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.

Yes, people claiming this is hindsight are just being ridiculous. It was bleeding obvious if you cared to think about it that lockdown was going to have downsides, even cause deaths. Just wasn't convenient to acknowledge.

The question that needs to be answered is whether those downsides were the least worst option we had- they may well have been. Not whether we didn't know full well in March 2020 that loneliness kills, that locking DV victims up with their abusers wasn't going to end well, that removing access to schooling for most children would entrench inequality, that giving the police new powers wasn't going to lead to them being disproportionately exercised against black people or whatever else anyone chooses to feign ignorance about.

I think the issue for many people is that they sacrificed so much so they need to believe it was for something. People didn't get to see their dying loved ones. They spent months away from friends and family members. They missed so many things. Their kids ended up with anxiety and depression and are still living with the impact. Some lost their jobs. Relationships broke down. People didn't receive medical treatment they needed (including for many serious illnesses). Many have the physical and mental health scars left from lockdown still. How do we feel ok about all that if it was all for nothing, if all those sacrifices didn't even save any lives?

I actually don't even want to think about the fact it was pointless. For all the reasons above.

I agree with this

Consider yourself lucky with an hour! Some Universities used campus security staff to stop their students leaving their campus accommodation at all! Don't forget those pictures showing security barriers around blocks of Uni flats!

Now that really was crazy!

Supported lock down. Do not support the gp bollocks that goes on now.

By the same token, please remember those who have died and will die sooner as a consequence of us choosing lockdown. I say this as someone who's on the fence. They both matter.

How many of us on here posting would actually NOT be here posting (because we would be dead), if lockdown hadn't have happened? And the virus had spread more, more deaths?

Hardly any of us. It has a 99.76% survival rate.

I don’t judge the first lockdown as no one knew what was going on. But the pathology of it became clear very quickly (much quicker than they acted on)

I live in Spain and we had masks much more strictly and for much longer than the UK. Kids wore masks at school. Our kids have been back fulltime in Spain since September 2020. Not like the endless rolling lockdowns in the UK.

It was project hysteria and you only had to come on here to work out how successful it was. I had to come off MN for 6 months as I couldn't bear it.

It's cost the economy billions, the NHS became Covid only and as a result, my Dad died of cancer so I'm not sure I'm rational to comment on it.

I'm also not sure that MN is a rational place for discussion about it. I'd guess that a fair few users are still bleaching their post and shopping and wearing a face mask....

There is no 'the science'. Pandemic management involves choosing who and what to prioritise, and that's a value judgement.

None of which is to defend EOTHO. I don't really understand the economic rationale for that one and didn't at the time.

I worked in the NHS at the time and I 'supported' lockdown (if complying is supporting?). I haven't changed my mind. But it also wasn't a hardship for me or my family or most people I know, which makes supporting something easier I guess. And we got some positives out of it as a family, as did my kids. But I can understand those who'd not like it/ were harmed by it would feel very differently.

You can't change the past though.

What about all the other countries who also locked down, some even harder than the UK? They didn't have the NHS did they? Don't NHS apologists always bleat on about how other countries' healthcare systems are so much better because they're much better funded? Well, it didn't help them avoid lockdowns did it?

What is the point of this thread exactly?

I supported a short lockdown and still think it would have been catastrophic if we hadn't had one in the UK. I still don't think we know the full impact on deaths and the negative impacts and probably never will though. I agree with this article which concludes:

“In every country, Sweden included, the interventions themselves saved many, many lives. But in every country, Sweden included, there were major economic impacts.”
“Whether the interventions should have been required by law or purely voluntary depends a lot on local circumstances, among other factors,” he added. “But it’s important to make sure people don’t get confused and think that we would all have been fine just living our lives as usual in the spring of 2020. That would have been catastrophic.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/05/revised-report-on-impact-of-covid-lockdowns-leaves-unanswered-questions

Sad to see the word "hysteria" used so many times on a women's forum; try and use another word please😕

This is a balanced overview of the report https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/05/revised-report-on-impact-of-covid-lockdowns-leaves-unanswered-questions

I don't think the report actually proves what people on this thread thinks it does!

Discussion on a big event that impacted nearly everyone I suspect

EOTHO was illogical and one of Rishi's more stupid ideas. And let's face, he did a lot of stupid things during the covid years, such as hanging out the dry 3 million self employed/freelancers who he deliberately excluded from support, allowing billions to be lost to fraud in the bounce back loans, flip-flopping with furlough, etc.

I know of 7 people who died from covid. 3 in same family and I don't know a lot of people. My bubble is small. Without lockdown it would have swamped the NHS.

I supported the lockdown as far as I possibly could. But I'm glad now that I broke Christmas 2020 rules and let my then 23-year-old son spend Christmas night under our roof instead of sending home to his empty flat-share. He was the only person who wasn't covered by the rules. His student sister and grandmother (in our bubble) could have legally stayed with us, but not him.

I hope the posters who harangued a mother whose daughter had suffered a relationship breakdown and was struggling, and who wanted to extract her from London just as lockdown started, feel bad for telling her she would be responsible for people dying.

What @thebellagio said

The lockdown lovers still walk among us

Not ignoring the early warning signs in oct 2020 would have been helpful. Failing to recognise it is airborne and deal with that was also an issue.

2nd lockdown was preventable, but became necessary because we failed to do anything to prevent it. If Boris wasn’t such an idiot the Xmas 2020 debacle could have been avoided.

People were incapable of hearing it. They didn’t want to know about downsides. That was the issue.

It was blindingly obvious though, when outside being put through the Covid campaign mill.

I did not have a 99.76 survival rate in 2020.