know during the Spanish flu, Australia closed state borders and towns often stopped others coming and going from their town. Refused to let passengers off trains and refused cars entry into their towns.

@EmilyBrontesGhost do you remember the scenes in Italy’s hospitals because I do. You are using the benefit of hindsight 🙄