To think this pandemic has provided deep insight into people's character?

[rosesbloom]

I have found it quite illuminating seeing people's reactions. Friends and family members I have known for years have surprised me. It is like this situation has acted like a catalyst to reveal people's true nature, values and character.

A friend I had known for years and thought was a kind and empathetic person said the vulnerable just need to accept that they will die if they catch it and everything needs to carry on as normal. I have an underlying health condition she doesn't know about. I just sat there in stunned silence.

It has even shown me things about myself I didn't realise. It has shown me how anxious I am about my health, usually all those worries are internal and I keep them to myself but they have had to be brought out into the light when I explain to friends/family why I don't feel comfortable going for a meal in a restaurant at the moment despite it being "allowed" and "COVID-19 secure". Even though I know I engage in risky behaviours all the time like driving a car, crossing a road, etc it is like I have a blind spot with accurately assessing COVID risks.

Have any of you had any surprising revelations from people?

@bibbitybobbitycats The wink clealry evaded you.

@loulouljh

I have no idea whether or not the public sector understand how finance works. What I have heard many many times from numerous individuals is that we should lockdown to be safe but not understanding the wider implications! Amongst those people I imagine there are people from all sectors..I don't think anyone is saying a whole sector fails to understand as that makes no sense. There is just a wide-spread misconception..("as long as we are all safe hun...!)

Yes, it is a variety of people in all sectors that might want lockdown.

And lockdown is not imposed by individuals, but by the government (Conservative government - pro-business traditionally).

So if you are against lockdown, your anger should be against the government, not public sector workers.

Direct your anger at the source of the decision-making and policy-making.

Most people have acted as I expected and tbh I can forgive both the extremely anxious creating their own rules (although annoying) and those friends finding the kindest interpretation of rules to try to give life a bit more joy (like my MIL who hosted a socially distanced garden party with pre packed picnics for each set of guests).

What has been the worst though is a couple of hypocrites who simultaneously break the rules and also take to social media condemning people for doing the same and "being selfish". I have deleted Facebook because the temptation to point out their own transgressions underneath the latest bit of virtue signalling was becoming overwhelming.

[quote fromdownwest]@bibbitybobbitycats The wink clealry evaded you.[/quote]
Oops. Was too busy being cross.

I have no anger. I am just observing people and their views which are misplaced in my view. Of course it is the Government making the decisions (very badly)!

@BeNiceLikeIRL - I am basing my comment on the comment of an ICU nurse during the peak of the Covid. They had very few people in the ward, next to no new admissions and not the horror show that we are all led to belive was nationwide.

I am not disputing that there were some pretty awful scenes, but, the severity of them is open to disucssion.

I have many friends in the NHS and many of them have complained of being quiet, with routine surgery cancelled, rountine operations cancelled and people too scared to visit ICU.

Take a look at the excess deaths in the home, and you will see a huge spike in these, with excess deaths in the hospital actually posting negative numbers.

There is no agenda here, I just wish people would look at the imperical data, and stop thinking that this is some indiscrimiate killer virus that will kill half the population!

@TheKeatingFive

Remember public sector workers pay tax too!

Obviously.

They don’t raise tax revenue though. Crucial difference

You’re pretty much proving my point to be fair.

I dont raise tax revenue but there were sure a lot of tax revenue raisers out there insistent they couldnt go raise revenue unless my workplace was open and their kids were onsite.

I have learned a lot about me I didnt know. I am tough strong and impatient! I also learned what high office think of us mere mortals! The day Dominic Cummings sat and gave that pitiful press conference that everyone around him expected us all to believe and swallow..(.the sheer ridiculousness of it which astounds me today) like the fools they think we are ,,that w as the day I learned we had lost the plot on Covid 19 and it would all fall to bits...it did it has and look atus all floundering now desperate for answers leadership and guidance
ofwhich there is non ..non effective anyway...let the white noise and confusion continue. I will rely on my own common sense because either through fear or lies which ever adgenda fits daily I cannot trust anymore.

A colleague came in work in March coughing continuously and then said "well there's no one vulnerable here"
My manager saw my face and sent him home before I lamped him

I think your argument is with the government specifically

I don’t have an argument, that was a different poster. I was just responding to the point that ‘nurses don’t need to understand the economy because their job is to care for people’, as though a) all public sector workers are nurses, b) all private sector workers work in finance and c) you only need to understand the economy if it’s in your job description.
I have no idea whether nurses understand the economy or not , as I don’t know every nurse that ever lived. I was responding to a specific post.

