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

At the time my FIL was newly diagnosed with cancer, was having chemo and his immune system was shot. My friend also had problems with a suppressed immune system so I'm saying for us it was the right thing. Covid would have killed both of them.

DC was at primary school so we set up zoom chats and telephone calls with friends in lieu of playdates, and when we were able to meet outside, did that.

I didn’t agree with lockdowns then and I still don’t

Yes the first lockdown had to happen. No one knew enough about the virus to know what would occur and I don’t doubt many more vulnerable members of society would have died.

I do think subsequent lockdowns and the tier process was appallingly managed.

As was trying to manhandle people into getting vaccinations. I got the first two jabs but then no more. I didn’t vaccinate my children. When it comes to vaccines, adults really need to be able to make their own choices.

That time really created divisions across the county, people were encouraged to ‘tell’ on their neighbours, and protests turned violent. I remember feeling apprehensive to talk about how I felt about Covid times as it brought out such strong, polarising opinions. I do feel that people got quite nasty with one another. Of course BoJo did nothing to stop this, the parties and the handling of the situation was diabolical.

All of Sir Kevan Collins' recommendations around this should have been implemented (but of course were instead almost entirely ignored).

I completely agree with this.

Ok, I will do
let’s have a final vote on it !

I voted no, but what I really mean is that they should have happened very differently. It was unforgivable that children were prevented from attending school, elderly relatives were left isolated, people could not hold proper funerals or say goodbye to loved ones dying in hospital, while meanwhile if your boss decided that everyone had to go into the office because he didn't think WFH was a very good idea, in you went. Decisions about what had to close and what could be open were made in completely arbitrary ways, with insufficient thought given to the aftermath, and that's what we are now seeing, from the economy to the numbers of undiagnosed cancers to the mental health crisis. It's also shocking how unserious politicians seem to have been about it all (all of them, not just the obvious ones- playing politics rather than pulling together).

So no, I don't think the lockdown we had should have happened, and I'd have preferred things to have stayed open and the vulnerable (who needed to isolate) given additional support.

THere is a good article here (and others) comparing the policy choices made by Sweden and the outcomes there (excess deaths, but also set against loss of education, increase in domestic abuse, mental health problems, economic hardship) with other nations.

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/sweden-during-pandemic#conclusion

Sweden opted for shorter, softer lockdowns. The virus was already seeded in the population early because many Swedish families go on ski-ing holidays in February, which was the peak time (Feb 2020) for the virus to be incubating in Europe. Schools were kept open for under 16s, some element of social distancing was introduced, but most businesses stayed open; care homes were closed to visitors.WFH was an option, but people were freer to exercise their choices about self-isolation. The excess deaths in Sweden from Covid was lower than other countries. ICU beds were not overwhelmed.

My own view is that young people and children in the UK were made to pay for the government's panic that an underfunded NHS was going to be overwhelmed, and we all fell into line throwing our children under the bus in the meantime.

I realise Sweden is a very different country - smaller, richer, healthier, less unequal, higher levels of trust, strong traditions of liberalism and choice. But the government took the view that the policy of soft lockdown that they were employing was the one that had been modelled by the WHO and other global organisations; and everyone else was responding with a dangerous policy experiment.

Weren't the lockdowns about managing the demand on the NHS? In which case they probably were necessary.

I also recall an article Boris Johnson wrote pre lockdown for one of the Sunday papers that it was obvious the NHS wouldn't be able to cope if we hadn't had lockdown. This obviously must have tipped the balance to going for this model rather than staying ' open '( so to speak )
Although many people are still not convinced by any of it.

Sweden spends close to double what the UK does on healthcare. I don't find it surprising that their very well-funded healthcare system fared better than ours.

I think what people forget is that for many there was no lockdown. They had to carry on working to provide essential services.
I suspect we could have selectively locked down the most vulnerable without affecting the rest of the population.
Schools were not shut, they had to stay open for essential workers children. Supermarkets were open. Hospitals were open and operating with some restrictions.
The food industry remained open along with the distribution networks.
The list is endless.
The hospitality industry was probably the hardest hit and many went out of business as a result along with the non essential retail businesses.
I think we stopped analysing death and everything was blamed on covid. Many elderly died of neglect rather than covid but it was easier to tick the covid box.
Those that were turfed out of hospital were obviously in hospital for a reason and moving them back into the care homes where nursing was inadequate was always going to end in disaster. Care homes were not prepared for looking after sick patients with very brittle health. GPs hid in their bunkers trying to operate remotely. It must have been frightening and frustrating for care workers trying to navigate the mess.

