To think there's a whole mental health aftermath to the pandemic which isn't really being addressed

[crackerscandycanes]

Just looking at people I know, people seem to be really struggling at the minute, and of course the cost of living is a big part and all the bad news etc, but I also think that some of it is the aftermath of the pandemic and everything we had to go through being locked indoors for all that time. It seems as if we're not supposed to mention it now or reflect, but I think there's a lot of mental health issues on the back of it.

Oh God, yes! This ^^^^^^

At DD's school the sheer level of fainting, panicking, anxiety and just general hysterical nonsense when they were all having their injections was of epic proportions. Not surprisingly, the well known Drama Llamas were giving Oscar level performances and revelling in the attention and consternation.

Luckily, DD has been sensibly raised to roll with the punches and have some gumption. She helpfully pointed out that if they thought injections were going to be painful, wait until they were having to push something the size and weight of a bowling ball out of their vag'. She was reprimanded by a teacher 'for not being supportive.'

I can’t say I know much about that! But dcs seem fine with injections (apart from four year old)

I agree it’s about expectations although from slightly different angle.

The idea that we can harm young people and adults mentally with pandemic response and say that’s ok we’ll just throw loads of money at it with government funding isn’t right imo

Better to adjust the equation so the harm is factored in and the response is altered to limit it.

Better to adjust the equation so the harm is factored in and the response is altered to limit it.

A million times this

great I'll just grab my time machine

An important learning for the future. One of the biggest issues with lockdown was that no cost/benefit analysis was even attempted. This may have been acceptable in March/April 2020, but not after that.

This is the type of thing we should be building understanding of now incase we're ever in this situation again.

Well sure. People were saying it at the time though but many were too angry / fearful to hear it.
A huge shame.

At least it’s being discussed now by some which is no great overturn but a realisation at least.

I think there are two separate issues here.

@TheKeatingFive is indisputably correct that no proper cost benefit analysis was undertaken during the restrictions period, indeed it was discouraged, and that it's vital we do as comprehensive a job as possible of this going forward so we know whether lockdown should remain in the pandemic toolkit or not. It was a new addition in early 2020, having not been in the pandemic planning prior to that.

But obviously that doesn't help us much now, notwithstanding that there's benefit in just having these discussions. We do also need to identify the problems we're facing and how best to tackle them, and that isn't actually impacted by whether they stemmed from objectively bad policy or not. Unfortunately we're operating within significant resource constraints now, which would be a problem even if there weren't unwillingness in many quarters to actually name and identify the problem.

Really they need a global pandemic commission so nations agree future measures bilaterally. One of the more absurd dimensions of lockdown was the conflicting travel restrictions, and clearly an island like britain is almost completely dependent on outside supply chains which were massively hampered.

Of course, that could just be another diplomatic shithow.

My worry would be that wealthier countries who have the infrastructure in place to make lockdown at least theoretically possible would use their power to try and impose measures that the poorest couldn't execute or afford.

But you're right about the travel restrictions, and the UK's inability to function without incredibly integrated outside supply chains.

I don't think global 'agreement' is the way forward. Countries did well by playing to their individual strengths. But lots of analysis of the benefit and harms of each measure to guide decision making in the future.

For example, the harms of closing schools were very significant. We know that now. If that's ever on the table again, we would need to be 100% sure that the benefits are worth it and baked into the decision would need to be the support measures to mitigate the affects to any degree we can.

I can never forgive anyone who thought it acceptable to force people into solitary confinement for almost three months. Even a couple of weeks would have been too much.

I've noticed people who live alone understand this, there's a look in the eye when it's come up in conversation. Those who were not alone just don't get it.

The worst offender was a horrible bitch who told me I must be a horrible person who wanted people like her to die, just because I was clearly breaking down from the isolation and thought people who live alone should be allowed to buddy up with someone, as they did in New Zealand. She lived with her husband, happy newlyweds. And no one told her to STFU (this was on Facebook), which pains me even more.

I sometimes have flashbacks to the horror of the isolation and feel so worthless that it was considered ok to do that to people like me.

Incredibly they didn't bring in bubbles for single people for eleven weeks. And brought them in at the same time as childcare bubbles, as if basic contact with another human is somehow on the same level as childcare.

