It's been five years since the pandemic and I have questions

[BaggyTrousing]

• will Paddington ever be investigated for his role in the departure of our dear old queen?
• was the woman who wrote "and the people stayed home" ever taken to task for her contribution to the awfulness?
• what about that nurse who was roaring about bread in a supermarket car park? Hopefully shunned and avoided at least
• how do you all feel now about protecting the NHS?

They must be the posters whose husband was not 'high up in the NHS' and had secret inside knowledge of a new super virulent 'varient' which was just about to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting public.

When I was driving back from MIL's with two disabled kids in the back, screaming, getting out their car seats, attacking each other, climbing through to the front etc I stopped at a big services just got out my car and sobbed. A couple who were picking their son up from uni stopped, got us all out the car, played with my kids (which basically involved carrying them and stopping them running into the car park) and bought me a coffee.

They completely saved me that day, despite a few dirty looks from other people.

<3 really glad someone looked after you!

Wasn't in the pandemic, but I have also been the mum sobbing outside the car and had a complete stranger hug me, look after the smalls and sort everything out. Total guardian angel moment and I'm still grateful 6 years later.

DH always says that people went Covid-mad and we just have to draw a line under it all.
What does "draw a line" mean? Forget that we were afraid of the virus? That's probably OK, but forgive and forget what the government did? Nope. That must be remembered for ever as a lesson to us all, otherwise the whole fear factory could easily happen again; worse than before, now that the government have tested what does and doesn't work when it comes to frightening the public. Not necessarily about a pandemic, but something else. Remember who else said "draw a line"? "Pleeeeeeeeeeeease, I beg you to draw a line under the parties that didn't happen."

Oh the ‘pinging’ was ridiculous. I was told I had to test and isolate because my downstairs neighbour tested positive. Not sure how covid managed to get through a concrete floor and a layer of laminate or up the stairs. Hadn’t seen the guy in weeks.

And the shitty note I had left on my car because I drove five minutes to a local field to exercise my dog. The usual walks we went on were suddenly full of people ‘enjoying the local area’ and you couldn’t move for cyclists, walkers, kids on skateboards etc. and it was impossible to do a decent walk without tripping over someone.

It's healing to have a light hearted thread...

Ridiculous things I remember are a police lorry with a tannoy attached to the top driving through my local park blaring messages about not being allowed to sit down (!), and my flatmate being on a waiting list for eggs at the off license, the owner whatsapped people when it was their turn to buy

That has brought back horrible memories of Michael Gove!

Gove is just inherently upsetting.

During the great flour shortage of 2020 DH got his hands on a big sack of it. He messaged a bunch of friends asking if they wanted any and it was very popular. He organised to drop them off at the top of their drives.

So DH basically spent a day driving around our neighbourhood dropping off bags of white powder.

I was told on here that I live in a hovel as I don't have a spare room. Apparently the money I saved from commuting could be put towards a bigger home.

I also remember being told that if I truly loved DH I would wear a mask indoors.

I got told off by the police for paddling in the sea with my young child. I was told that the completely deserted beach was only for exercise. Swimming, walking or running. Paddling counted as fun not exercise. I apologised and hung my head in shame.

I remember being served weak grilled sandwiches to be allowed to drink in a pub and we fed to a passing stray dog (not in the UK).

Remember sitting in tents at pubs pretending we were outside, when we were really inside because we were in an enclosed structure, so it defeated the objective anyway.

Those plastic visors that waiting staff wore that merely diverted any expelled virus particles up - or more bizarrely down onto your drink and food.

The fact the virus clearly didn’t operate under 1.5 metres as you could sit and eat and drink, but if you stood up, masks were obligatory.

By the time the Christmas lockdown happened. We had decided enough was enough and we’d take our own risks. By then, so many public figures had been caught out flaunting the rules. It was like a cloak and dagger operation. Our adult DCs had their excuses ready if they were stopped and as soon as they arrived, their cars were smuggled into our garage. Since then, so many others have told me they did exactly the same thing.

I will never forget the mum on DD’s class chat who was raging because a neighbour took their kids out to the park for more than the 1 hour permitted to go out and exercise. Yep, she had noted the time they went out and their return. She wrote plaintively that she didn’t know how her neighbour slept at night knowing she was spreading the virus.

