It has not been 2 years

[maddening]

Aibu to find that people are naturally over exaggerating the length of pandemic. I noticed in March that there was a lot of reference to "the last 18 months" when obviously it had only been 12-13 at most, and now people seem to refer to "the last 2 years" when it has been been 16 months - we aren't even at 18 months yet. I know it probably feels that long but aibu to think that people are often skewing the Time frames of the pandemic?

Suggesting that the pandemic didn’t start before March 20 is a Euro-centric view. People in other parts of the world suffered well before we did.

2020 was shit due to corona. 2021 is and will continue to be shit due to corona. So it feels like we have lost ‘2 years’

It's mostly said in the sense of, all of 2020, and all of 2021 so far...

And I was pretty aware when I was travelling in Nov 19 that there was stuff going on in Wuhan (I was in America) ... in Dec 20 it was definitely talked about a lot, so the concern didn't just start prior to the lockdowns. It was definitely a consideration when I was travelling within the UK end of Jan 20 - there was an outbreak where I went so it wasn't unfounded concern!

@WasThisSexist

Suggesting that the pandemic didn’t start before March 20 is a Euro-centric view. People in other parts of the world suffered well before we did.

True, I remember seeing news articles about it in January 2020 on BBC news when only a couple of people had died from it in China and thinking ‘well this sounds like it could be bad’ so for many people it’s been on their radar for ages now.

@Sapnupuas

It feels like it's been about 100 years...

So true

I know what you are saying, but for a lot of people the impact spans two years. It certainly does for me. I have family in a country that still has closed borders and that will continue at least until the of this year or longer. My teen dd missed out on various extra curricular things last year and those things also could not go ahead this year (school trips, sports competitions, and other extra curricular things).

I wouldn't care, if people exaggerating the duration didn't tend to exaggerate the severity of the restrictions at the same time.

We didn't have a lockdown for MONTHS last year, last summer was opened enough than many of us went on holiday abroad! It didn't get bad until Christmas again, and a few months this year.

I mean it has been shit enough, not sure what the point of making it worst than it was could be.

A friend of a friend had been visiting parents in China and had to come back Dec 19. So it really was around way before March 20.

I have mused on this too OP. I tend to say 'the last year and a bit'. I'm in the UK and it was gossip in February then 'began' in March 2020 in my experience. I don't want to round up!

We are well into the second year of it though, aren't we? Two whole springs and summers. Two years'-worth of spring and summer birthday and anniversary celebrations missed, two lots of holidays and school exams fucked up.

So when people talk about two years, I know just what they mean.

Well we dont reallt know, reports were coming out of Wuhan November /December 2019, it may have been circulating for a few months before that?

🙃

@ComDummings

2020 was shit due to corona. 2021 is and will continue to be shit due to corona. So it feels like we have lost ‘2 years’

I agree. Two years running with summer travel being problematic. This being the second year of it.

Well, not necessarily the length of time I hadn't seen my parents, as I could see what way the wind was blowing so went to visit in March 2020 - but apart from a single night visiting both DPs and DMIL in July 2020, the next time I saw DPs was for a lunch in mid-June 21 and DMIL this week. We only love 2.5 hours apart but our area has been locked up more than most so we were not able to travel.

And I also had started to notice and put things in motion to be able to deal with problems back in very early January 20. Rebuilding my non-perishable stores of food, getting a large bottle of hand sanitiser and extra disposable gloves, ordering masks in early February (and learning to see them in early March given delivery problems), making sure I had school resources for DD at home including a chemistry set/plenty of paper and stationary/study notes for various problem subjects etc.

So for me, this has been going on more than 18 months. But you're right, not yet 2 years.

@pleasedonttextmyman

I wouldn't care, if people exaggerating the duration didn't tend to exaggerate the severity of the restrictions at the same time.

We didn't have a lockdown for MONTHS last year, last summer was opened enough than many of us went on holiday abroad! It didn't get bad until Christmas again, and a few months this year.

I mean it has been shit enough, not sure what the point of making it worst than it was could be.

Speak for yourself, here in Bolton we had extra restrictions last summer, extra to the extra ones imposed on Greater Manchester.

@pleasedonttextmyman

I wouldn't care, if people exaggerating the duration didn't tend to exaggerate the severity of the restrictions at the same time.

We didn't have a lockdown for MONTHS last year, last summer was opened enough than many of us went on holiday abroad! It didn't get bad until Christmas again, and a few months this year.

I mean it has been shit enough, not sure what the point of making it worst than it was could be.

Some areas of the UK were in restrictions for a really long time last year, that tier 4 bullshit was lockdown and it was fucking awful.

@maddening

Crouch- so if I start a job in November 2021 and apply for a new job in June 2022 I can say I have been in my role for 2 years?

No, in a job interview you would want to be specific, but looking back or chatting to friends plenty of people might say that they were in the role for about 2 years or a bit under 2 years. Especially if it was a full on job that had required them to work while homeschooling while ill while locked down and had dominated their life for that period.

Maybe a good time to think through what you are getting out of this and why you have such a strong need to prove other people slightly incorrect.

I now look like elderly Rose 😄.

From gov.uk On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.

On 12 January 2020, it was announced that a novel coronavirus had been identified in samples obtained from cases and that initial analysis of virus genetic sequences suggested that this was the cause of the outbreak. This virus is referred to as SARS-CoV-2, and the associated disease as COVID-19.

So it was not till mid Jan that it was really taking off, this was not a pandemic at that point and it was not impacting our lives until then. For Europe it was early to mid Feb that it kicked off in Italy and for UK, it was mid March. So using feb/March as our starting point is not ridiculously ignorant, and less so than desperately trying to suggest we were in global pandemic anywhere around November 2019.

Lockdown started early 2020. Restrictions eased middle of 2021 but things aren’t really back to normal and might not be back to normal this year.

Also just because we didn’t enter a lockdown until March, or WHO didn’t declare it a pandemic before then, doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening before then. We travelled in early February 2020 and people were wearing face masks in the airport. A lot of people were ill in December 2019/January 2020 and wondering if they had covid so for them, they’ve already reached the 18 month mark.

Some areas of the UK were in restrictions for a really long time last year, that tier 4 bullshit was lockdown and it was fucking awful.

same for other countries, but people living in my own area were subject to the exact same restrictions than I was, it REALLY wasn't a lockdown. And thank god for that.

It sounds like people feel they would be more interesting if they had experienced a worst hardship or something, it's boring. And again, I was there too, no need to exaggerate, I lived it, I remember!

I mean each UK country and even areas have had their own restrictions on travel didn't they ? so not everyone had an abroad holiday last year . Personally I wasn't allowed out of my country last year far less go abroad !

@maddening

"Maybe a good time to think through what you are getting out of this and why you have such a strong need to prove other people slightly incorrect"

You get this from a musing? Dfod

It's not a musing. You've come back on it again and again to insist you're right. And now you're angry and telling people who disagree with you to fuck off. Which really just makes the same point, that you are very emotionally invested in being right about this.

Because there was a massive cover up by the WHO so people didn’t turn against China for allowing another outbreak of SARS. It’s the same reason they changed it to COVID from the Chinese flu that everyone was calling it at the beginning. Now they saying we’re coming to an end they think people will forget the first 6 months they were telling us it wasn’t happening then it was only in China being controlled.