Now the COVID pandemic is gone, What are your worst, or best, memories?

[Alondra]

I was talking to my eldest son today and we somehow ended up talking about the worst moments we lived trough Covid. For me, the worst was living in Australia with DH and our two youngest, while he was in Madrid. I was beside myself with worry knowing we couldn't do anything. Zoom helped.....but only for a short while. I've never had as many sleepless nights as I had then.

For my eldest, being in a complete lockdown in a 60 square metre apartment without us or knowing what the future would be, was his worst. He did mention as a positive that he now knows most of his neighbours and is close friends with several, something it wouldn't have happened before lockdowns. :)

From the distance now, what are the things you won't forget, good or bad?

I'm.not talking about a particular speech I just remember it, being clear that the restrictions would tighten and ease as required ,and that they expected several waves

We were aware of this too, as were all our friends and family. We didn't watch the news daily, but understood from the start that restrictions would be tightened and loosened as needed.

Ok. Who do you remember was making it clear? I don't recall Johnson or anyone in his government ever seeking lockdown consent on anything other than a rolling basis.

Every early news article about it, I was never given the impression that it would be anything other than several waves with varying restrictions.

Best: having all day at home in the beautiful sunny weather (v lucky we have a big garden in a quiet area). Time with kids during first lockdown. Teaching DS to ride his bike. Playing games. The general camaraderie & community spirit. Also later when there was that 10pm curfew because you could go out with mates and still have time to come home and watch TV/ wind down!

Worst: DD ended up with significant MH issues which Covid definitely acted as a catalyst for. And that's with us indefinitely. Obviously can't say for certain things wouldn't have happened anyway, but I feel it was a huge factor.

Worst stupid things not as bad as the above: washing shopping deliveries / plastic packaging for fear of contamination (didn't do that for long) all the hand sanitizing, mask wearing - the general fear of getting it, the fear of which vaccine I'd be offered. The concern you'd be reported for the slightest infringement of the rules like standing too close to someone or going for a walk longer than one hour. The constant background noise of fear and uncertainty. I absolutely don't miss that. There was a constant low level of stress to doing anything.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about news articles. I'm talking about the way in which the government framed the issue. I don't disagree that it was possible to clock what was going to happen, I did too, but that's a different point to whether the government asked for consent for months long restrictions as opposed to on a rolling basis.

Losing my Grandad, him dying alone in hospital and having a funeral with 10 people whereas our funerals are usually a huge celebration of life with huge numbers in attendance. There was no ‘nine night’ either (extended wake). British Caribbean background so funerals are a big event.

Best thing was the peace and quiet being at home with my OH. Lockdown came shortly after losing my mother so was a blessing in disguise to be at home and grieve away from people and just work quietly from home.

The weather was glorious if I remember correctly, our daily walks got us walking more than ever before. I also started working on my fitness and weight loss journey again with home workouts. It gave me the time and energy to focus on good eating, drinking lots of water and working out 5-6 times a week without the usual feeling exhausted after long days at work.

Worst was that we were on the middle of some renovation in 2 rooms in the house, so all of the furniture from those was temporarily in other rooms/ hallway. Everything felt a mess, and suddenly we were living in a mess 24/7. Also my DH felt that the most important thing was for children to be ‘ happy ‘ so should have unlimited screen. I felt that they should at least do their online school stuff first. This caused enormous friction between us. He wouldn’t deal with the school stuff so the homeschool burden fell on me, alongside my awful job.

Best was that I never needed to see my toxic work colleagues again. I was able too find a new job and transfer during covid, so I literally never saw 2 of them ever again . If you told me on the day before lockdown that I would never have to see them ever again, I would have done a dance of delight. Covid meant that I could regroup and build up my confidence to apply for new roles. Otherwise I would have probably had a break down.

Best: disappearance of the homicidal pavement cyclists

Worst: Christmas cancelled at the last minute.
Effect on my DM’s MH.

YES! Im in North Essex but really felt for those in Leicester.......who came out of lockdown for just three weeks,

Oh yes, the regional restrictions. Total waste of time, as anyone who had to put up with them could've told the government after about 5 minutes. As if everyone isn't just going to go to the next area over and do things there instead.

Also, timely article in the Guardian today.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/02/i-only-had-five-pounds-38-million-people-denied-furlough-start-of-covid-

I'll tell you why I wrote "scientists" in inverted commas. The ones who appeared in interviews in 2020 and 2021 were the ones who would say what the government wanted them to say, who would stick to the official narrative, and were probably hand-picked. I am in no doubt that the government and their spin doctors chose very carefully which scientists they would allow to speak.

