To ask what the most COVID bonkers thing you did about

[Jay36]

First off this is not a COVID denier thread.

But I’m wondering what was the weird things you did at the start of the pandemic because you were worried about CV. I’ll go first;

Left my shoes outside the house as was worried about bringing the virus ‘in’ in case someone had coughed on the pavement !

Bleached the door handles daily.

Feel like I was a bit crazy now 😂😭

@MarshaBradyo

Was it that crazy? Before the surface thing got downgraded… I’m sure there was a stage where transmission wasn’t so loaded towards by air

I find looking back at this less crazy than the long lockdown stages which left more of an impact

Yes exactly- we can only label these things as 'crazy' in retrospect. Wiping groceries was somewhat unnecessary for this specific virus- it's possible that if the virus was more like Norovirus (e.g. a non-enveloped virus) then wiping groceries would make total sense.

Delivering groceries to elderly neighbours but not going inside (which some people have listed as a 'crazy behaviour') actually still makes total sense but just made a bit more sense when the dominant strain of Covid was more severe and before vaccinations.

@Omicrone

Nothing.

I had Covid in March 2020 and had very mild symptoms so didn't really give a shit after that! I played by the rules because I didn't want to catch it again and pass it on, but I knew I would be ok if I got it so didn't need to worry too much. It was actually a really good thing to get it so early on, although I was quite annoyed at the time!

Given that no-one was being tested unless they were hospitalised at that point - how do you know you had Covid ?

I probably did most of these things.

One thing I remember was at the height of panic buying gazing at the utterly depleted tinned soup section in the supermarket. Except Baxter’s lobster bisque. Even in pandemic panic purchasing people obviously just thought nope to that!

Did all shopping locally 7 am and wiped it down. Pressed crossing buttons with disposable wipes. Left deliveries 48 hrs or was it 72?

The thing was we knew so much less about transmission and this was pre-vaccine. Now we know that ventilation etc is really important and it’s still not being done well eg in schools

My partner and I are both teachers. After the first day of working with the keyworker and vulnerable children during first lockdown and school closures, my OH stripped down to his pants in the front porch before coming into the house, just in case his clothes were contaminated. He never did anything like that again afterwards and think felt ashamed for allowing himself to view the children in this way.
The silliest thing I did was probably having no physical contact with my parents for the first month or so of lockdown. My daughter only saw her grandparents through the window on her 2nd birthday. My mum cried.
The fear didn't last long in my extended family thankfully.

I remember worrying driving to my dads pub that I would get stopped
I couldn't get a food delivery and as I was shielding we figured this was safer. I drove over and stood in the walk in fridge with my dad outside saying "take it all. I don't think we will be reopening" and wondering how much to take!

They retired during the first lockdown after 35 years in the trade by simply locking up and leaving. No party, no celebration, no goodbye from the regulars it's not how it should have been

@HelloViroids

Right at the beginning when it was only known to be in mainland China, I went to a work meeting - when I found out one of the other attendees had recently been in Hong Kong I burst into tears and left. In my defence, I was about 11 weeks pregnant by some miracle, following a missed miscarriage and subsequent blocked Fallopian tube and infertility diagnosis, and insanely anxious. DC is now nearly 18 months

Totally unrelated to topic but ... reading your post has given me a little hope . I'm just home from hospital after having a second miscarriage and a rather bleak chance of having a successful pregnancy in future. It's always reassuring to know that people can defy the odds and have their babies ❤️.

I'm relieved and thankful to say I was quite rational after about mid April 2020 about Covid matters.

However the most insane anxiety has caught up with me the last few weeks, and I think some of it is blocked up Covid trauma. Well not Covid the illness, but the time we have lived through

Planning a weekly shop and errands for the same day each week so if I can get Covid I’d hopefully be symptomatic before the next week. Was soooo worried I’d be spreading it around

Nothing! We never succombed to panic and made any adjustment to our daily life but saw many people around us doing it. How many times did I see people stepping away from me when shopping! We also had some friend who were washing/spraying all their groceries and the same people were waiting a couple of days before touching/opening their parcels

The irony is these people ending up catching it somehow, we didn’t (we have been testing extensively as we have been travelling a lot between countries throughout this period but never tested positive).

