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?

Worst, Matt fucking Hancock writing me endless letters about how I must stay away from everyone, as I'm so vulnerable. Ok, I know it wasn't to me personally, but god, what a prick he is.

Best, getting pissed on wine in the garden, attempting to colour my OHs hair. It came out quite good!!

The question is, was that figure of "18 months" (and yes, I know it turned out to be less than that: not much less, though) simply plucked out of the air, made up on the spot? Even some of the "scientists" have admitted that some figures were simply made up on the spot, such as "two metres". And if it is true that CW "knew" it would be 18 months, it's "interesting" (and not in a good way) that they chose to drag it out by the boiling frog method "just a bit longer" ad nauseam, rather than state it explicitly, perhaps prescribed by the highly paid "behavioural scientists". This is why I will never believe, respect or trust any government again, probably in my whole life: the constant lies and manipulation, and thinking that we don't notice.

I work for the nhs. It was a shambles. I work in a non clinical role. My department was massively effected as we still needed to treat patients and keep them safe. We didn't have enough staff for clinical or non clinical duties. Lots went off sick as clinical vulnerable or with stress. We weren't able to work from home. Ds was able to go to school but wraparound care closed so I did some longer days and some shorter days depending on dh shifts. He was classified as a keyworker too. He is unable to work from home. It was awful 😖

I had covid in the first wave and was seriously ill, it took me a year to recover. Was going to go in to hospital but Dr said if family could stay awake for 48 hours and watch me and if my lips started to go blue it would be an ambulance. She said how awful hospitals were and said she was only sending as last resort. I felt very fearful of catching again, I’m eligible for ongoing vaccines for other medical reasons. I did catch it again a year ago but it was fine. I have just had a hideous virus, really unwell for 5 weeks, not covid but they did contemplate hospital for me.

I am recovered now but had a very sort of odd melt down yesterday and feel mentally really shaky. I was trying to work out and realised being that ill had reminded me of when I was so ill with covid. I also got some food stuck in my throat just a little and think it’s scratched the side as still hurts though far less than yesterday. Everything just seems to be getting to me last couple of days.

My niece was in her second year of training to be a nurse and my sisters BF is a hospital health care assistant. They both worked throughout. My sister was crying on the phone. He doesn’t drive so was walking miles to work because he didn’t want to get on public transport as he was so high risk as working on a ward and didn’t want to spread it. I mean he is low paid, it was taking him a couple of hours to walk each way.

Worst, very unwell and ongoing issues with really bad fatigue for months and worrying about relatives in health care.

Best DH worked at home for a year

Amongst friends, my friend in her thirties died from covid, she was a secondary school teacher and was still working in her school. My friend had a baby and was so worried about him developmentally, he is fine now but it did affect him. It went some way in destroying my another friends marriage.

Worst: people on here saying things like "we love lockdown, we don't have to go to that horrible school, DH is working from home and I'm a SAHM/on furlough so we bake bread and dance around to Joe Wicks.

Best: 3/3/21. First jab and the sense it was the end of the beginning.

Worst memory - being made to feel like an outcast because I wouldn't allow my children to receive experimental gene therapy (vaccine). I think people have forgotten how quick they were to turn on others.

Suicide of dds friends was devastating
Self harm and psychological problems that happened afterwards
The destruction of their well being and the anger towards the schools that knew the damage they were creating and continued anyway.

Happy memories: honestly none beyond dh working from home.

Worst was definitely losing a family member and not being able to attend their funeral (rule of 6) or even see other relatives due to living too far away. That really affected me and to be honest I don't think I'm over it as I never got any closure. I hate that they died at a time when the world was frightening and that I hadn't been able to see them in their final months. I lost an opportunity that I can never get back.

The best sort of pales into insignificance compared to all the dreadful bits. The weather was nice I suppose!

The pure anger I feel that still NO ONE has taken responsibility for this manufactured global disaster.

Genuine question. - how on earth did she get involved in gangs during lockdown? Over Zoom..?

Sorry if that seems flippant it’s really not - I’m intrigued.

Knowing from the start that we were choosing to confine people to the home with their abusers was pretty hard. I have a close friend who works in the VAWG sector, so this was something I was aware of in March 2020. People tend to comfort themselves by claiming it's all hindsight when the horrific impact on DV is brought up, but it's not.