There were many scientists and doctors arguing for lockdowns, for restrictions, and for mandatory vaccinations. There were also a good many arguing against these things as well. In a proper balanced debate, we would have heard from them as well. But we hardly heard a peep from them at all, especially in 2020 and 2021. Why not? Because they were aggressively silenced, cancelled, blackmailed, threatened with prison, or were too terrified to speak out, once they had seen the above happening to their colleagues. It's only now that some of these scientists are speaking out, and I doubt if the BBC is airing any of their views yet, and may never do so: the official narrative is still very much "lockdown was good, essential, did no real harm, the government got the big calls right".

The only "scientists" who existed as far as the government was concerned were the ones who would present the "correct" argument, the ones who would toe the line, the ones who would recite the correct script. Anyone else was a blasphemer, and duly cancelled. Those who were interviewed on the BBC were clearly hand-picked, briefed in advance, and I won't be surprised if it emerges that they were bribed. On some BBC interviews, you could watch the presenter actively interrupting somebody who was in danger of deviating from the script, who might have so much as hinted at a negative of lockdown. The government says "because the scientists said so". They mean the scientists whom they chose, because they would say the right thing.

I remember even noticing this kind of thing on a BBC Panorama programme in the mid-90s, demonising working parents, and I was only a teenager then. All the arguments and interviews presented working parents as "bad". It was not a balanced debate at all. And it looks as if the highly expensive Covid Inquiry will not be either. I'll eat my hat if the conclusion is not as follows: "we should have locked down harder, faster, longer, and we will next time".

@scalt would you agree too that in case of war, we should have all the different opinions on TV to discuss what’s the best thing to do let’s say on to handle possible food shortages so that the population can decide (with very little knowledge) what’s the best thing to do?
Or would you expect the government to take decisions?

You can argue that the government decisions were wrong (knowing hindsight is great). But I dint think we can argue that the government taking decisions and imposing them was wrong. That’s their role! Role that all the governments in the world took (with different rules depending in the countries).

When there is less pressure (like your example on parenting), then yes. Please introduce discussion etc…
Not when more than 200.000 people died and millions have been disabled (2 millions people had LC last year)

@MarionMarion I would if the government could be trusted with such decisions. It's not so much the government taking the decision, but the way they deliberately fiddled the figures and actively cancelled any arguments that lockdown was anything but essential. They said "we must lock down, end of discussion", just as Tony Blair said "we must invade Iraq". If they had instead said "we have heard both sides, we know that lockdowns will cause massive damage, and we may be wrong about doing this, but we think it is the right thing to do", I would have much more respect for the decision to lock down. But because they so obviously made sure that only one side of the argument was aired, and gained public "consent" by terrifying the public out of their wits, and made sure that lockdowns were not debated in Parliament (at first), I think this is extremely dangerous for any government to do. I am far more angry about this, than about lockdown itself.

And if you cite war as an example, many people trusted that Tony Blair knew what he was doing when he invaded Iraq, and took him at his word with his assured existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction, because the Prime Minister always Tells The Truth. I can just imagine him saying privately "I want my war, Humphrey Appleby, find me a reason for war."

@scalt whilst I partly agree re lockdown - I don't agree re Iraq- a prime minister can only go on intelligence from his intelligence sources and parliament approved it-

I miss the solitude at home .i don't miss the judgement or mass hysteria from people if you didn't wear a mask...health reasons.

Worst for me was the hoarding - getting enough loo paper was tricky. I was in a small country town in Queensland, not many shops, and didn't drive (no public transport). I remember my driving instructor telling me he knew a shop that had stock, so that day's driving lesson involved going there to buy it!

I didn't have any real issues with lockdown. My mother and sister and I lived pretty much in isolation anyway! Mum and I moved back to Victoria in the middle of it, so we had to deal with plane travel for us and our cats with the added complications, but that was all. Getting where I am now and driving on near-empty roads was bliss, and made learning a new place, as a new driver, ever so much easier. I had the "I miss driving during lockdown" conversation with a friend yesterday. 😄

No one I know died from Covid, but some died from suicide and huge relapses in anorexia. I was nearly one such statistic. My MH team were telling me not to isolate myself... to go out and see friends. Then in the blink of an eye, it was illegal to do that.
I saw huge fallings out in decade's long friendships over masks, vaccines, different interpretations of the rules etc. People falling over themselves on SM to grass up people for going out "for no good reason", or buying what they considered non-essentials in shops.
I remember thinking how crazy it was that when I was eventually allowed to see my own mum in the park, we were not allowed to hug.

I have no good memories. Literally, the only good that came from it for me was the £20 per week UC uplift.

Nothing. 😢