There are a lot of 'nice' parents at my DCs school who have shown their true colours towards the teachers over the last few months. Just before lockdown quite a few of them decided to keep their DC off school claiming that they felt it was too dangerous. I know for a fact that several took it as an opportunity to go away for an out of term time UK break before Easter. When the schools didn't open after the Easter holidays there were increasingly nasty comments being posted on social media about the school and teachers. Many were 'outraged' that their job didn't count as a key worker (so their child couldn't be in school). A couple were annoyed that vulnerable children could get child care but they couldn't (one person constantly complained that she was being 'penalised for being a good mum'- entirely missing the point that this was about protecting children).

When the schools opened to more children at the end of last year some of these parents complained that all teachers should be forced to be in school so that more children could be accommodated- even though they knew that those who were not in were medically vulnerable.

Many of them seemed to think that the teachers should have been simultaneously in school with key worker/vulnerable kids and available to answer questions about online work 24/7 (as well as somehow looking after their own families). I have seen some of them (who I know for a fact have been breaking rules throughout) complaining about a teacher having been seen at a restaurant with her family- their suggestion is that the teacher should essentially put herself in to isolation to reduce the risk that she is not able to go to work.

These are the same people who will, no doubt, be trying to organise end of year collections for the teacher and delivering them with gushing fake sentiment.

What this pandemic has taught me is that my life and the way I have been treated was shit before Covid.

It’s all the talk about how hard life is when you are stuck at home and it’s impossible and there is no way I can cope with another 2 weeks of self isolation. When actually stay8ng at home changed NOTHING for me due to my ill health. If anything, it made it easier because there was no expectations on me to be able to go out.
But no one before has ever acknowledged that been stuck at home is hard work..

It’s hearing about long Covid (not that I would ever hope anyone would get that) and seeing money thrown at it and effort in research etc... when there is fuck all on ME/CFS which is often triggered.... Yep you guessed it by a virus. Nope we are told to stop winging and do some graded exercise instead.

It’s all the talk atm for masks and how about disabled people. But not ONE word about people with mobility issues like myself who can’t walk long distances.
When we had to follow the one system in shops, this made it also impossible for me to do any shopping because the distance I had to walk was just too long. I was told to just get in with it, send someone else. We are in a pandemic don’t you know? Still the case now when you still have to queue for some shops (shoe shop just before the start of the school year was one of them). No compassion, not even trying to understand that this is an issue for me (and anyone else with mobility issues). Nope. I’m supposed to get in with it or stay at home. But if you have an issue with a mask? No problem carry on! It’s so hard for disabled people!
Why is it ok to be vocal for one group, support them right left and centre and not give a duck for all the other disabled people that are struggling in a different way with all the restrictions??

Basically what it has highlighted I that it’s one rule for one group and one rule for another. That is totally possible to help and support people with disability when we want but the society as a whole just doesn’t. It didn’t befire Covid, it doesn’t now. But the difference in treatment of the different groups has highlighted it even more.

@malificent7

Tje winging has got to me most. Ffs...my grandad was in a Hapenese Pow camp for 3 years and my nan got bombed in the blitz. Both bounced back and led happy, long lives. Then we winge as pubs shut at 10pm . We are living in one of the richest nations in the world. We will survive.

For the sake of balance - one of my grandmothers spent the whole of WW2 complaining about rationing, restrictions, air raids, the lack of decent stockings, chocolate, and sherry, and any other thing that had even the slightest impact on her life. She used to write to my grandfather (who was serving) to complain about the terrible injustice of it all. 40 years later she was still complaining. The idea that everyone spent the war sporting a stiff upper lip and a stoic, can-do attitude is a myth.

One of the things I've found interesting and a little worrying is around the discussion of deaths.

Lots of people seem to see a covid death as always weighing against any other consideration. Whatever we can do to stop them is good. Even if the people are older or have risk factors, we need to keep them perfectly safe at any cost that is not death.

But this forgets that death is actually never a totally avoidable end, everyone will die, and the old or very ill will generally die fairly soon.

Where I live until the last few weeks we still had people in care homes under lockdown, so for almost six months. These are places with a normal turnover of about 30% of residents, due to death. So a residence with 100people would have had something like 15 deaths over that time, without the chance to see loved ones. And most of those residents are looking at the situation knowing they cannot go out, they cannot see family, for the foreseeable future, and there is a real chance that will be for the rest of their lives.

So under those circumstances, how much weight do they give their own death, which is staring them in the face anyway. Vs being isolated in a medicalised environment.

A certain amount of the call to protect such people from infection at such a cost comes more from their younger children and other people, and I think it's worth asking how much of that is really about the quality of life of the elderly or frail relatives, and how much is about making the younger generation feel better about it all.

@TheSockMonster

I have been surprised how polarised many people have become. I would not have expected such extremes opinion, or for those opinions to be so strongly held. It’s like the grey areas have all been pulled from the middle. I do wonder if this is a side effect of the Brexit debate.

