To think there should be some kind of national reflection on the pandemic?

[23rdmarch2020]

It’s coming up to three years since the first lockdown. In many ways, it feels an absolute age ago. From personal experience, my life completely changed in the space of a week and so many things happened in my life that never would have because of the pandemic (some good, some bad). For some, it has been an absolute tragedy. In the space of a few weeks we went from being in our normal lives to it being a criminal offence to step outside our homes without a valid excuse. Obviously people are keen to move on but AIBU to think there should be more reflection on the pandemic than there has been?

What's the point in keep.dragging over it?
It was a pandemic ,it was a terrible time for many people ,and many lives were lost,no country got it perfect and the whole world made mistakes ,we collectively need to move on from this.

What do you mean OP, what would you like to see happen?

I spent about 18m at the time doing little else but reflecting about the madness because there was fuck-all else avaliable to do.

Reflecting will mean different things to different people.
I'm not going to hold my breath about the official enquiries. They'll probably barely scratch the surface.

Different people will want different outcomes. Some people still labour under the delusion that locking down sooner and harder would have contained it more... it was too late before we even knew it existed. China locked down long and hard and look at what that's achieved before they had to give up in the face of public protests. For me, it's acknowledging the lasting harms of the prolonged restrictions that matters most.

I don't want to forget and pretend it never happened, because it stole too much and I don't want a repeat of it. But I don't want to give it more than I have to spare either, and want to crack on with living a full life. There's a balance to be had.

Specific days of "reflection" can piss off. I'll reflect when it suits me, like MiL's anniversary, or today when the school year ended and the 6 long months of social isolation began.

I feel I have reflected enough. I work for an NHS trust and the reflecting has been hefty. I'm all reflected out.

It would be cool for a really large survey to be carried out to have a national record and narrative with case studies . Reflections on how life has changed and how we felt at the time, before we all forget. Even lighthearted facts like % of people who got a pet during lockdown.

In a town locally there was an art project culminating in burning it down. People were able to add names and burn menentos. Quite a few saw it as a ceremony, of sorts. A release. Once it was built and before it was burned some people got grumpy wanting a memorial of sorts. But then since then I've not heard anyone really pushing for something permanent

This is what I'd like a National Day of Shaming for.

As a Mother of an adult DD, who on paper is classed as having moderate LD's, S&L issues and is autistic, I want the no resuscitation policy revisited. It didn't matter if the 20+ year old led a full life, worked and, as in a couple of cases took part in the para olympics, they were left to die. While we clapped 80+ year olds who had intervention and got to leave hospital. My DD works in the NHS, which always surprises everyone, because on paper, she'd be a write off as far as many, including doctors, are concerned. Many children needing different types of therapy and interventions will never be at the level they could have been. The domestic violence, including murder was through the roof. Children in abusive homes, who should have had more home visits died, as did vulnerable adults. Pp have talked about borders being closed in other countries, so should ours have. Our rules didn't make sense. It was scary how quickly our liberty was taken away and how the sexist, racist, homophobic police forces were given free reign over how they could interpret the law. Children were threatened with arrest in their front gardens. Women following the rules were surrounded and threatened by the police. It shouldn't be swept under the carpet.

Indeed and tempus fugit.

I'm happy to never reflect on it, ever. That's a chapter which will remain firmly closed in my life.

Did that actually happen I thought the government said Drs couldn't just slap.a DNR,in someone inexcusable learning disabilities?
I.aldo.have a child with severe autism and learning disabilities,so I do.remember being extremely concerned about it.

It was utterly traumatising, people fighting over toilet rolls and hand soap, the nightly death counts, the Nightingale hospitals, the PPE fiascos, care homes, masks and idiots wearing them wrong, stupid rules about meeting up 6 people from 20 different households outside on a Wednesday afternoon only except for Christmas Day, some shops, pubs and restaurants being shut for months, schools closed forever then children being in school half the time being taught socially distanced in masks, healthcare staff on their knees, Tories messing everything up and giving contracts to their mates, breaking their own rules, shagging their secretaries, anything else?