Why the inverted comma around “scientists”?

They ARE scientists. What they are not is crystal ball gazers. That’s kind of how science works - you take the info you have at the time and you make a reasonable hypothesis. And as time goes on you continue to test that hypothesis until new information comes to light. It was a novel virus FFS - EVERYONE was working blind, which is why it was so scary at the start. Now we know more we can mostly relax about covid but for all we knew it could kill every last one of us, until we know it didn’t.

And we still admit we dont know EVERYThING About long covid. Or, Indeed vaccines. But the numbers on a population level certainly show we haven’t had the death spikes since they have been available. On a personal level that doesn’t mean some vaccinated people aren’t still dying of covid. And it doesn’t mean that some people aren’t negatively affected by vaccines. But on a worldwide level it shows that vaccinated is overwhelmingly safer than not.

That’s the thing about science - you don’t ever get a scientist suggesting that they have the ultimate answer (even though that’s what Joe Public expects). They have the most accurate answer based on latest evidence. Latest evidence is the key phrase.

I agree with blaming the government for not listening to the advice at times, or too late, or ignoring it, but don’t blame science for doing its job and doing the learning on our wider behalf.

Best - seeing my best friend again once restrictions lifted. Start of first lockdown was also nice weather and had a ‘novelty’ feeling to it.
Worst- DS (then 16) having a mental health crisis in Jan 21 - none of us slept much for a few weeks.

The issue with the 18 months thing isn't the scientists, it's the communication. The government sought public consent as a rolling process. Nobody ever had the opportunity to agree or disagree to a lockdown of months, and while some people were able to realise this was what was going to happen, it wasn't framed that way. And so obviously this has had repercussions.

Well said

As i recall they were clear that there would be a tightening and easing of restrictions depending on how the virus was acting
Some people might have misunderstood that but they were clear it wasnt going to be over in a matter of wweeks.im.not saying it was perfect ,far from it .

Whose fault do you think it was ?

Good question . How is it we still don’t know? It was a manufactured pathogen - not a natural phenomenon like the Spanish flu.

What measures are being considered to stop the weaponisation of such viruses? Of further accidents?

I am less worried about the last pandemic, and more concerned about the next one tbh.

@Aishah231 totally agree

My worst - being in the Covid ward when I was 5 months pregnant with Covid and complications. The uncertainty of what’s going to happen to me and baby. Luckily we are both ok but my health has never been the same since.

best - the move towards WFH, makes life as a working mum much easier

The loss of my aunt and FIL to Covid in care homes where they were, in our eyes, given a death sentence by Scottish Government. The devastating affect on my DM who became anorexic because she wouldn’t let us in so lied about not needing shopping. DP and BIL lost their jobs. All in all nothing good about it in our family- just sheer devastation, some of which we’re still living with. Although I suppose one good thing could be that if this ever happens again we won’t be playing by anyone’s rules but our own.

Best:
Less traffic on the roads and lots of long, happy family walks in the countryside. I definitely got more than my fair quota of lovely countryside walks with my teenage children that I will always cherish.

Worst:
How lots of people seemed to lose the plot over trying to force others to take a vaccine they didn't want/need or behave in a certain way - eg newspapers jumping on the rare occasion when someone 'young, fit and healthy' died from Covid, unvaccinated children being forced to sit outside the classroom (Austria), unvaccinated people being forced from their jobs, being told you should stay indoors and shield even if your outdoors is people free.

It opened my eyes to how quickly society can fracture and turn on itself with the right manipulation.

@scalt
This is why I will never believe, respect or trust any government again, probably in my whole life: the constant lies and manipulation, and thinking that we don't notice.

I also lost a lot of respect for politicians during Covid - not just our own either. The Covid regulations competition between Holyrood and Westminster, the Labour party wanting longer lockdowns, the constant scaremongering.

I accept that Covid was a real global threat and behaved responsibly throughout but I really didn't appreciate the bullying, finger-pointing culture that developed.

For the first time in my life I started the think these people who go and live in a shack in the woods maybe had a point 😂

Who is it you're thinking of here, Johnson? I'm not sure if you're referencing a speech I missed.