@HalloHello

Omg what a great thread, I love thinking about all the mental stuff we did 🙈

We live in a seaside town, 5 mins in the car we would be at the beach. But we didn't go for the entire first lockdown because we were all told not to drive!! It is a little bit far to walk as we had a just 2 year old so we never went to the beach for months.

Wouldn't let let my daughter touch anything while out walking in the deserted woods behind our house in case covid was on it.

Just seems absolutely mad now. It's really sad actually.

Me too. I can see the sea from my house but a bit too far to walk up the hillside and back. So I didn't go to the beach for 3 months. Police were questioning anyone who drove to the beach.

@MarshaBradyo

Was it that crazy? Before the surface thing got downgraded… I’m sure there was a stage where transmission wasn’t so loaded towards by air

I find looking back at this less crazy than the long lockdown stages which left more of an impact

I think you're right Marsha - face masks weren't brought in as compulsory in shops in England until July 2020, and even then they weren't compulsory in Wales. Yet every shop had sanitising gel as you walked in. Perhaps they thought the masks weren't needed if you kept 2m distance ?

When my DMIL dropped off my DD’s birthday present in the torrential rain she stood on the doorstep with the door ajar and watched as we opened presents and blew out candles inside.

Laughable now, but at the time we were all terrified and no way would we have felt comfortable all being indoors, even with windows and doors open.

@Jewel52

Still feels too soon for me to be reflective on this stuff. Felt so awful and dystopian to take my 3 kids out for their exercise and have others leap off the pavement to keep their social distance. It was a truly awful time, kids missing their friends and school, no definite end to lockdown, queues for supermarkets, essentially people seeing each other as a health threat. Personally not ready to be nostalgic for lockdown 1

Same.

It's not something to laugh about ever yet

I find it really interesting that a few people shared my fear of "breaking rules" as much as or more than the virus itself - even though I was following rules to a large degree I had quite a bit of paranoia about coming into conflict with authority figures - I was quite pragmatic about the virus itself.

In lockdown 1, we stayed in the house/garden for the first 6 weeks- not even going for a daily walk (plenty of play equipment and space in garden for dc to run about) I only went out once a week for food shop!

I always went out daily for a walk. I cant stand being in the house all day. DP though didn't go outside the house for a few months.

Used a dilute bleach spray to disinfect everywhere I'd touched.

Brought bananas with my wine in case I was stopped by the police and fined for buying non essential items

The smug “we never made any changes, we knew it was minor, we never got it and travelled extensively” posts aren’t very helpful. People are pouring their hearts out in this thread. There’s no shame in succumbing to the fear of the unknown and following what was the legitimate guidance at the time.

Although me being made to wear a mask in labour was the guidance being misconstrued.

Work made us wear a visor, mask, gloves and apron to get patients in from the waiting room... the throw them straight away. I had friends working in London with PPE shortages and no masks so this made me really mad bexhas it was just so stupid and wasteful so I refused

I didn't go to a shop for nearly 9 months and had a panic the first time I did as I thought I would be kicked out for not understanding the one way system or if I forgot something I wouldn't be allowed to go back for it.

I also got told off by a police officer for letting my children play with skipping ropes on the empty playing field at the park (obvs the playground was closed) and debating with him what is classed as exercise (we lived in a flat with no garden at the time).

@KO81 I agree. And it was not minor for everyone who was hospitalised or died. I know four people who died of covid and one who was hospitalized and recovered.

Weird to think everybody did all these things but mask wearing wasn't brough in till much later.

First lockdown- I didn't even go outside in the garden for 2 weeks after that started going shopping with goggles, gloves and scarf around my mouth and nose as it cost like £40+ for pack 10 masks. Dh ordered a covid test from China and later found out he had to draw some blood and send it back to China Also, I used stardrops white vinegar spray on everyone who came from outside as there were no bloody dettols left in the supermarket.

Second lockdown- I was eating at a packed restaurant just before Christmas when they announced the second lockdown