Lockdown report/Covid enquiry - if you supported lockdown do you regret it?

[Hell121]

I haven’t seen a thread on this so sorry if it has been done. In light of the report yesterday I wander if people have changed their minds on whether lockdown was a good idea. I remember the threads of utter lunacy on here and the mask hysteria/schools debate. I was against lockdowns and masks very early on but complied - I don’t think I’d ever do it again. I genuinely think it was a massive overreaction which has damaged things in this country irreparably and left many children and adults far worse off than they were pre covid.

i walked my dog across the fields
my dd escaped london and also roamed the fields!
my ds saved an awful lot of money
we drove and picked up dd things from uni, the roads were amazingly quiet
no regrets
why should i?

I genuinely couldn't tell you whether or not I supported lockdown.

I legally complied with my responsibilities when running a business.

I worked from home, which I had already trialled with my staff prior to lockdown.

I avoided busy public places when open, which I was happy to do, because they weren't particularly appealing under the conditions (e.g. nutters in the supermarket, didn't like all the extra wiping down at the gym).

I didn't engage in any specifically nutty behaviour myself - no groceries washing etc.

I had long covid (still occasional episodes), almost certainly caught in a supermarket at the beginning of lockdown. That made lockdown a blessing, because I was crippled by it.

It was tiresome and upsetting not to see my family. On the other hand, I saw more of some friends over Zoom than we could possibly have managed otherwise.

I think a lot of people fall into this category. It wasn't presented as optional, and it wasn't all bad. That's not the same as supporting it, but I couldn't claim to have better knowledge myself.

there was an underlying anxiety of course but that is over and i didnt catch covid until this year!
i thought i was going to die, being asthmatic

I supported the first kickdown for about two weeks and I'm embarrassed that I even bought into it for that long.

I supported the first lockdown when we really didn't know what we were dealing with, but not the repeated lockdowns. I remember saying that I thought hindsight would always tell us that it was a staggering global overreaction to what was always a mild virus for the majority of people.

I felt that they should have been putting in measures to protect those who were at risk, rather than a blanket "YOU'RE ALL DOOMED" approach.
Remember the "don't kill Granny" propaganda?

And there were hundreds and hundreds of people on these very boards who were openly talking about washing their groceries, refusing to let outdoor clothes come indoors and howling and shouting at anyone who pointed out that most people were having mild cases or even asymptomatic cases.

My biggest issue was that it was a pandemic response governed by social media, not necessarily by science. In the future, I personally think any pandemic should be mandated to be dealt with by a cross-party response.

What I think is interesting, is how history teachers will be able to use real life examples of propaganda in their lessons, rather than just focusing on the Nazi Germany style propaganda when studying WW2. I've always wondered how the Nazis managed to sway an entire population to their way of thinking, and it was almost fascinating to see how many people were quickly responding to reporting their neighbours for Covid breaches, or publicly naming/shaming people not wearing masks on social media etc.

I think people forget that it wasn’t just the UK that had lockdowns….it was the whole world!

I think we have to be really careful not to judge each other, no matter which side of the fence we fell. I'm sure to some degree most people wished they'd done some things differently.
But don't forget lots of people acted for the best interests of those around them, and anxiety for loved ones. People who were very compliant might for example have already lost one parent and didn't want to risk losing another, or wanted to respect the wishes of people who felt they needed to be careful.
I work in the NHS (not covid related directly) and followed more rules than I would have liked because, well, it was my job!

I did support it and I don't regret it.
It was necessary, on the information we had at the time.

My life wasn't all that different though, because I'm retired and live in a rural area.

Local volunteers did my shopping.

@Timeforabiscuit this is how I feel.

I did have a friend die from covid, she was only 35 and had survived cancer but was clinically vulnerable due to treatment. Economically and societally lockdown was very damaging but it did save lives.

At the time I think it was the right thing to do. However, restrictions should have been lifted far earlier - in wales it was about 18 months before we were allowed a reasonable number of people inside our house!

As someone who was working on the front line in March 2020, all I can say is it was absolutely terrifying, we had no idea what to expect and many of us had colleagues in ITU or sadly dying, which tends to focus your mind! People forget that we had very limited/no access to PPE and testing, no social distancing in hospitals, we were running ITUs in areas not designed or staffed for it.

