Evidence of the pandemic?

[LaceWingMother]

Just idly wondering whether it's clear from any aspect of my life that the covid era ever happened.

Fortunately, no one I knew died or became seriously unwell from it, DH and I don't work from home because of it, DC now going through secondary school as normal, I didn't make any large purchases linked to it (one friend built a home office and a feckless neighbour bought a now-neglected dog). Apart from a few face masks stuffed in a drawer and forgotten about, I don't think there's any evidence of it in the house.

Does the impact of the pandemic appear in your life now?

Peace and love to everyone who lost their loved ones and all those still living with the affects of such a tragic time 🙏

Yes. I was allowed 20 at DH's funeral. His DIL told me that DH's son couldn't attend because of doctor's orders. Then his daughter said that she and her 20 yr old couldn't come: she had asthma, and she was worried about the possible effect on the 20 yr old's mental health. Could their mother represent them instead?

Her current boyfriend dropped her off at the crem and collected her.

(I sat in the funeral car on my own, followed the hearse to the crem and returned home to an empty house.)

The ex's behaviour upon hearing that she could go to the funeral was less than ideal. 2 months after the funeral, I cracked and the kids have gone NC. Possibly just as well.

Thank you for everything you did and yes, you deserve something to reflect it ❤️

My sentiments exactly.

Whilst it might have not had any lasting effects for you OP, it did for many people Worldwide.

At best I think this is a highly insensitive post. Perhaps you could reflect on how lucky you are to not have been adversely affected by the pandemic.

I bought a house sooner than I would have otherwise.
I am still working in the same job, when otherwise I probably would have moved.
I became a hybrid worker.
My mental health collapsed, but then recovered, and I now have better self-knowledge then before.

So quite a lot changed, really.

Some people had a great pandemic, they WFH had full salary, no commute and they had minimum wage folk for their deliveries. Almost as if all the stuff on the news was happening somewhere else,to someone else

Reading the replies is heartbreaking. I am so sorry for the pain many have experienced. I often think of those who lost loved ones during the pandemic either directly or indirectly linked to covid itself. I hope you all find strength, it will never be forgotten, take care of yourselves ❤️

There's a shoe shop near me, still with a window full of shoes and a notice saying that they'll be open again after lockdown. Every time I see it I wonder what happened to the owners.

Agree. A friend who is a key stage 1 teacher says the cohort of children who missed school due to Lockdown are now very much behind, and this will follow them for years to come.

I caught it 3 times. The last time caused a catastrophic flare up of a previous well managed condition. I don't think I will ever be fit and healthy again.
I'm also a teacher and some parents attitudes towards school have plummeted to depths that I didn't think possible. And I believe there is a huge mental health crisis just beginning in our young people and support for that is vastly underfunded. We have never had so many anxious kids and school refusers. It is really very common now.

The impact on myself was not significant. I had to work long hours to keep a business afloat, manage furlough and people's jobs. But my friends and family's health and jobs were OK, so I am lucky. It impacted my daughters A levels but things have recovered there. I know plenty of others who weren't so fortunate with health, jobs, children.

For those who were badly impacted, from work, family, physical and mental health: please ignore those who are flippant or who dismiss the pandemic. I am so sorry 😞

I was forced into changing jobs because Covid destroyed my role at the time. It's turned out for the best however in many ways. I have had Covid 4 times too as have a public facing job role and do seem to have a weaker chest now. My elderly mother became housebound essentially because of fear of Covid and she won't ever regain her confidence and health to live her old life.

My MIL nearly died from covid just a few months ago. She's not recovered and will likely never be the same. She needs a lot of care.

DP has poor lung capacity due to covid, has been told he'll likely never recover.

My son had massive speech delay that was 'missed' despite me chasing and chasing, then the speech therapy was so backlogged as a result of the lockdowns etc he didn't see a specialist until 6 months in to school. We're still working our bottoms off to get him to where he needs to be.

I had clients at work pass away from covid as well as clients who had other health treatments delayed or permanently stopped because of the pandemic which obviously has had negative impacts on their lives.

I bizarrely miss the lockdowns. I still worked through them (no WFH for me) but it made life a lot simpler and less demanding.
My clients benefit from what we learnt during the pandemic, we still face mask at work when we're ill to stop spreading to clients etc.

I don't think OP has been intentionally insensitive witb the post but for those who haven't had any lasting negative effects, quite a few are very ignorant to the lasting effects it has had. Covid is still around and for some it's just as serious as when we first went in to lockdown.

