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?

We lost my MIL during the first lockdown. We were only allowed 20 people at the funeral and her sons weren’t allowed to carry her coffin or take a chord to bury her. I’m still incredibly bitter about it all.

Best recommendation I have ever seen on Covid!

Even now emails start with ‘I hope you are well’ as if they could have been struck with a deadly disease in the two weeks since the last email. I don’t think we did that before.

What I found kind of interesting (in a sort of morbid way) at the time was how some people in my life seemed to realise for the first time that they were mortal. I discussed this a lot with my best friend. We both lost people at a young age and never took life for granted, so it was surprising to me that some people seemed to be considering for the first time that something might kill them. Bizarrely for most of them covid was the least of their worries - they were much more likely to die of heart disease, cancer, a car accident and such because the covid message was so relentless they had convinced themselves it was this huge threat and the prospect of their death became real for the first time. It was interesting to see people go through that process because it is tough transition from having a background belief that you're immortal to realising actually anything can get you at any time. The first reaction is to want to live life to the full but in reality you have to make peace with it and sort of ignore it - you might die tomorrow but you have to pretend you're going to live for 50 more years because otherwise your life will be chaos. I think the collective noise of lots of people going through this process was part of the problem - it's a real headfuck to consider the reality of your own doom and doing it as a nation isn't a good idea.

Interestingly I think a lot of psychological effect of lockdowns has started to come to a head over the last four or five months or so. It's really noticeable - maybe there's enough distance or enough new stuff has happened to allow people some perspective. I think also a lot of people have gone through the process of 'oh fuck I'm going to die' to 'oh actually I'm still here' which ends in a weird sort of disappointment, then an acceptance and then a return to normality (whatever that might be). I'll be curious to see how things shake out over the next few years.

On the plus side I run a business and we've only ever worked from home when required - straight back to the office as soon as it was possible. Competitor companies bought into remote working and they're now going under one by one. So on the work side of things covid has been great for me. I'd rather not win in this way but hey ho.

This has given me a much needed chuckle, thanks so much!

Impacted directly by the restrictions or by covid? Because there are people who fall into the category you mention as a consequence of both things, and they may have quite different views to each other.

I still feel bitter about how my son’s GCSEs were impacted, sat in a room alone for hours doing online classes, then when it was time for the GCSEs no consideration was given regarding the fact his year group lost a big portion of their GCSE learning, and grade boundaries were increased. His hair fell out during this time and it still upsets me thinking about it.

I can't remember if this was real or a fever dream, but wasn't there a national advert of drone footage of two dog walkers in a remote area publicly chastising them for going on a long walk?

People on local fb groups posting pictures of people daring to sit on a park bench/ pics of shopping baskets full of "non essentials"/ asking if they should call 999 or 111 because their neighbour spoke to a pal at the door for 5 minutes.

Bunch of Fucking Weirdos.

I agree this thread is tasteless in a way, but I also think every single person was affected negatively in some way by covid and lockdowns and it's cathartic.

We're still affected by the breakdown of the social compact and harm to the economy and inflation so it's something we have to deal with somehow and humour can be a powerful tool.

I think I was quite clear who I was talking about, those bereaved or with long term health problems caused by having COVID. You seemed to have rephrased my point

Oh yes. I always just took a photo. Then someone on here sent me a link to a proper fake site that would look more real.

You weren't. It could've been either, as there are most certainly people whose deaths were caused by restrictions too. It's quite conceivable that, say, loved ones of those who died of alcohol related deaths, which hugely increased in 2020-1, would feel differently to loved ones of those who died of covid.

Thank you for now specifying, as that's important context to your point.

Yes. We were watching A House Through Time which is partially set in Nazi Germany and were saying the experience of lockdown has made us understand how some apparently normal people got swept up in the insanity of the Nazi regime.

I remember when we were asked to upload covid test results so pupils could attend school, I stopped doing it when I kept receiving letters from Imperial College asking whether I would give permission for my child to take part in Covid vaccine trials. No thanks.

There were several threads like that. People screaming 'YOU ARE THE PROBLEM' at others for daring to nip into another aisle for an 'unnecessary' purchase. It was vile.

Personally I supported lockdown and believe it was the correct course of action, but people allowed fear to drive them to some awful behaviour right at the beginning.

Absolutely this.

I remember there being an announcement on arriva trains wales that the WiFi was turned off because of Covid. As if browsing the internet not using mobile data made you more susceptible.

also, my lovely neighbour yelling / signing through a closed window to ask if we wanted anything from the supermarket and us holding up a large sign that said ‘butter please’

Total madness.

You should have stopped after the "I agree this thread is tasteless"

There is no cathartic humour to be found in trivial nonsense about masks and flour shortages 5 years on for those who, or whose loved ones, truly and horrifically suffered during to the pandemic.

It is disrespectful, insensitive and lacking in any awareness of the real impacts people are still living with today.

That's horrendous. I'm so sorry you had to endure that.

I'm fascinated by this post. Do you genuinely think you can tell other people what they're allowed to discuss? I don't mean that in a confrontational way, I find it interesting - you have a belief that you can tell others that what they can and can't talk about online because of your feelings?

In March 2020, my father was 79, and had just been (rush) released from hospital after spending five months there after developing rhabdomyolysis. He lost five stone, was bed ridden, suffered bed sores, and looked at death's door.
Alongside that, he has ongoing heart and lung conditions, so he was the dictionary definition of a CEV person.

His response when lockdown was announced was, "Well, people are soon going to get fed up of that!" He applauded DH and me for taking our nine year old DC3 (DC1 and 2 lived away from home) out on frequent day trips during the lovely Spring weather that year. We'd already had our Spring holiday cancelled; we weren't going to sit at home and waste the glorious weather! We picked up sandwiches and snacks from the shop, and headed out on some lovely days out to country parks, woodlands, rivers, beaches etc. And of course they weren't as crowded as they usually would be, as only ourselves and a few other naughty people were ignoring our glorious and oh so responsible First Minister Nicola's finger wagging. 😅

Why is it tasteless and insesitive to talk about what happened, with all the humour, absurdity & tragedy?
One of my best friens died. He ended up in the hospital after a bad bicycle accident. Nobody was allowed to visit him and after 2 weeks he died of covid, in the hospital, alone. From the morgue he was put in a coffin, driven to the cemetery and burried like a nobody, with his wife and few friends present. Less than 10. His sons weren't allowed to travel, they're still feeling guilty about not being there for their mother.

That doesn't make the flour shortage less funny, the race for toilet paper less absurd, or calling the police on the neigbours having guests less stupid

Yep I wish I could be as flippant about it.

But I spent the period working in an intensive care unit so didn’t get the time to sneer at people doing their best in a scary time.

If it helps, I spent a fair bit of time during the pandemic talking to women whose partners were using lockdown as a mechanism to abuse them, and I found the jokes a helpful coping tool.

But we're all different.

My little dog died at the vets. We had to hand her over to the vet in the car park not realising we would never see her again. Lockdown had stopped months before but we still had to go through this.