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?

'I find that upsetting' is a fair comment.

That's not what the posters said. The aim of one of them was to shut the thread down. It didn't work, because people are over that sort of nonsense.

• poor Paddington!
• just googled that poem for the first time. I’m amazed it has become well known I suppose it’s a taste thing…
• I remember the nurse and the supermarket issue …no idea how this could be avoided, most were still working immediately before the pandemic and affected in this way. Perhaps if there’s a next time 🤯 shops should be quicker to order more?
• no change to my thoughts on protecting the nhs and everyone else in fact. I wouldn’t do anything differently if there ever was a next time.

If being “over that sort of nonsense” means people have come to the realisation that their words have consequences and they don’t have a right to be agreed with at all times then that is a very positive thing.

To be fair, there was a lot of glossing over the truth, manipulation of facts, convenient omission of details etc that went on so I can see why people were bamboozled. If everyone had been honest from the start and said 'we don't know what else to do besides lockdown, which will likely cause huge problems,' then I'd have a lot more respect for them.

There was out and out lying around vaccines though, which is a different thing.

We ignored the rule about not going home with the bereaved person after the funeral too. Many people did as it was just too cruel.

We were allowed 30 people at my Dad's funeral (later in the lockdowns I suppose) and we absolutely DID go back to my mother's house with her for a gathering afterwards. I stayed for another week too. She was 85, of limited mobility and had just said goodbye to her husband of 63 years! I would have absolutely refused to be so cold hearted as to just dump her at home, jump into the car and leave, lockdown or not. Covid or not. I simply couldn't do it and would never have forgiven myself if I had obeyed that stupid COVID law.

By the time we held my Dad's funeral we found people had invented ways of getting around some of the most ridiculous of the rules. We were live-streaming it and had given out the link to all who were unable to attend and who we hadn't been able to fit into the crematorium chapel. A lot of people did turn up with iPads and tablets and spread themselves around the grounds to watch it on those. They all came to see us afterwards in the garden of remembrance. It was lovely. Staff turned a blind eye.

No, I'm talking about judgemental attempts to stop discussion.

But you know that.

@Lorrymum so sorry you had to experience this. I also had to do the same with our beloved cat but knew they weren’t going to bring her back out.

Even now I can’t park in that same spot in the carpark and it makes me feel very emotional when I think about that last morning we had with her.

This interview with an NHS stands out in my mind:

If it makes anyone feel better, in February 2021, while we were still under restrictions, I slipped and fell on ice, injuring my ankle in what I thought was a bad and extremely painful sprain.

I couldn't face the thought of having to spend hours in casualty wearing a mask. I had previously broken the same ankle years ago, and have a plate and pins in it. I still had crutches, a splint to keep it straight, and means to strap it, so instead of going to hospital, I was helped home and rested, with a telephone prescription of Naproxen from my GP.

It took three months to feel even vaguely normal, and even then, I found I couldn't walk without a limp. Today, I have permanent nerve damage in the area, need a stick to walk with, and even with that, I can't walk much further than halfway down the street without getting tired and having to stop and rest. I've stumbled and fallen on several occasions, one time falling flat on my face on the pavement - tripping over a youth who had his feet sticking out into my path 🤬 - and breaking my front teeth.

Life is so much more difficult for me now, and it's not likely to get any better.
Would going to hospital and being checked have made any difference? I honestly don't know. Shit happens and I just have to deal with it. 🤷‍♀️ I can - and do - still roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all.

I am not so sure. I think a significant number would be batshit again.

I remember being sent home from work about a week before the March lockdown hit, I'm T2 diabetic and was in the clinically vulnerable category. I fully expected to be back in the office after a couple of weeks, but now WFH 80% of the time (wasn't really done pre-covid)

DD carried on going to school as DH and I are key workers, but I felt so guilty about it when the class WhatsApp group was going bananas about the children who were allowed to go in.

DH recently found the letter we had to keep in our car just in case we were stopped by the police giving us permission to be driving.

Probably not every single person.
Dh and I weren’t personally affected.

Our eldest son who suffers from anxiety was able to do online exams for his degree and all lectures were posted online so he could watch them over and over again. He lost a lot but equally gained in other ways

Agree, the economy is another matter

I don't think so, we no longer have sufficient trust in anyone in authority. Restrictions only worked because enough people wanted them, whilst also not being so scared that the building blocks of society collapsed. Can't see how those conditions would arise again in the near future.

Gosh I'm surprised that was broadcast. No dissent was allowed for the most part - you had to bleat on about safe and effective or face huge judgement so he was very brave to stand against that.

Enjoying reading this thread. I'm currently on day four of testing positive for covid, quaranteening in the spare room and wearing a mask any time I need to go anywhere else in the house so no one else catches it. Have also let people know who I came into contact with in the few days before. I've definitely found myself back in that 'pandemic mindset' of 2020/2021 and can't decide if I'm being sensible a bit over the top!

What counts as local when exercising locally? Michael Gove said one thing on breakfast tv, the police thought something different. 🙄

The local garage still has arrows on the floor inside and one gets glared at for not following them all round the shelves.

To be fair dh has had a very bad flu virus (could be Covid but haven't bothered testing). Two weeks in and no one else in the house has caught it despite us sharing a bed. We've just avoided close contact, hugging, kissing, sharing towels etc.

Lockdown 1 started on Monday 23rd March 2020 in the UK.

My 4 year old was at nursery as we were key workers and was hearing all sorts that I didn't want him exposed to. In a supermarket, he lifted a toll of wrapping paper out of the trolley he was in and poked a man shouting "too close!". He was such a placid child I couldn't believe it.

I had symptoms for 24 hours before I tested. Shared a bed with OH that night and interacted as normal with the household and no one else seemed to get it so your approach sounds reasonable.

What bothered me the most about that time is that there were people that said 'guys this is mental!' and they were silenced and ripped to shreds.
Still makes my blood boil about the names they called any dissenting opinion. I mean now you say it's mental?!
We told you!!!!!
(Not you obv)

It's become a marker in time, a new BC, Before Covid. When we're trying to remember when something happened we tend to say Well, it was at least 2 years before the lockdown rather than say It was at least 7 years ago, (give or take the pedantry about when it actually started).

We had a rule that you couldn’t go shopping outside your own council area. We had an IKEA in ours and a nice M and S so I would go every Friday after work. They were dead

So glad I avoided here during covid!