As a dentist we had six weeks of frustration until common sense prevailed and were allowed to return. Behind closed doors we rarely followed the rules, some staff were cautious but most of us realised after a couple of weeks that Covid was really not that frightening.
It became apparent early on that the hysteria was media led.

I do feel empathy for those that lost love ones directly to Covid but it must be devastating for those whose loved ones died as a result of the lockdown. The chronically ill whose care was not as it should be and those who maybe like me, had the diagnosis of life limiting illnesses delayed.

As a result of the screening schemes being halted my breast cancer diagnosis was delayed. Fortunately it was still early enough to prevent an early death but I will never know if I will live a full lifespan if it recurs.
I had three friends who were diagnosed at the same time, one didn’t survive, another has stage 4 and the third, like me, will hopefully have a good few years without recurrence.

The NHS took a huge hit and will probably never recover for many, many reasons.

Yeah cos it was just the middle classes who had to stay home whereas us SH tenants could do what we liked 🙄

I think the first lockdown was understandable (although I hated it) but not sure about the later ones.

I think there were two different phases tbh.

The initial March 2020 lockdown… people had no idea what they were dealing with. The footage from Italy and China was v scary. I think at that stage people were pretty scared as we didn’t understand it.

Later in the year (and beyond) however… no, I don’t think it was the right idea. Saved some elderly and vulnerable people, but at what other expense really?

The very high inflation we have seen in recent years is in part due to covid - plus the high cost of servicing the debt that funded it etc.

I always felt - why wasn’t there more about those who were vulnerable being sheltered, rather than everyone having to be locked down.

absolutely not.
i was very against them at the time as I could see the harm that would be caused.
I was relatively lucky that I could ignore most of it and see friends and family and of course I never tested or isolated or wore a mask but I was fuming about the harm being done and will remain angry about it for a long time

To me GPs were the biggest villains and still are !

and the care home workers had it the worse of all

and what was so apparent was the difference from the have and have nots
the division was insane
some rich celebs living in their lovely seaside holiday homes
and others in small flats with no garden
some havjgn a lovely paid break from work, others financially ruined

also horrible behaviour like reporting people for wakes that were over the numbers by only a few etc

They should have shut the country down much sooner, had a lock down and would probably have been over and done with sooner

I worked on a not for escalation covid ward the second lockdown, it was horrific. It wasnt just elderly people with lots of comorbidities which was already awful enough, it was young, relatively healthy 50 year olds, sent to the ward to die. ITU and crit care were full, decisions made over the vents and nivs daily and people were left, not standing a chance at surviving. People dying with us holding their hands, not their loved ones even though they were in some cases allowed, the fear of the virus and them exposing more family to it stopped people from coming. It was truly heartbreaking every single shift.

I feel now, that the lockdowns were essential, the amount of patients we had was unmanageable, without them, what would we have done?

I have another 20 years of working ahead of me, i hope to god nothing like covid happens again. Very few people saw the very real affects it had on people, and im quite envious of that, i wsh i hadnt witnessed the things i witnessed, and i feel because of that, should we need lockdowns in the future, fewer people would comply. I fully understand it has impacted schooling and mental health, and its a very unfortunate effect, but it kept more people alive. I fully understand how hard it was on elderly already isolated people, but it kept them alive. And surely that is the greater outcome overall?

Hindsight is a wonderful gift.
People forget that it was a new disease, for a long time people had no real idea of what it was or what it could possibly do.
It affected most of the world.

Rules and guidelines were made by governments all,across the country, some much stricter than ours and for longer and from earlier.

Were mistakes made? Obviously, yes.

The ones who were fined whilst they partied on at number 10 should be refunded
Especially the two ladies sitting on a bench outside in the fresh air
Some of the fines and rules were obscene considering what we now know etc

Luckily the home where I work locked down before they decided to do it. No residents caught it, only a few staff did.

The first one. Yes. But the latters no because during the first one, they should have come up with something better.
Buy it wasn't handled so...
As if there were no pandemic plans before...

Or maybe.... Depends on how ruthlrss person ks the first one shouldn't have happened....

Yes, because it meant that WFH had been normalized and accepted

I suspect we could have selectively locked down the most vulnerable without affecting the rest of the population.

Yes, that was the Great Barrington declaration which was signed by many prominent scientists and healthcare professionals.
Unfortunatey it was ridiculed, called unscientific, the signees were not allowed any public platform and many were sacked.
It was then ignored as if it had never been an option