Not really, it taught me I never, ever want to work from home again (thankfully no one does where I work and I am likely to stay there till I retire) and we are all better at using zoom, teams etc than we were before and interactions with our GP surgery are very different (far easier in many ways with the use of technology, e-consults are way better than half an hour on the phone at 8am) but otherwise very little lasting impact. I threw out a pack of expired covid tests last week.

I don't know of anyone that died of covid, but I do know a couple of people who have been left with long term ill health which is awful. It is strange thinking back to the impact it had at the time now though.

I know someone who didn’t consider Covid to be a “real” pandemic because the mortality rate was so low. (For context he worked in this field and had predicted a pandemic for years). He thinks within our lifetime we will have another with a much higher mortality rate and lockdown really will mean lockdown, the army bringing supplies and genuine do not leave the house restrictions.

I very much hope he’s wrong but he was right before.

I really want to say to those of you who lost someone I’m so sorry you experienced that. I hope with time you can find some peace and process what has happened

Biggest impact for my family was my then 8 year old started to occasionally refuse school once they reopened, gradually increasing to stopping attending school completely 18 months ago. Unless some sort of miracle happens, which I really can't imagine, that's the course of her education completely changed now forever and who knows now where that will lead us.

I still work from home regularly which never happened before. I spend most my days on teams meetings, never had a virtual meeting before covid.

I’m much happier / content staying in of an evening, though I also think that’s partly because I became a parent at the same time as covid so going out was always going to be less of an option.

And I don’t think I will ever not feel slightly robbed that my first baby was born at the height of lockdown and all that came with that.

I've never had Covid, nor lost anyone to it, and don't know anyone who was more than mildly ill. But yes, it has had a lasting impact on me, and on all of us.

I am more cynical, and less likely to trust anything that governments or officials come out with. The lockdowns were awful (and unnecessary in my view) in terms of their economic impact, and we are all still feeling the effects of that I think. I became very anxious during that time and ended up on medication. Also I couldn't see as much of my mother as normal, and so that time was lost forever, as she died soon after the lockdowns ended - I still wonder if the vaccines caused her death, as she was otherwise healthy. I still feel quite bitter and resentful at how our lives were controlled and restricted for so long - the impact on children, as well as undetected cancer cases has been immense. Two people I knew died because their disease was not caught in time, another is still alive but with shortened life expectancy. Someone I worked with ended up spiralling into alcoholism and depression, which was largely down to being forced to isolate in a bedsit for more than a year with no contact with anyone.

I hope the right lessons are learned for the future, but I fear it will be just as bad if it happens again.

That's awful @wlv12 - I am so sorry 💐

I am so sorry for your loss @Antisanctimonious - it was an awful time 🌻

What a lot of impressing and saddening stories of everyone's experiences. I feel sorry that the pandemic has such a devastating impact on so many lives.

For me and my family, the impact was relatively minimal. No one of my loved ones or people that I know died from it or was seriously ill. We started wfh and in my country the only shops open were grocery shops and tire centre for emergencies. We could only leave the house 2 per week based on your car's number plate. We already lives quite remote so in that sense nothing changed for us, except having to assist our son as school from home started.

I noticed it with some of my coworkers who were very anxious and we spent a lot of time on zoom meetings to make the situation as normal as we could. Main difference that I noticed is that work became more hybrid and that some technological advancement was made here, for example subscription for medicine is now being sent to the pharmacy instead of having to pick up the subscription first.

I had an old friend who’d long had issues with alcohol. Terrible loneliness overwhelmed her during the first lockdown and she was hospitalised with acute pancreatitis in January by the second lockdown. She caught covid in hospital and died and I didn’t know for the longest time.

I had another friend who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in the summer of 2019. By first lockdown she had retreated into her house for her own safety and by July she’d been hospitalised. I used to talk to her on the telephone. I wasn’t allowed to see her until August in the last couple of days before she died. I went in to be with her but she could barely speak. She died the following day.

There are many, many stories like this.It’s only four years ago. You’re lucky if you didn’t experience something like this personally.

@Mylovelygreendress Bloody WOW. This is just monstrous. No words really... except sorry. I'm sorry for everyone who has suffered.

It gave me nerve damage, sore eyes, weird burning, neuropathy -not sure if I was covid or vaccine but it's improved since2922 when it started but still lingering .

My son jacked in his degree 16 months in as it felt pointless , no social stuff, random work set - all that debt for zero!!

Our business was down and never 100% recovered but is luckily still ok-in all fairness more due to Brexit in our case than Covid, people forget it was 7 weeks apart - so for many businesses was a double whammy .

On the plus side, I did start taking a lot of vitamins and drank a load more water and have persisted with that