What would you do differently if there were another lockdown?

[Ifithappens]

If we had another lockdown happen, i doubt it but if it did, what would you do different this time round.

I cant say i would change anything as i live alone, and i enjoyed it tbvh.
I didnt go mad with stock piling.

But if it happened again i would knit another quilt.

As I wouldn't be WFH this time as retired I could go and sit in my garden and enjoy the sunshine instead of being stuck in front of a computer watching DH and DD2 enjoying themselves in the sunshine.

No experience of the supermarket debacle DD1 and SIL wouldn't allow us to go and did our shop for us leaving it at the bottom of the drive. Once available we swapped to having it delivered and have kept that up.

Probably would grow more veg as others are suggesting, and do more exercise. Lockdown caused me to put on a lot of weight as I wasn't rushing around an office

I would sell the house and move to a town, I live in the countryside and throughout lockdown it felt much more isolating and lonely than normal. People became very curtain twitchy I would rather be a face in a crowd and just I’d like to be around more people, it was so lonely and it really broke me.

find a doctor, literally any doctor even if it’s a private one hours away I need to pay for or a one abroad literally anywhere that will do in person appointments easily, I had some major health issues throughout that could have been resolved quicker if someone had just in person looked at me rather than a phone call.

Not be working in a supermarket. People were fucking twats to me and it nearly broke me. I got sacked for gross misconduct (not telling you lot why) in March 2021, and it was fucking bliss. Probably saved my life. I was out of work for three months and got a job at Screwfix. A very different set up, but better than being in a supermarket.

Yes. It was definitely just a “me” problem 🙄

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55540485

Anyone else remember being number 5678 in the queue to just get on to the websites?

It would depend on the virus. I would be very cautious until I knew more. If it was like the last one I would ignore all the rules once that was clarified. We did far more long term damage to the population with the extended lockdowns that if we had all stopped with the lock down stuff after the first month.

Excellent point.

My life looks quite different now from what it did in 2020 so it's difficult to know, really. During lockdown we were in a very fortunate position - it was just me, my husband and the cat, we worked from home in jobs largely unaffected by what was happening, we had a decent garden and lived in a walkable place. If it were to happen now we'd have one (soon to be two) children to juggle, less space and jobs more likely to be affected by a pandemic.

Yep. DS should have been taking his A-levels when lockdown hit but instead of staying home feeling sorry for himself he got a minimum wage job at a supermarket. He worked bloody hard, long hours and some people were absolutely awful to him.

I wonder how many lockdown fans would be as happy with it if they had to work in public facing jobs being sworn at, threatened with violence and spat at then coming home to a flat with no outside space rather than wfh with a garden to sit in when they log off.

We were so close to losing our business.
We built it up from nothing except savings from summer jobs.
It was a really horrendous time for so many.

Oh and ban the phrases “key worker” and “extremely clinically vulnerable”

It's hard to speculate, since we'll never know what would have happened if we hadn't locked down. As it was, the UK had about 232,000 deaths from Covid, or the equivalent of nearly the entire population of Blackpool. Plus thousands of cases of Long Covid. So that's quite a bit of "long term damage".

I'll be staying well at home next time a lethal virus comes along....

Depends on the virus, but if it was another one like Covid which wasn’t seriously harmful to children, there’s no way I would obey any edicts banning my child from all in-person contact with her friends. It was hugely damaging last time round.

Bit off track but I've still not understood why the plastic barriers have been removed from supermarket tills, shops, pharmacy etc.

A) it stops horrible customers getting really in your face
B) may stop assaults, theft from corner shops who seem to be under constant threat
C) must stop some of the bugs getting through to the staff even if it's only the common cold

One of the few things that should have been continued after lockdown was over

They haven’t been removed from any of the shops near me.

1. drink less booze. Lockdown went on a lot longer than I expected and I emerged with an unhealthy booze habit
2. buy and use scales. My old ones broke, I didn’t replace until after lockdown and whilst I knew I’d put on some weight it was an awful lot more than I thought
3. Work less. I ran myself ragged still working from home and trying to entertain a toddler as nursery was closed. I did a great job of balancing but in hindsight I should’ve been kinder to myself

Probably many things because we have exam age teens now not end primary type ages.

Buy a garden sauna?

I think COVID did divide people like that. It was seen as younger people sacrificing for older ones

If it happens in future with a virus that mainly affects babies/children/teens I would do the same.

I would ignore it . I would go about my daily business as normally as possible. Lockdown didn’t work and I am still so surprised how compliant we all were whilst the powers that be did their own thing !
Another lockdown would be unenforceable.

That's awful, l'm so sorry xxx

My DH used to spray most stuff (with bloody disinfectant) that we got from the shops, and even stuff we had sent for off the internet (off ebay and amazon etc...) When things came through the post, he sprayed it with disinfectant, and left it in the spare bedroom for 3-4 days so all the germs could die off. 🙄

Yes, he went overboard. And it got on my tits. He was like this for much of 2020, and part of 2021, though he did do it less as 2021 went on...

He has said though, that if the same thing happened now (another pandemic) he would be more chilled out.

only leave disinfected things in the spare bedroom for 1-2 days maybe?

Like many NHS staff, I feel that my goodwill was roundly abused last time and should there be another pandemic I will not be putting my own and my family’s health at risk again.

The contributors on this thread who would not comply with another lockdown may wish to consider that it is by no means certain that the NHS would be able to expand capacity to care for them as it did last time

I would be more confident in my own judgements about what was and wasn't safe to do. I would demand better online schooling and outdoor children activities and socialisation to continue. I would not stick within a 2km radius for outdoor exercise and I would scale the walls of local parks if they closed them.

It did work on a smaller level. We can’t know how many people it did save but do you think the death/long COVID figures would have been lower if everyone had continued to spread it around?

Indeed. I was at a baby group last year, and you can tell who's never worked in retail, let alone during the pandemic. The way some of the mums were talking about retail workers during covid times made me really angry.