Covid - about 5 years ago. Does it seem like 5 years?

[cakeorwine]

So it was all happening about 5 years ago. The signs were about to come through from Italy.

It doesn't seem like 5 years ago. But maybe for some people, it does.

It seems a bit more recent - 5 years seems like a long time.

But then again, so much has happened since then.

So much is still changed though from then. Small example being we still need to book to go to the council dump. Big example the greater prevalence of wfh.

That was one positive - very orderly at our local recycle depot now, and no queuing!

That's dreadful Caramilk. What a wonderful thing to do - not moving in the woods in case you lost the signal while freezing. Very selfless and I'm sure those people think of you still 💐

But they had it in China first. I'm not sure we were even at the stage of the Wuhan lockdown yet. Italy was later, surely mid February? I'm pretty sure this time five years ago there were mumblings and rumours on Chinese social media but nothing concrete.

I went to the UK at the end of February/early March and no one was social distancing or anything at all and I got verbally abused for wearing an N95. I was wearing it because I'd been in China and then South Korea and didn't want to be responsible for seeding the virus into the UK. At the time the government claimed something like 30 cases but as I had already learned, 30 is much more like 3000 if you actually test your population.

I had 2 babies during the pandemic so it's crazy to think that it's 5yrs ago now. My DD was readmitted to hospital 2wks after birth and I remember on paediatrics the nurses taking the piss about all the overreacting people were doing over a simple cold/flu. One nurse was ranting about being told to remove all toys from the waiting room. My DD was in hospital 2wks and we went into lockdown the day after we came out.

It was a hard time as we saw no one for months. No family would see us and we didn't have a bubble. My DP works in the emergency services so was working long hours. He was the only one of his colleagues not to go off work with covid. I was driven crazy by my arsehole neighbour who decided to make my life hell as she became paranoid that I was reporting her to police for constantly breaking lockdown rules. The constant parties meant I barely slept and I felt like I totally missed out on maternity leave as my colleagues were barely working so effectively had the same break as I did. I ended up going back to work early to be able to afford to move house.

My DS was born just under 2yrs after DD and Covid rules were still in place. My DP couldn't attend maternity appointments with me and couldn't stay with me after the birth. I was the last CS of the day so DP only got a very short time with the baby before being told to leave. Again, family used it as an excuse not to see us despite none of them ever catching covid.

I didn't catch Covid until last New Year (must have been from the supermarket as I didn't go anywhere else) and didn't pass it on to DP or the kids.

My stepdad had a stroke and spent most of the pandemic in a care home going back and forward to hospital for his dialysis. He died a dreadful and very prolonged death.

It all feels like so long ago yet at the same time not. It's weird.
My DD didn't speak until she was 3 but I'll never really know if it was affected by Covid and the complete lack of people in her life.

Covid doesn’t feel like it was 5 years ago as the memories are still very fresh.

I don’t remember the letter from Boris, neither does DH.

I had a bit of a Covid reminder jolt earlier as whilst having sort out at home came across a bag which contained a spare covid mask (still in its plastic wrapping) that I got from work, and a badge that I got online, which stated that I was deaf and unable to lipread through a mask. It reminded me that one of the hardest part of “COVID times” for me was all the mask wearing, as it made communication 1000 times worse because I couldn’t make out what people were saying through their masks. I felt really isolated and frustrated about being restricted even further in my ability to communicate with others.

I recall going into a chemist where there was a big screen up and the worker has their mask on. I was struggling to make out what they were saying, but they refused to take their mask off even after I pointed out that the screen and my mask on would protect them. That brought home to me how scared people were of Covid, that they didn’t even trust the equipment that was in place for protection.

I hated home schooling with a passion, when it came to subjects I had little or no understanding of. We did have fun with being creative with other aspects of it like my DH built a catapult with our DC when they were studying Roman history whereby he fired plastic balls at them whilst they advance using homemade shields!

I’m very aware that our DC has it easy compared to children that both DH and I worked with, who come from challenging or/and deprived backgrounds. Having said that COVID has still left its impact on them such as impacting on their social skills and maturity levels.

Know people who have been and continue to be affected by COVID. I had a bad bout of it when eventually got it, and it took me several months to get back to full health, but I’m aware my immunity level is much weaker as I get hit hard with anything if get ill, especially anything chest related.

