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Original poster

Now we are a coupe of years on. Do you think the Covid lockdowns should have happened

543 replies

Rainbowdeer · 10/02/2025 16:16

I don’t we should have shut down the schools and I don’t agree with the lockdowns
the damage has been far too great
esp regarding children’s mental health

the economy been damaged far too much

work culture has totally changed

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Lottapianos · 10/02/2025 16:21

I don't doubt that the lockdowns had an impact but I don't see how they could have been avoided. There was a chance that the health service could have been totally overwhelmed - I worked in the NHS at the time and it was frightening and chaotic. There were plenty of dreadful government decisions but I don't think the lockdowns were one of them

Bestthriller · 10/02/2025 16:22

in In two mind… I don’t think it did anything material to make anything less worse

but

I do look back fondly on the quiet days, walks and being with my children and on furlough!

vodkaredbullgirl · 10/02/2025 16:23

What's done is done, no need to dwell on it.

IDontHateRainbows · 10/02/2025 16:24

I'd say no, only I wouldn't have been here to say anything. I didn't get covid but I was rushed to hospital in April 2020 in a life threatening condition related to a medication reaction. Luckily a weekend in ICU saved me, but had there been no room at the inn....

ThejoyofNC · 10/02/2025 16:25

No and I'm so glad I didn't comply.

JulianFawcettMP · 10/02/2025 16:25

I'm not an epidemiologist so I don't know enough to have an opinion of any value.

Theunamedcat · 10/02/2025 16:27

It was a new disease we had no real immunity or treatment for the first lockdown was necessary I'm not completely convinced about the rest of them but the first one was absolutely needed

I miss social distancing and the idea that we didn't need to see people face to face to function 🙃

Bestthriller · 10/02/2025 16:27

ThejoyofNC · 10/02/2025 16:25

No and I'm so glad I didn't comply.

In what way?

i certainly went out for more than one walk a day, and I saw family that weren’t in my bubble

Theunamedcat · 10/02/2025 16:28

Bestthriller · 10/02/2025 16:27

In what way?

i certainly went out for more than one walk a day, and I saw family that weren’t in my bubble

Show quote history

The one walk a day was never a thing

Bestthriller · 10/02/2025 16:29

DAILY walks or runs should be a maximum of one hour and take place near the home, Michael Gove said yesterday.

ok we did longer than a hour (substantially!) and sometimes drove to woods

No regrets

Echobelly · 10/02/2025 16:30

Yes, because it was a novel virus. You don't just assume 'Ah, it'll probably be fine', you have to assume the worst case until you know otherwise or have mitigations in place and neither was the case at the start of 2020

TheodoraCrumpet · 10/02/2025 16:30

I don't see that there was much choice. Of course it would have been better not to have needed lockdowns and social distancing. But we did need to.

FoxtonFoxton · 10/02/2025 16:30

vodkaredbullgirl · 10/02/2025 16:23

What's done is done, no need to dwell on it.

I agree with this -no point arguing about it as there's nothing can be done now. I fully complied, but looking back, no, I don't think we should have. I worked throughout as normal, so didn't benefit from any days in the garden or time with the kids personally. DS went to school as he has SEN, DD missed her GCSEs and last months at school and so on. I was on Facebook during lockdown (long since ditched it) and I do think it brought out a really nasty side to people. On the local page there were some really vicious posts about those not banging fucking pots for the NHS, photos of people abusing the "one walk a day" or coming in from the next village to park up for a walk in the countryside. It made me feel very differently about a lot of people here and I've actively avoided village events since.

100PercentFaithful · 10/02/2025 16:31

Do you not remember the high death toll and the overwhelmed NHS?
Schools were still open for vulnerable children but it was important they were not open for all, as children spread COVID around the community. Don’t forget teachers were not on the priority vaccination list either.

Ankhmo · 10/02/2025 16:31

Ask the Drs and nurses that were on the front line, they likely have a different answer than the middle class working from home people who 'struggled' to stay in their warm and safe cosy homes.. the trauma of staying in their houses. I mean, what a torture..

