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?

The amount of smugness in this thread is amazing! The reality was that a lot of people were frightened because the the unknown yet now it seems that no-one followed any of the 'rules'. Had nothing been done I wonder what the outcome would have been and whose fault it would have been perceived to be? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it!

The hindsight argument really annoys me. There were plenty of people at the time pointing out the issues who were just ignored or silenced.

I wasn't frightened of the virus because all of the evidence (which was available and easy to find) was that it was of little or no threat to me and my family. I was afraid of the complete lack of forward thinking that was going into the attempts to control the virus.

I remember we had family friends round for a BBQ in the summer of 2020. I arranged the chairs into two separate 'bubbles' and divided all the salads into two sets of bowls. They brought their own cutlery, serving spoons and tongs.

Had we chosen to prioritise those who were vulnerable to restrictions over those who were vulnerable to covid, no doubt the people who were collateral would be angry. Just as they are now. That's inevitable, when we had a situation where we couldn't protect all the vulnerable and had to throw some under the bus. Perhaps we'd also get self appointed thread monitors moralising too, in the parallel universe where we went the other way.

Some of us had worked this one out in March 2020 though, so less of the hindsight. Maybe it is for you. Not for all of us.

This reminds me of when I met up with a friend at a national trust place. I think the rules were that we weren't allowed to meet up so she was unsure. I pointed out to her that we weren't prevented from speaking to each other, so if we "happened" to be in the same place at the same time, we could 'happen' to walk along the same path, 'happen' to sit at picnic tables next to each other etc. The rules were so incredibly stupid. Nonetheless I was nervous on the day, not because we were 'breaking the rules' but because there is nothing so scary as someone who has disconnected their own brain - I was worried someone would get in their head to say something to us and that zombie-like 'you must follow rules' bullshit scares the shit out of me. Thankfully, as I suspected, no one even noticed. I remember that day very fondly.

My OH died a couple of days into the first lockdown, not related in any way, and my daughters were able to come here and we had the very pared down funeral. A few weeks ago there was a TV programmer where a bereaved woman had a house full of wittering visitors, she was constantly having to make tea when she really didn't want them there and I thought At least I was spared that!

It was about 2-3 weeks into the first lockdown that cracks started showing in the narrative, and the reporting of figures, readily available to the public via ONS showed the truth of what was happening. The actual published rules versus what the media was saying, also opened a few eyes. I was scared for my mum - she was dealing with cancer at the time but it became very apparent very quickly that lockdown was a greater risk to her than covid.

I remember similar stuff. So when the rules were changed that people from 2 households could meet but normally there are 3 of us that dog walk together every day. I was all for "meeting" aka walking in the same field at the same time.....because in my mind I could go to the park legally and be in a crowd of unlimited people walking about which would be legal So it didn't make sense that 3 of us couldn't walk socially distanced.

But my friends said no, so I think we had a rota iirc.

I still recall over 45 years later getting out of the car on an overnight ferry with a 6 month old, a 2 years old, the shit-kit bag, a folding cot and an overnight bag! One of the crew came over to me, asked my cabin details and told me to get the children up to it and he's bring the rest up. When he arrived he said 'I'll be here just after we dock in the morning to get you down to the car' and wouldn't take anything from me. He was my guardian angel on that trip.

Quite but this is mumsnet so.

Hope he didn't drive a back BMW 3 Series with tinted windows!

I do remember that being shown on the news and the vitriol and hate that was spouted on SM and MN against that consultant was vile. Calls for him to be sacked etc.

I'm glad he didn't go to Happisburgh, Wymondham, or many other places that would have challenged the announcers!

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.
THIS IN SPADES! Instead, we had Saint Boris trying to sweeten lockdown by promising one miracle after another.
"We will do whatever it takes to beat the virus."
"In twelve weeks, we can send the virus packing."
"No child will miss out on education as a result of the pandemic." (Nick Gibb)

Basically, with these promises, the government painted themselves into a corner. It became politically impossible to ease restrictions, because, people will die, innit.

I almost feel sorry for Boris never getting to have his big moment of "it is with great pleasure that I announce the end of all restrictions, never to return". By then, the fear machine had moved on to Ukraine, and nothing else would fit in the headlines.

People referring to negative remarks about restrictions as hindsight when what they actually mean is they personally didn't notice at the time is pretty standard MN covid threads, yes!

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.

One abiding memory of the OH's funeral a month into the lockdown was of standing in the car park of the crematorium, me and the daughter who lives 300 miles away and other daughter and her family who live locally, standing separated, no hugging between the two groups. My eldest granddaughter brought half a cake out of the boot and gave it to me saying, We're having the other half with coffee in half an hour, which we did, 15 miles apart.

I completely missed that.

One wonders how much NHS time was wasted before they backed down on that ridiculous vaccine mandate policy. I say this as someone who has taken every covid vaccine offered to me, so I'm no anti vaxxer. But it and the care worker rule were such obviously stupid ideas, and plenty of us said so at the time.

"Children are vectors of transmission."

We must never forget words like this.

People have replaced priests with scientists and consider themselves progressive. They’ve just replaced one group of people who tell them what to think and explain their lives and world with another set. Both involve an abdication of thinking for one’s self

The direction of the thread was clear from the outset. Reading something you know will upset you and then bring outraged that people wrote something that annoyed you is ridiculous. Noone is forced to participate in threads they find annoying, upsetting or tasteless, yet some think they have the right to prevent the threads existing. Nonsense.

People who thought like this (see also: "You're only being asked to stay at home, it's not hard") were always people with partners, children, family around them. People talk in other situations of those who benefit from something then "pull up the ladder" so others can't have the same - in 2020 it was those who'd got their smug little family banning singletons from being able to meet someone in time to have their own family, or even to enjoy the company of friends.

@MoMhathair

"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."

It's telling that his colleagues chose to star silent.

Stay silent

Oh I missed that too. As someone who has had long term serious implications from that vaccine I want a solid review of that decision. This is so interesting that even at the time a doctor was challenging the decision. My experience has put me off vaccines for life! And yes, just think what they could have done with the time and NHS money.

I would specifically like them to investigate the effects of the vaccine on the heart, strokes, cancers related to increased inflammation and other inflammatory diseases.

I would love to believe that, but people are really fucking stupid. So many things illustrate that. Covid. Brexit, Trump. Honestly, I have so little respect for humans as a species now that it saddens me. I think lots of people enjoyed aspects of the batshittery and would love to be able to justify haranguing strangers and spying on neighbours again.