The people I know tend to fall into one of the following:

1. The global conspiracy theorists
2. The “JUST STAY AT HOME!” camp
3. The “everyone back to normal, it’s just flu” camp
4. The balanced camp, usually along the following lines, but flexible and happy to consider other opinions; “yes, the new state powers are worrying, possibly necessary, possibly not, but unlikely to be a sure sign of a global conspiracy; yes, we should take action as a country and individuals to limit the spread, but remaining in full lockdown is probably best avoided so long as the NHS is coping; yes, Covid is just one of many circulating illnesses we live with, but it does seem to carry a risk worthy of active management”

Fortunately most of my friends fall into #4, but many have surprised me by falling into 1, 2 or 3.

This... I couldn’t have put it better.

People stuck at home, worried for themselves, their family members and/or their livelihood ... all natural worries, but it is polarising opinion and causing barriers and breakdowns in relationships.

Too many people are struggling to see alternative viewpoints. Let’s bring on the balanced, let’s try to understand everybody has concerns and look at the big picture.
Let’s get the economy moving whilst looking after and shielding the vulnerable.

Yes, definitely and i agree not for the better.

We knew all the good people, as they shown that before, but seeing the truly selfish of some has shocked us. Some of these previously apparent good people have shown to be selfish when it really counts.

I have family and friends who's attitudes have shocked me and made me ashamed of them.

One thing which has surprised me about this pandemic is how much we as a society hate families.

A lot of people have accused parents of selfishness and callousness for wanting their children to be back in school/childcare/after-school club/with the nanny and not wanting schools to close again.

This baffles me. I mean, a lot of parents (especially single parents) need to work to pay for food and a roof over their children's head. What's selfish about not wanting to leave your 9 year old home alone all day or not wanting to exist on 4 hours sleep for weeks on end as you try to combine wfh and looking after children? What's selfish about not wanting to lose your job and your children's home and end up on benefits? Yet we've had a lot of "selfish parents wanting teachers to put themselves at risk" and "lazy parents can bloody well look after their own kids for a change". People really seem to think that a large number of parents go back home after dropping their children off, put the kettle on and watch daytime TV until home-time.

Let’s bring on the balanced, let’s try to understand everybody has concerns and look at the big picture
Yes, I am mainly interested in balance and perspective - I agree with most of the above post that this sentence came from.

I see those against local lockdowns and restrictions blaming the public sector. That makes no sense. Boris Johnson and his Cabinet did not poll the public sector about lockdowns (though if it were still David Cameron in charge we would probably be on our fifth coronavirus-related referendum by now ).

If you are against the policies being made by the government, then that is where the buck stops - with the government.

And if you voted for this government, and if you disagree with what they are doing and it was not what you thought you were getting, then you should be doubly angry.

I dont raise tax revenue but there were sure a lot of tax revenue raisers out there insistent they couldnt go raise revenue unless my workplace was open and their kids were onsite.

Yes that’s true. 🤷‍♀️

That’s how society works. Private sector facilitates public sector and vice versa.

But if the private sector can’t function (because they’re locked down or there is no provision for their children) then that’s going to impact the public sector pot in time

This appears to be news to people on here. I find that surprising.

I see those against local lockdowns and restrictions blaming the public sector

You need to go back and read the posts again. No one is saying that.

There is a common arguement that you see peoples true characters in a crisis. To an extent this is true, but I also don't think its always fair to judge people on how they react to very stressful situations. I think you tend to see the extremes of peoples characters and rather than being at one end or the other of the selfish/selflessness scale many people swing between one or the other. So for example wearing themselves out shopping for all their elderley neighbours but then having a breakdown in patience the next day with some innocuous comment a friend says and saying something patronising/hurtful rather than noticing that actually their friend is struggling with lockdown for a variety of reasons,
I've found myself swinging from dread panic/fear to feeling ridiculous for worrying and its not that bad, then back to panic sometimes several times in one day.
In short: while the current situation has given some useful insights into how people behave I think we all need to be forgiving (to an extent) of ourselves and of others if we behave strangely. These are strange times.

Oh, yes. I am surprised at the sheer number of people who appear to take real pleasure in doom-mongering, curtain twitching and denying themselves in a decidedly masochistic way.

@TheKeatingFive

I dont raise tax revenue but there were sure a lot of tax revenue raisers out there insistent they couldnt go raise revenue unless my workplace was open and their kids were onsite.

Yes that’s true. 🤷‍♀️

That’s how society works. Private sector facilitates public sector and vice versa.

But if the private sector can’t function (because they’re locked down or there is no provision for their children) then that’s going to impact the public sector pot in time

This appears to be news to people on here. I find that surprising.

Looks like the private sector and public sector are dependent on each other then

Looks like the private sector and public sector are dependent on each other then

Yes that’s the entire point