I still feel very angry about the fact that we couldn’t be with DH’s aunt when she died, or even hold a decent funeral for her. The date of her funeral was one of those dates Boris and his cronies had a party. There were less than ten of us, we couldn’t even sit together or spend time together to grieve. Meanwhile Boris and his cronies were drinking and partying together.

I still feel great sadness from having to take our beautiful old girl cat to be put down at the vet when she got cancer, and not being allowed to be with her at the end because of the restrictions that were in place I had to wait in the car on my own until it was done and they brought her out. I still can’t bear to park in that bit of the carpark at the vet.

I felt like Covid was a good reset for nature, but for humankind maybe not so much, but only time will tell for sure.

Still seems close to me. It was an awful time for us a family for various reasons, not caused by but certainly made much worse by Covid and lockdowns, lack of services etc,

I feel like I've really only started to get back on my feet in the last 18 months 🤞

Seems about right to me.
Its made me much more cynical though. I think the whole thing was handled appallingly (vast over reaction in hindsight), and vested interests made an absolute fortune at the expense of the tax payer.
Humans are not as a smart as we like to think we are at the end of the day.

I feel like it was ages ago and lasted about five minutes. I can't believe how long lockdown was because for me it feels like about a week.

I still feel a sense of exasperation at the the enaive assumptions at the beginning of the pandemic. My medical OH had been aware of the looming risk of a pandemic for a long time and, had he not died right at the beginning, would have been raging over the failure of governments to really take it seriously until it was too late.
The cronyism and corruption around tackling the pandemic was entirely shocking and shook one's faith in human nature. But on the other hand there were so many examples of selfless courage which put our leaders to shame.
I do feel a sense of pride in the British scientists whose work on the vaccine saved millions of lives.
It brought out the worst and the best in people.
I wish I thought things might be different in the next pandemic ... there assuredly will be one.

I also can't believe it was five years ago. UK was very behind in our response to COVID, the government was hellbent on sorting out BREXIT and as a result had their eye off the ball.
I was still living overseas and there were rumblings of something happening over Christmas. In January even our small airports (we were very remote, in the north) had notices up and any (rare) Asian visitors were already in masks. I don't think at the time the UK had any inkling.
We had to leave because of COVID, I'd already flown to the UK by the end of January for an interview and finally got my stuff shipped out in February. By then, Scandinavia already knew what was coming, the UK hadn't a clue.
Britain locked down in March, Norway had closed three weeks earlier....

5 YEARS!!! 😳

I've just actually and done the maths because 5 years cannot be right, but it is!!

I think that it was so traumatic for everyone (whether it be because of anxiety about getting covid, the loss of a loved one, not being able to see people we loved or from not wanting to follow the rules, rules constantly changing and the uncertainty etc), that it's fixed in our minds as this huge event (it was) and so it's always going to feel very present I think.

I remember waking up the day after we were told we were locking down and having a huge panic attack that my parents would die and I'd never see them again. They phoned and I couldn't breathe, so they came over and stood from a distance to try and reassure me and then that was the last that I saw of them for what felt like a lifetime. I think I'm a bit desensitised to it all now but it's permanently changed my approach to illnesses in general and minimising the spread of infection.

Which letter?

I lost my (not elderly, perfectly well) mum from it, a very traumatic month in hospital where she was unable to receive a visitor until she was ventilated. I’ll always be angry about that.

Work In a hospital, we lost colleagues and patients. Half my team were taken to support wards while my own workload probably tripled, managing vulnerable, scared patients and their treatment.

Some hospital areas were prioritised with full hazmat protection while others didn’t even get masks- guess who caught covid in those early months? Some staff groups were protected, went home and didn’t support much at all. While others were fully exposed and exploited.

School closures went on way too long, while airlines were opened too soon and brought in the second wave.

China too big to upset and so no lessons have been learned.

I’m still furious about the whole thing.

I agree school closures went on for far to long and I was very upset when pubs and cafes could open before schools. What on earth where they thinking. The second school closure wasn't needed at all

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e821525e90e0706ee64a7ee/CCS155CCS0320349160-0033PMletterrtonationnoncoronovirussAccessible.pdf

I had totally forgotten about the letter

I remember the summer of Eat Out to Help Out - and ordering food and drink in restaurants from the app with staff bringing everything over to you instead of having to queue at the bar. Quite liked that tbh.