I replied she’ll sleep well as she must be tired after being out for so long with the kids. That mum never spoke to me again😭

Most batshit award goes to the local pharmacy that I went to one evening and couldn’t enter as I didn’t have a mask. This was some time after the pandemic when masks were no longer mandatory in most places. The woman behind the counter came to the door and told me the mask requirement wouldn’t be in place from the next morning when they opened at 8am. But that evening it was still required so no, I could not come in.

To be fair I actually enjoyed lockdown, having to distance from my relatives made me realize how toxic they were!

Lots here! And mouldy old teddies on their mailboxes.

So DH basically spent a day driving around our neighbourhood dropping off bags of white powder.

I also saw lots of this going on during lockdown, albeit perhaps a different type of white powder!

I lost a lot of friends over Covid because I couldn't respect them - one tried to argue that I was wrong for speaking to my sister in the street. Said sister had recently had a baby and was really struggling but in friend's mind it was better to just leave her to drown than to exchange a few words with her in the street. I couldn't look that friend in the face again - her viewpoint was so incredibly stupid.

But then I read posts like the one quoted I realise people's thinking was manipulated in a really insidious way. @the80sweregreat it is not true that the person you know lost their relative 'because they didn't follow the rules enough' - plenty of people followed the rules to the letter and still got very ill/died of covid. That person lost their relative because they were unlucky enough to be susceptible to a new virus that happened to be going around. If they had succumbed to pneumonia or flu then no one would have thought it was their fault. I genuinely think the 'stay safe' idea is one of the most subtly evil concepts of the last 100 years - this idea that a person in some sense caused their own death because they didn't do enough to 'stay safe' from a virus that is invisible, symptomless in a lot of cases, spreads like wildfire and it pretty harmless for most people. It is beyond illogical and yet people were robbed of their ability to think clearly about it through fear.

What pisses me off now is that so many of the same people who were all for lockdown, enforced rules to the letter etc are now complaining about the cost of living, taxes, effects on children etc. What on earth did they expect? Did they think the world could be shut down for months and people could be paid for not working, and there would be no consequences? Plenty of people warned of the fallout but they were all censored and silenced.

It makes me laugh when people say 'the scientists knew best' - the scientists knew what they knew, which is about transmission etc. They didn't consider the long term outcomes of what they proposed - a functioning and sensible government should do that. A government capable of looking at the big picture should be able to say that people dying by covid is bad, but people dying through isolation and lack of care is also bad so we must balance needs, rather than just fixating on one issue and playing up to hype. It's disappointing that so many governments seemed to lack any ability to approach the problem with any sort of clear and sensible plan - it was all OhMyGodCovid! which is the kind of reaction you'd expect from a poorly informed child, not a system tasked with looking after the welfare of an entire country.

My God those rules must be followed at all costs people were insane. They seemed to live on this site, so much so they got their own section, is that section even still here?

I had the most pissy blazing argument with my partner. God it was an epic row
He would come home every day bitching about those not wearing a mask, those visiting relatives and friends and having parties, entire families going shopping and whatever else was verboten back then, and I pointed out very nicely at first that he had been to visit his children and grandchildren just last week, inside the house, no mask and his mother and aunty pam and nephew whatever. And he almost said "its different for me" I kid you not. After that row (and we rarely have cross words) he never once mentioned another thing about it.

In fact his whole fucking family were at it. I went to a birthday party for one of them, allegedly all spaced 2m out etc, but in a smallish room. Each of them at one point or another bitched about the neighbours having a party or going shopping every day, not wearing masks etc. The irony just whooshed right over their heads.

I wiped down my shopping once and still feel stupid when I think about it. I was more concerned about mask fibres damaging my lungs than I was of catching Covid…I’ve never had Covid. I feel ashamed that I finally
caved in and had the covid jab…the one that has now been withdrawn.

Oh yes, the Christmas lockdown, we were tier 2, so was adult DS but we had to travel through tier 4 to fetch him, I had visions of him having to duck down in the car seat for the journey so he wasn't seen

I just went and scrolled through chocolates and magazine thread from that time. What a time!

Yay! another tasteless insensitive thread focusing on meaningless drivel and trivialising what was a traumatic life changing time for many people, especially those who lost close family or friends in horrific circumstances or have suffered long term physical or mental health implications.

Not that I agreed with the rules one bit, but there were a lot of those that seemed to think you only caught Covid off strangers. If you were related to, or friends with someone, there was no risk.

I wonder sometimes how those impacted directly, losing family or friends or being made very unwell and not recovering feel about the restrictions.