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

[Rainbowdeer]

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

@Auburngal
I tihnk it was acknowledged immediately that one way systems in shops were a ridiculous idea.
As someone wormking there, were there many staff saying how silly it was or were people too scared to point it out?

@FlowerUser
If you really want one of the injections you can pay

I always felt very sorry for the retail and security staff who got lumbered with trying to enforce rules about queuing, masks and the like, but I don't think attempted conscription of people without retail training and who are needed and paid by other employers would achieve much.

With exponential growth, the rate of increase of a population is proportional to the size of the population, so with exponential growth, the more people with covid you have, the faster it spreads.

This does seem to be overlooked by people who think that it is fine for covid to run rampant among kids because it 'doesn't affect children' without considering that that would increase covid spread in the rest of the population, because children don't live in a bubble.

Those that did understand it seemed to spend a lot of the pandemic trying to argue that in that case it was fine because kids didn't spread covid.

It was quite bizarre.

@noblegiraffe ,

I remember Boris Johnson trying to justify the lockdown by ‘explaining’ the graph.

His words were along the lines of ‘we’re still in the fairly flat part but we will soon hit the exponential part’ (referring to the higher gradient).

No, Boris, it’s always exponential!

Most supermarkets and other essential shops didn't ask the staff which way most customers walked across the store.

Most stores had a bottleneck. I cannot remember if we had a bottleneck as I was off work for 85% of the first lockdown with asthma/covid issues. Sometimes customers asked a colleague working down an aisle, could they get them one item from an aisle to save them time. Can't remember if we had one way systems in the 2nd and 3rd lockdowns. Certainly didn't have anyone counting as the colleagues doing the underground car park would be frozen due to the way the car park is designed.

When the store was closed, we stuffed the one way systems and shared the lifts to go home!

Also some retail staff when they were looking for work, may have applied to non essential retailers (clothes, gifts etc) and if they got job offers from their (current or then) job and another. Probably selected the job at supermarket/essential retail (B&M, Wilko) over the other offer due to better hours - number and suitable for looking after DC, easier to get to work etc.

Security staff were moved from businesses unable to open in lockdowns - clothing shops, pubs, bingo halls etc

The Post Office where I live and used to work was unable to open as its at the back of non essential shops. They could kept that open by moving the rails of clothes and other things, put up some tall barriers up to create two corridors - one for entering the PO and one to leave.

There are 4 other smaller POs within 2 miles radius and they couldn't cope.

Then supermarkets in Wales blocked off aisles with non grocery things such as books and electricals - including kettles. Kettles are ESSENTIAL! How do we cope when our kettle breaks? People with no internet were screwed. The other folks - thank fuck for Amazon!

Amazon must've made a killing out of that non essential lark in Wales. All that missed tax!

oh wow I forgot about the 'non essentials'
the ridiculous thing was what were classed as essentials or not - fags, alcohol, lottery tickets, newspapers, yes
clothes (including baby clothes), kettle, duvet, books, no!

The myth of "one hour a day" spiralled. According to mumsnet, it was gospel. And the government made no attempt to correct the record: it suited the government to have the public believing in restrictions that weren't there.

And let's not forget, the government was contemplating killing your cats (this has been confirmed by someone who was in government), when it was believed that cats could spread the disease. I genuinely feared for the safety of my cats then, in case somebody took it upon themselves to be their executioner, seeing how mad people were going.

There's a scandal which I'm waiting for, as there was scandal after scandal in the government's doings: "actually, half of the tests were decoys, which never really tested for the disease; genuine ones were extremely expensive. Of the decoys, a certain percentage of them would show positive, according to the threat level, hence the expiry dates." I have no evidence for that, but if a scandal like that does break one day, I will not be surprised at all.

Agree re the inessentials, but alcohol is an essential. A percentage of the population are chemically dependent on it, and cold turkey is potentially dangerous. People can have fits if they do it too fast. The last thing we needed was a load of fitting alcoholics clogging up A and E, some of whom would've had covid.

There's a scandal which I'm waiting for, as there was scandal after scandal in the government's doings: "actually, half of the tests were decoys, which never really tested for the disease; genuine ones were extremely expensive. Of the decoys, a certain percentage of them would show positive, according to the threat level, hence the expiry dates." I have no evidence for that, but if a scandal like that does break one day, I will not be surprised at all.^^

What the actual fuck?

There was actually a scandal around testing but it was because PCR tests were showing negative when the person actually had covid and that was due to problems at a particular lab.

Indeed, what the actual fuck. I didn't say that I thought it had happened; it's an idea of what might happen. But it's the sort of deception that I think they might easily have stooped to, in the name of "appearing to be doing something". When the first revelations of Partygate or Barnard Castle emerged, lots of people probably said "what the actual fuck?".

Breaking lockdown regulations by having a party or going on holiday are a very different kettle of fish to committing large scale medical fraud?

Not another thread on this subject. It happened and there is not a lot anyone can do about it now. It was badly handled but then we had Johnson as PM so it was never going to be handled well. Not forgetting Hancock of course.

So you think something that had such a massive impact on econonmy, metal health, physical health, eduaction etc etc etc should just be brushed under the carpet as it's not happening any more? Wow.

The consequences of lockdown are, of course, very much still happening.

The don't mention it is bizarre

It's has a huge impact and we can still see that

Sam smith setting up his camera in his posh house with a big garden to have an on camera breakdown 😳 like read the fucking room? My friend was rehoused in a flat fleeing domestic violence she had a dog and a child cooped up in there!

Sam Smith is very odd.

It happened and there is not a lot anyone can do about it now.

I strongly disagree with this. If there is so much as a hint of another lockdown (and governments like to "hint" things they are thinking of doing to test the public reaction, as we saw again and again), be it in five, ten or thirty years' time, I will be out there campaigning and reminding everybody of exactly how much damage these lockdowns did, no matter how much governments try to downplay it and erase it from memory, as I am certain they will, and are starting to do already.

The IRA atrocities "happened"
As did the infected blood scandal
As did the post master scandal
As did Grenfell Tower
As did Asbestos
As did various NHS maternity unit fiascos
As did Windrush

Don't you think we should properly examine what happened, what mistakes were made, etc., firstly to help prevent future mistakes, and secondly to compensate those who were wronged through no fault of their own???

To say there's "not a lot anyone can do about it now" is ridiculous. Of course, there are things that can be done, i.e. learn from the mistakes, set up better systems/precautions, compensate those affected etc.

Don't forget some countries like Spain - they were not allowed out of their homes.

Yes, and there were people here who supported that and wanted the same
here.