Because of learning disabilities*

The November 2020 lockdown to "save" Christmas then come 19th December tier 4 which was lockdown in all but name so then people who were originally going to go to their relatives had to go out and buy their usual food and Christmas food. Which ensured maximum spend Piers Morgan announcing how people and families will have to make sacrifices and give up their Christmas then pissing off to Antigua for his own Christmas. The media behaved as badly as the politicians did. Hypocrisy and psychological abuse.

It was a Global Pandemic which hasn't occurred for a hundred years. An extraordinary event. No country was prepared. The advice to the public hasn't been improved since the Plague years

Quarantine. Keep separate.

This won’t be the last pandemicit wasn’t a 1 in 100 yrs event.
The rate we are as a species causing the movement of other species into new environments (via deforestation, climate change etc)…the next one is coming and it’s such a shame if we don’t learn from this one.

I wish this meant we improved in indoor ventilation in public buildings and schools, reinforced and invested in health and social care and bolstered sick leave…..
but everyone is still going around performing hygiene theatre instead with the “it’s ok - we have hand sanitizer available” plus major antivax rhetoric and reduction in investment in public health and vaccine research.

Just makes me so sad that this terrible opportunity has been missed completely.
And people seem to think it’s going to be ok to catch covid every year and not have some tragic population health outcomes in 10-20 yrs time.

The G7 summit and award ceremonies post lockdown but still with restrictions where hospitality were masked but politicians and celebs wernt Masks only for the help. The masks to protect their "betters" look was not good optics at all.

"protect the NHS" purely the responsibility of the working classes THATS what that look says.

No...just...no...
No I don't want a national day or week or whatever of reflection..frankly we spend too much time naval gazing already.
And the millions that will be wasted on a public enquiry is scandalous..that money could go into school budgets, improving nurses pay, building new hospitals..etc.
Instead a lot of people will sit around for years listening to other people "tell Thier truths" or something along those line...and absolutely nothing useful will come out of it except an overly wordy report that government of the day will give a nod to

Beauty salons not allowed to open yet men getting their nose hairs plucked at the barbers.

Actually yes, a wooden pagoda - we had one near us! Messages, photos, mementos and reflections, then a big bonfire. It was very well marshalled, organised and moving. People were really encouraged to adorn the beautiful structure with their thoughts. Then a huge civic flaming farewell.

It worked well. It was apt at the time as people were still raw. But too much time has elapsed now. People lately just want to forget and move on imo.

There needs to be a very serious look at the decisions made, their long term effects, what the justifications were at the time, and especially the shutting down and vilification of those who were critical of some decisions.

Just as an example, just recently the head of the Cochrane review on the effectiveness of masking for respiratory viruses granted an interview, where he talked about the review that came out in 2020, and how it seems to have been interfered with for political reasons that were decidedly not scientific.

Many countries are now seeing things like excessive excess deaths and that needs to be looked at closely, what are these from and do they exceed what might have been expected otherwise? For example from cancers that were not caught. Or increases in babies born with effects from STIs in places where routine STI testing during pregnancy was stopped.

Or the effects on children's education.

These weren't decisions that no one should be held to account over.

I totally agree.

It's as if it's just all been forgotten

We need a debrief

I agree. I'm not from the UK. I look back in horror at some of the things that occurred now. The benefit of hindsight 😔

I’m pissed off about the fact that it’s looking pretty certain that China created the virus, accidentally released it, tried to hide it and then lied about it which led to its quick spread around the world.

I understand that accidents happen and countries shouldn’t be punished for that but they should absolutely be punished for the lies. We should hammer them with restrictions until they pay something towards all the damage to the world they caused as they made a fortune from producing and selling all the PPE.

Hopefully that would stop any country doing the same in the future (and let’s face it, it’s bound to be China again).

@x2boys yes the DNR for people with LD did most definitely happen. I manage care services and I fought with everything I had to get my people treated properly. I didn't always succeed due to the 'rules' about DNR and other things and I will never forgive it. It felt almost like eugenics at certain points it got so bad. No one would come to help clients that were dying. Not just of covid but of other treatable conditions. Their LD and covid and the DNR was the excuse given. It didn't wash with me then and it certainly doesn't now.