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 agree with most of your post, although I take issue with the statement that community masking does nothing. There are clear negative impacts of masking and I think we need to stop referring to it as pointless but harmless.

Even to this day there is much denial because I guess cognitive dissonance is a thing. I know several previously fit and healthy women in their 30s/40s now suffering Long Covid, and due to the Governments complete inadequacy to state clear, common sense rules, the whole thing became a diabolical joke.

If there had been a pandemic

Wait? There wasn't one? Fake news. Well knock me over.

Really? Sorry I find that hard to believe especially if clinical staff.

The first lockdown was needed, nobody knew what we were dealing with. The pictures from Italy were horrendous.

However I believe it went on far too long esp in Scotland. All the zero covid pish was never going to happen.
9mths of not being able to visit family and friends but you could meet in a public restaurant with a zillion other people.
Only before 6pm - aye Nicola covid could tell the time.

The survival rate was WITH lockdowns, restrictions, etc. No one knows what it would have been without.

Tories - one rule for them (and their privileged mates) and another for everyone else!

You really must not have known many doctors or nurses then...

whatever the tories did and did not do makes no difference to me, i chose what to do for myself

I dread to think if that had been the case. Maybe schools shut the whole time as they were in a state in US

I can’t believe posters going on about crystal balls and hindsight. Mn was in real time, issues raised early but the frantic tried to shout it down. It was obvious then too

There are definitely people on MN who seem to know...

The problem was that no one thought the general population was capable of common sense. They could have asked us to socially distance without shutting down the economy. We could have still gone out to restaurants and shops to keep them afloat with some additional cleaning and ventilation in place. They just didn’t trust us to do that so it was all or nothing. Sweden was mercilessly sneered at for taking a different approach. The rest of the world went into lockdown. The science was still catching up and everything was completely unknown so probably that first lockdown was the best we could do at the time. But all subsequent lockdowns were a travesty

This is so true. I worked in Hospitality and due to covid got moved to bookings WFH. The nightmare customers would always use the same line to try and brake the rules.

"But I work for the NHS"

I’m an actuary working in life expectancy, mortality and other demographic analysis. The early days were very concerning due to the data available at the time.

However, from the beginning the mask mandate was absolute madness to me, given the cloth and surgical masks used have been analysed in various studies to be ineffective, particularly the way people used them, ie the same mask for days, storing it in pockets or on the wrist.

Also, once the vaccines started to be pushed through with limited testing and concurrent phases of testing being carried out (completely at odds to the standard procedure for any new drug) I started to be very worried. There are now plenty of peer-reviewed studies linking heart issues to vaccination in lower risk age groups. Official guidance around vaccination for certain groups has been very quietly dropped. For example pregnant women (of which I am one). Yet organisations continue to regurgitate old messaging on covid - NCT being a prime example!

I supported lockdowns. I do not regret it.

DH has very bad asthma, 1 of our DC also has it, though milder. This was an unknown outbreak of something that impacted people's lungs. I remember being terrified of what this thing was that was taking down huge numbers of people in China and Italy.

However, once it became apparent it was just a heavy flu, the lockdowns should have stopped, as it was unnecessary.

The lockdowns were the correct response to an unknown situation, once the situation became known, they were a very expensive (not just mometarily) overreaction.

I have experience of this the sufferers where I was were expected to die in 12 months or less very elderly with already incurable life limiting conditions like dementia the most common cause of death at that stage without covid is pneumonia. No one who died were not already approaching EOL.
For the vast vast majority of people covid was mild. It scares me how if something truly horrific like viral hemorrhagic fevers occurs this might be ignored by the public because how badly the government handled covid.

I suppose as long as the supermarkets and Amazon could still deliver to the masses it was all ok.

@Sunshine0x me too.

I think I short sharp lockdown while we assessed what we knew - what went on after that has caused so much damage. Productivity of this nation, people’s actual health outcomes - so many more people who need help now who couldn’t get it then so their conditions are far worse and in some cases untreatable.

Only first lockdown made sense, IMO, before vaccines rolled out. Others were complete waste of time and money.

Whoever is on duty at Google Towers needs a nudge to stop the analytics injecting pictures of Boris Johnson after posts admitting breaking lockdown rules.

Full marks to Bard for spotting it, but I think it needs a reminder who's paying it.

I do remember the diamond princess and the low mortality and morbidity despite an aged population. That was a big early clue we were on the wrong track.
The evidence for east spread is pretty undeniable. If covid was in UK from December 2019 why suddenly need lockdown in March 2020?
The high deaths in March/April 2020 were caused by multiple factors - seeding virus in care homes of vulnerable people, high levels of fear in the general population and in those with covid like symptoms, misuse of respiratory support, withdrawal of routine medical care and palliative care decisions being brought forward due to perceived lack of hospital capacity. There was a novel virus but without lockdown we would have just had a bad flu season, most wouldn’t have noticed.

I absolutely do and was workingin the NHS during the pandemic. Also breaking the law risks professional registration that would get you the sack.

All the staff I was working with and knew had no energy left for breaking any lockdown rules. Everyone was utterly exhausted and broken by what they were dealing with day in, day out, often way outside their area of expertise.

Even with the benefit of hindsight some of the rules and regulations and the way they were implemented were ludicrous and I said so at the time.

They also tended to have a disproportionate effect on women, such as not letting them exercise with one other person.

Chasing people away from park benches and locking up car parks.

Keeping people away from loved ones dying of cancer.

Taping off certain aisles in supermarkets and Boots (I've not forgotten that, Boots, and I only shop in your store where there is absolutely no reasonable alternative).

I didn't disagree with lockdown in principle, I did disagree with some of the ways in which it was implemented. But it was probably better in the UK than many other countries - eg Spain with its draconian rules.

Even with this I didn’t think it was ok