There are so many reminders still.

I was using a public loo the other day and there was still a sign up that said that one hand dryer was turned off for our safety. People were queuing for the other hand dryer. The turned off one now works but was still switched off when I was last there a few months ago.

All the stickers on the streets are still there, grubby and faded.

The time affected my children a lot. It hit as one was due to sit GCSEs, one just starting to gain independence in his early teens and my little social butterfly who felt so lonely. It didn't matter how much I tried to create fun and family togetherness, it didn't come anywhere close to being with their mates.

The computers that were always in our downstairs rooms went upstairs as my children were getting stressed with feeling so hemmed in. Something I regret but I'm not sure we could have done differently.

The constant drip drip drip of news about ever changing restrictions was hard for me summer 2020 and I'd wake in the night with adrenaline running full pelt.

We frequently go for a walk on our empty beach and can't help but comment about how they were taped off in the first place but also long after beaches were open in other areas.

We're never quite sure of the pool rules when we book a hotel, as the websites still talk about booking systems.

I'll never forget how much better and lighter I felt, back running the children here are there and bring able to have coffee with a friend. The lack of my usual activities had been such a stress in itself.

I'm sure there are positives that have come from it - more community based stuff that focuses around settling our nervous system, but I feel like I'm in need of that now when I wasn't before.

Hybrid working perhaps - and I've been grateful for the flexibility when we've had to be like atag team supporting my child that really struggled, but I'm glad DH is expected to be back in the office now because I don't think working from home completely has been healthy for him.

I'm happy for the families whose children thrived on the break from school, the family games nights, the time spent in the garden etc.
I'd like to think we tried to make the most of it but I just could not provide that level of reassurance and fun for my teenagers who needed to be doing normal teenager things. The mum guilty still hits when I hear of people who managed to navigate it better than me.

Lock downs destroyed my life. Newly single and a custody battle for my children - all online as courts were held over the internet while the children were obviously in the house as they couldn't go elsewhere.
My extremely difficult ex refused to see or care for the children unless we stayed isolated indefinitely so as to not risk his new family getting covid. This meant no bubble for us, no (necessary) medical staff entering our home for our disabled child - and a 10 day period of no contact if we did have to leave the house.
It destroyed me and I'll never be the same again.
Neither me or the children have ever knowingly had covid but I'm not convinced the price we paid was worth it 😞

I was diagnosed with early breast cancer and had surgery just a few days before the first lockdown. So I was preoccupied with that rather than COVID, obviously. But I was never remotely scared of catching it (I did and barely noticed) even though my immune system was supposedly compromised.

I just couldn't get scared of a virus that had something like a 98% recovery rate?

What did scare me was how COVID so quickly brought out the very worst in people. So many examples of spitefulness, incoherent rage, selfishness, ignorance and outright stupidity.

One of my cats has two microchips due to covid. He had one done with his vaccination and because I wasn’t allowed in the vets I forgot it had been done. Then when he went to get neutered I asked them to chip him and they did. Then they found both chips in his neck 😁

I moved to Somerset in Oct 2019 for a new NHS job and then moved into my new home in Feb 2020, then the whole thing kicked off.
Nothing was ever the same again. I've never had covid despite working in the hospital everyday.
But the NHS has changed beyond recognition. It's now a really tough job every single day, loads of staff left afterwards and resources are at an all time low. It still feels like we are in the thick of it. We never have quiet days any more it's all back breaking work with no appointments or surgery dates. Im glad I'm almost retired.
Loads of people have long covid and they are not getting any treatment at all.

I never knew of this letter... reading it, it's hard to believe this was real😥

I think of 'before covid' probably in a similar way to how my Grand Parents thought of time 'before the war'.

Actually gutted about losing 4 years of he prime of my life. My MIL lost the final year of managing to live in her own house and enjoying activities before dementia took hold.

Due to severe PTSD from working throughout the COVID pandemic, I had buried it deeply to the back of my mind.

5 years has dulled my memories and thoughts somewhat.

I will never forget until I die the things I witnessed and the utter utter horror of that time.

Longma
That letter should be signed ‘Love and kisses, Luxury Sized Shitbag’