Absolutely 💯 agree with every word of this

I had a baby right at the start of lockdowns. There were loads of medical appointments we missed out on as they weren’t deemed necessary.
He didn’t see many people at all so found it hard to adapt when the world opened up. We didn’t see a HV in person at all until I had a cry because he had severe reflux and I was worried about him.

There are still companies using COVID as an excuse for having to book everything.

Lockdown turned families against each other.

People weren't allowed to visit dying relatives,the police were stopping and interrogating you on your way to work and that 'non essential' shopping claptrap (fuck off Dickford)was beyond a joke.

I was in support because the idea of having to go to work and either catching it or passing it on and killing my vulnerable boss was so frightening. We also didn't know what this would do to asthmatics and I had a 1 year old who had been hospitalised with viral wheeze.

I did however disagree with not having bubbles for single households from the start and doing it in 3-week increments.

i was never stopped and interrogated on the way to work!
we werent all subject to this behaviour.

Didn’t really support or not support it, I complied and carried on going to work as normal (keyworker school staff at the time) - I do think it was the right thing to do at that particular moment. On the one hand you people dying in their droves, on the other you had people struggling with all the knock on effects of lockdown. Halting the numbers of people coming into contact with it while it was still a bit of an unknown virus and before vaccinations was the decision the government (and lots of other countries governments too) took.

I followed the rules to the letter because I believed that was the way to protect vulnerable people and the NHS. I didn't want to, and if I'm honest a great deal of that was because I don't trust this government and in particular Boris Johnson one little bit.

Now I look back I think it was all guess work on the government's part. Spin, lies, clutching at straws.

It was a nonsense, I was taken in by it all and I was bloody fuming when it came out that those clowns at the top had been snogging girlfriends in offices, having parties and travelling to their country houses. I would NEVER EVER do it again.

I can't regret doing it as at the time I thought I was doing the right thing. I would NEVER do it, or any comply with any other half arsed arbitrary control this pack of corrupt bastards come up with again.

Had lockdown not happened and more people died, no doubt you would be complaining about that too.

Other countries locked down before us, look at the tiktok that went round with Spain, Italy Germany all locking down and then us singing happy birthday while washing our hands.

As someone who was CEV I was locked down alot longer then the average Joe and my children missed some major events but not scarred for life.

We were lucky to get the vaccine rolled out alot quicker then most places.

People lost their minds – but the Government encouraged that. I was openly against lockdown (and the rest) right from the start. But I don't blame people for their hysteria, because it was deliberately whipped up by the Government and their advisors.

Evidence from the Diamond Princess cruise ship was available very quickly, and it suggested that the vast majority of people would be fine. It was also known pretty much immediately that the risk profile was vastly different depending on age and health. But no, the Government chose to tell us that we were all equally at risk, and could all die if we caught it. And there was zero interest in the (devastating) consequences of shutting down society.

To those who panicked – I don't blame you, but please, next time, don't rush into hysteria. Listen to reasoned arguments. Ask yourself why we threw away years of solid pandemic planning for something that had never, ever been seriously considered.

I never supported it, and knew the day would come when I could sit smugly and say 'knew I was right'. Someone asked the other day how you explain it to children - I am quite happy to say what a waste of everyone's time and money it all was.

Oh, and remember that the best-informed people in the whole country thought it was safe to have parties. They weren't afraid, but told you to be!

Genuine question to those who regret lockdown- where would you have put the bodies?

It doesn't matter if you personally weren't stopped by the police on the way to work.

It was WIDELY reported that people were being stopped for non-essential journeys, people stopped trying to cross from Wales into England or vice versa, women arrested in Derbyshire for having a walk and a takeaway coffee. Everyone saw these heavy-handed responses and didn't want to be next.

When we talk about lockdown we are not just talking about what happened in March 2020. I think most people accept that a short 4-6 weeks while they worked out what the hell was going on was reasonable.

It was the 18 months - 2 years AFTER April/May 2020 which was the problem.

I supported the first 3 weeks of lockdown but not beyond that. I still think that was reasonable whilst getting plans in order. There may have been a similar benefit to a short lockdown spell whilst the vaccination programme got off the ground. I could never understand why the wider societal risks of isolation were not acknowledged, it seemed like only covid mattered.
I did mostly comply with lockdown, although I did see my partner when lockdown continued and I escaped my “tier” to the one down the road. I complied with mask wearing when it was compulsory but never thought there was any value in it.

No not at all, because we had no idea what we were dealing with. We know more now which is why we can look back and judge, but hindsight is 20/20 for a reason.