It's a crime against humanity, imo. We know the damage solitary confinement can do, there was no excuse. (For those who like to claim it wasn't solitary confinement, the definition of this is 23 or more hours a day alone, and doesn't include contact via screen etc.)

Sorry to hear you were traumatised, Money.

Just as you've been traumatised by isolation, others were traumatised by being forced to work with inadequate PPE etc, or by losing loved ones. Everyone's trauma is different and it's all affecting people in different ways.

Incredibly they didn't bring in bubbles for single people for eleven weeks. And brought them in at the same time as childcare bubbles, as if basic contact with another human is somehow on the same level as childcare.

Both omissions endangered the people on the wrong end of them: very young children not being supervised properly is a danger. I had a friend who ticked both boxes but was entitled to see nobody as she attempted to balance full time work with sole care of her toddler. Horrific.

And these both fall into the category of things we knew full fucking well were going to cause problems in March 2020, but the people who were going to be at risk didn't matter enough to address them. I can quite see why you are still angry. It's entirely justified.

Incredibly they didn't bring in bubbles for single people for eleven weeks. And brought them in at the same time as childcare bubbles, as if basic contact with another human is somehow on the same level as childcare.

That was the 1 rule I broke with no fucks given. The expectation that an 83 year old should be left to grieve a woman who had been his world, alone, was beyond cruel. I didn't care want anybody thought about me, my dad deserved better than that.

You're spot on, there was no excuse,* *I wish you well @MoneyWasJustRestingInMyAccount I can only imagine how it must have been for you and so many others in the same situation.

Yes if course, and I don't mean to dismiss anyone else's trauma.

I think the thing that really gets to me about it is that it was so very easily avoided. It wouldn't have required organisation, or planning, or sourcing materials. All it would have taken was for someone in one of the meetings to say "Hold on - what about people living alone?" and to give out the statement that they could join another household. The fact the the precedent of New Zealand's lockdown existed, and that it took eleven weeks to allow this fundamental human contact, makes me think someone did point it out, and it was decided we simply didn't matter.

It seems too obvious to have been overlooked, doesn't it?

The problem was at the time covid became the only risk to life to be avoided at any cost. Anyone trying to highlight other viewpoints were labelled as murderers.

It's worrying that some people still think like this.

I'm not sure these are the same kind of thing.

Losing people, fear of becoming ill - I would broadly put those under "fear of death" and the repercussions of death. In some sense the most horrible reality of human life, but also completely ubiquitous and inevitable for us all. We will all experience the trauma of having loved ones die, of becoming ill and dying ourselves, of not being able to control disease and sickness and the degradation of our bodies, and we must all somehow come to terms with it. The pandemic really did nothing to change that.

Having laws or regulations passed completely artificially, supposedly for the good of ourselves and others, that remove us from the human community - that is abnormal, and destructive of the integrity of the human community. That is not nature playing out as it does, that is people doing something to us.

I know that herein my part of Canada, people in the medical system who tried to argue for looking at the longer term results of the covid measures - say for cancer - were ultimately ignored and even removed from the discussion.

Good post at 23.01 @MangyInseam

Exactly.

Mangy agree with your 23:01 post.

It's a weird one as well, because I don't think it necessarily falls into things we knew were going to have awful consequences but the government decided those people's interests would have to be sacrificed in the name of reducing contacts and controlling the spread. Eg domestic violence victims, schoolchildren, workers and preschool children when childcare was withdrawn etc.

But it would've been entirely possible within the parameters of the lockdown we had to include at least some provision for those living alone, even if it were only some minor sop like you can meet one person outside only for exercise. Yet it was never done.

@SirMingeALot

"It seems too obvious to have been overlooked, doesn't it"

+++

I absolutely don't think it was overlooked. I just think that anyone who pointed it out in the early days would have been shut down and criticised as uncaring, Covid denier, anti vaxx etc. Everyone else (as is often the case in authoritarian regimes) then learnt to keep their mouths shut if they wanted to get on / keep their jobs.

Just to clarify, when I say never done that was a confusing word choice because there were some provisions for single person households later on. I mean it never happened in the initial period.