I lost my shit with an ex friend who was bitching and whining about having to stay at home..
"You've got a 4 bedroom house with a massive garden that has two outdoor offices in it... and there's only two of you.."
"Well it was still hard..."
Piss off...
There was people living in tiny flats, no gardens and they had to go out to stack shelves at Tesco to earn their claps.. claps that didn't become pay rises or bonuses..

CdcRuben · 10/02/2025 16:31

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Bestthriller · 10/02/2025 16:31

Theunamedcat · 10/02/2025 16:28

The one walk a day was never a thing

Show quote history

You’re wrong there

March 2020

  • BJ spoke to the nation *one form of exercise a day - for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household;*
*
the80sweregreat · 10/02/2025 16:32

Not sure what to think really.
If they hadn't done it that would have been wrong too I suppose.
I know lots of Covid deniers and ' we shouldn't have locked down ' types and they think it was madness. I guess we shall never know for certain if it was the right decision or not tbh

FKAT · 10/02/2025 16:32

The closing of the schools was a disaster for a generation of children.

And it was very clear early on that the virus mainly affected very specific populations (the elderly, pre-existing conditions, BAME community) so they should have been protected and the rest of us enabled and supported to carry on working / going to school while masking/socially distancing.

EmmaMaria · 10/02/2025 16:32

The lockdowns weren't desirable, no. But they were necessary. And whilst I appreciate that the impact on (especially) some children has been undesirable, again it was necessary. If you have children who have ever been to school (and all the other polaces they gather en masse) you will have seen how known viruses rip through the settings - many of those viruses, despite some herd immunity, having potentially devastating impacts on some children. Look at measles, chickenpox etc. And they have been around for centuries. Think of the devastating impact of a virus where there is no immunity at all. The terrible scenes of old folks homes and hospitals could also have been schools and nurseries. Being a child didn't mean they wouldn't catch Covid or die from it - minimising contact until we had a better solution did.

Meadowfinch · 10/02/2025 16:33

225,000 people died of covid in the UK, even with lockdowns in place.

There were some bad decisions that didn't help - eat out to help out, and discharging people to care homes, but even so, I suspect the death toll would have been higher without lockdown.

I support the lockdown before there was a vaccine available. I'm less sure about the later lockdown.

My ds, who was 11 in 2020, took it all in his stride.

I was diagnosed with cancer during lockdown and oddly lockdown helped me. My time going through chemo, everyone worked from home, so my colleagues didn't notice any difference. I had to wear my wig much less often during the day (just con calls). I was able to rest more rather than face the daily commute.

The economic impact was always going to be huge globally, no matter what they did. I was made redundant in 2020 as a result, and was out for 7 months but have turned it around, like many others.

DisforDarkChocolate · 10/02/2025 16:34

Yes but much better organised.

School should have been hybrid with classes rotating in school.

All vulnerable children and women should have had support.

Good quality masks should have been compulsory immediately.

Anyone who suggested something as stupid as Eat Out to Help Out should have been shot.

Local communities were amazing, they should have been more formally involved.

Ddakji · 10/02/2025 16:37

I didn’t then and I don’t now, though I did comply.

We need to understand as a society that fighting nature to stay alive when you should be dead can’t last forever. That the population was locked down to save those trying to defy nature was morally wrong in my opinion.

There was a good interview with Lord Sumption discussing this in Saturday’s Times

MxFlibble · 10/02/2025 16:38

I think, like the millenium bug, that we can't know - but my feeling is that it was the right thing to do. Especially closing the schools TBH.

There's been one bug after another going around my kids school - most kids catch whatever it is with varying effects. The couple of times covid hit after they went back, half the class would end up off with it. One teacher is still affected by long covid, and it took her over a year to be able to return to work.

Covid was new, and severe, and had massive impact on many people. Children got it more mildly, but would obviously have been a transmission vector to parents. I'm a single parent, living rurally, in a different country to my family - if I'd have got it what a huge risk to my primary aged children that would have been. It's bad enough the very few times I have got sick, let alone if I'd got very sick with covid.

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