To look back on the things we did in lockdown and cringe?

[Applescruffle]

Isn't it all just really cringeworthy when we look back?

The clapping on our doorsteps, all that false commradarie and "we're all in this together" and the drawings of rainbows in people's windows?
Condemning our neighbours for buying Easter Eggs because they weren't "essential" and wondering whether we would get arrested for sitting on a park bench?

At the time I, and probably loads of us, thought we were doing the right things but doesn't it all just look so false and hollow now when we look back and see that number 10 were having parties and Dominic Cummings was running around the country testing his eyesight? My kids missed out on so much while this was going on, my mental and physical health has still not recovered from the effects of lockdown, and for what?

Know what I mean?

The hospital staff had covid tested my mum daily while she was there. Never got a positive test. Even when we were allowed in in her final hours ( well they wanted to let 2 of her 3 kids in) they were trying to swab her. My brother was incensed and refused to let them do it. IF. she had tested positive then she wouldn't have died of it and she was within hours of death from heart failure and catastrophic stroke

A relative had pancreatic or bowel cancer (can’t remember which) and he died in Nov 2020 in hospital. He has Covid on his death certificate when he was tested negative a couple of days before.

Why would Covid be listed on death certificates unnecessarily? That kept us in lockdown for a shorter period if people died of x and y actually listed these and not x, y and Covid.

I did no clapping because even at the time it smelt of horse shit. I also didn't judge anyone for their purchases.
I did however use covid as a good excuse to avoid stuff I didn't want to go to 😂

I do not understand the need for it, this meaningless superiority.

Do you not?

Maybe it's because people took all kinds of abuse for daring to have a different opinion/approach to policies, mandates and lockdowns that they knew were a croc of shit!

We endured being bullied, tormented and ostracised for over 2 YEARS. I'm sorry but being 'afraid' didn't give anyone the right to treat other human beings like shit!

So, with that being said, I think we're more than entitled to finally enjoy this moment of being able to say: 'I told you so'. Because we did!

This @Oneofthesurvivors !

I think that’s quite insensitive to people who lost people to covid .

Not sure if it was just in wales but I remember when the pubs reopened and the rule was you could have a drink if you ordered a ‘substantial’ meal to go with it 🤣🤣 crazy times

America was interesting some states took a different stance from their neighbouring states.

Miami my friends daughter mid thirties perfectly healthy was living in a tiny two bedroom studio. She had two toddlers. We face timed a lot. She was petrified wouldn't go out with the children. Spied on neighbours who did.

Her mother in NYC and I were worried about her but couldn't do a thing. They were a short walk from a beach. Glorious weather, the government encouraged walking daily but she was adamant that Miami people were dirty and disease ridden.

i wasn’t one of those people 🤷🏻‍♀️. As I said, I followed the (actual) rules. I expressed thoughts on here that some of the rules were entirely illogical. I dared to express that my children were suffering ill effects from lockdown. I was told that was better than them killing people etc. There was nothing amusing about that, unless you’re a sadist.

I'm not going to criticise anyone for following the rules to the letter. As others have said, no one knew how bad it would get or really was.

And I'm certainly not going to diminish the experiences of those who lost loved ones and had to go through the extra trauma of not being able to say goodbye them.

My comments are purely for those who applied no common sense whatsoever.

I think I read the thread of the pp who was called a murderer for taking her 5 yo autistic daughter out for a drive. Utterly ridiculous.

People who were posting on here because they saw someone go put for a walk on their own twice in one day and wondeeing if they should report. Someone who saw spmwone walking their dog with their daughter when you could only go out on your own or wuawvr the rule was. Or the people who, when you were allowed to talk to a neighbour over the fence, were asking if they should report the same neighbours for chatting on their driveways instead.

Clapping on doorsteps for the NHS. Don't be ridiculous. Taking advantage fo the opportunity to sit out on a deckchair amd chat to people across the street and making something fun of that - fair enough. But believing it was helping the NHS? No.

People who lost their minds and shed tears over an old man walking round his garden? No.

My exh's NDN was reported to the police for having people round and having a party. The police duly attended and there was no one in the house but them. It was something like she'd done something different with her hair and they didn't recognise her from the back across the street and so reported a fucking party. No.

And as for people who are still testing now...

@Clarabell77 the evidence is not on your side.

The annoying thing for me during COVID was that my disability is unseen. School had a 1 way system - so instead of letting me park in a disabled bay with my blue badge and get to the appointed place on the yard, it was suggested that I could park and walk around to the back gate ...10 minutes uphill 🫣

Logic was lost

The clapping. We all did it. Indeed it became an excuse for a weekly distant party with the neighbours. I remember being irrationally angry over a large group of teens having a party in our local park because their leavers prom was cancelled. The police were called (not by me) and it all blew up and became a huge issue. In reality they were playing music and having a few drinks and snacks in the open air and doing no harm at all. I felt sensitive at the time as I'd just been diagnosed with cancer and was terrified of the virus. There are probably lots of other things but I look back in utter disbelief at it all.

I do however understand that nobody really knew what we were facing. Decisions were made by government that they perhaps wouldn't make now. I'm not sure either side of the benches would have done anything differently. My son was only 8 at the time and missed a lot of school that has continued to impact on him. Difficult.

Yep, I remember that too.

And the fact you could go out and drink but the pubs closed at 10pm.

Yes, I did those things and no, I’m not ashamed to admit it. The clapping was more out of boredom and a chance to wave at the neighbours.
Yes, we followed the guidelines as they were there for a reason. Sadly, that still didn’t prevent my dh catching Covid and spending a long time in intensive care- I had two young children at home and saw Covid for what it was back then…a deadly virus.

This is true. I remember somebody saying that nobody "needed" milk. That butter was a perfectly acceptable substitute 🙄

I didnt do any clapping or condemning but I like the way it drew our local community together in a way that has stuck.

I was pregnant and terrified of dying from Covid after all the scaremongering. I had a 4 & 2 year old in a flat with no garden and even the parks weren’t open for a time. Mentally I was absolutely ruined. Never fully recovered to be honest. Oh… & when I did (inevitably) catch covid, I was fine. Fucking insane. The vulnerable should have shielded if they wished whilst the rest of us got on with it. Makes me so angry to think, I used to be desperate for some company but wouldn’t even go round my parents, whilst they were partying! 😡

The lockdown itself wasn't nonsense. It was a necessary evil to stop the NHS becoming overwhelmed and to prevent more deaths.

The clapping, weird tick rocks, stockpiling loo roll etc. were a bit bonkers but we were all very very bored!

I agree with all the cringe except the rainbows. My 6 year old enjoyed spotting them. At the time, obvs. Couldn’t give a shit now 😂

I never clapped, kept missing it as all the days were the same. I don't think any of the neighbours took offence though as they still all talk to me

When they were asked to define a substantial meal they gave the example of a scotch egg

everyone seems to have forgotten that the fear was real. There was a positivity that was nice, the hope that things would be different going forward. We'd treat key workers better etc, but no. People are more unpleasant and arrogant than ever.@MorvernBlack

This is so true. The people who were antisocial 'I've got rights you know' arseholes are more like that than ever before. They think the fact that it happened to turn out ok - because of the hard thinking and work of other people, mainly - validates their position. It's really depressing.

The thing is, yes - really bad things happened as a result of the rules. But lots of people, 200, 000, died of Covid, and that figure would likely have been a lot higher without them.

Everyone was just doing their best in a situation where we knew there were many unknown unknowns. No-one knew, broadly speaking, which rule was going to turn out to be the important one. Public health has to look at the worst case scenario and the best case scenario and try and find, in an evidential landscape which is shifting all the time, the right balance. They can't pick the best case scenario and shrug.

And honestly, was it that big of a deal to have to walk one way around supermarkets?

People who care about their freedom to walk how they like around supermarkets on principle or about other people clapping, sound like the worst of Little Britain to me.

I remember my son going back to university after the second lockdown. The council said the pubs could serve outdoors in plastic glasses, waitress service. He and girlfriend had one drink on a freezing cold day. Son said it was bloody silly so they gave up and went for a walk.

@Oneofthesurvivors

"You didn't know better, you were just guessing."

Actually it was a lot more than just guesswork, there was data.

At the time the data was available that showed how many people of which age groups were dying giving an average age of 82. And that young people were at a very low risk.

You could see that those countries with high obesity rates such as the US had higher death rates than those with low obesity rates like Japan.

You knew that it was a coronavirus and would transmit like the other six coronaviruses (SARS, MERS and four types of common cold).

You could see that at each mutation it became less dangerous but more transmissible.

You could see that for the majority of people (ie excluding the elderly and CEV) that the best defence was naturally acquired resistance.

So no it wasn't guesswork.