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?

Which was funny, I'll give them that.

Tbf, a big scotch egg does fill me up.

This is a genuine question - do you believe that causing the deaths of people who would have otherwise lived was the right thing to do? As in, because one set of deaths happened and another set didn't that was a good outcome?

At first I was a bit 'wary'/alarmed by Covid as it seemed to be ravishing it's way through the world, including the 1st World we in the UK live in.

I firstly felt that the 'herd immunity'/no lockdown approach had merit but then waited until the inevitable lockdown order was given.

I didn't clap for the NHS because I felt that any institution including any workers that knowingly discharged positive Covid, or untested, patients into Care Homes without whistleblowing weren't worthy of my claps. Whilst many non-Covid wards sat idle too. I didn't need an Inquiry at a later date to tell me how wrong that was, I realized at the time.

The most cringeworthy thing I did was to actually enjoy it, the weather was glorious and the birds started to sing again. Although I felt very sorry for those without any outside space of their own particularly those with young children, the effects of that are emerging now.

My neighbours all did it. I live in a small cul de sac of 8 houses. When people were having street parties for VE Day in June 2020 they had a party, it was practically under my bedroom window. We weren't in the Thursday clapping club so weren't included. As I was mid 60s, sole carer for disabled DH with my kids all living between100 and 300 miles away the only people I saw were the post woman, the Sainsbury's delivery man and 2 GC who still lived close by with their mum, my son's ex and they would come round and sit in the garden and chat

I was lonely and I admit I cried that night as I heard them all chatting and laughing. I think they realised afterwards what they'd done as they've never been so friendly. My husband isn't white and we've always thought that was why they were standoffish. Since the lockdown we've been invited to 3 parties and quite honestly I'd rather socialise with the devil.

My partner wanted to buy something from gumtree but you weren’t allowed to travel, god forbid lol he desperately wanted this item desperately. The pick up was someone’s house 30 miles away, 8 at night . So he borrowed my works high viz so it looked like he was a delivery driver lol 😂 driving along the motorway. God knows what he would have said to the police if he was stopped and asked who he worked for haha what a lot of nonsense

Me and my friends made plasticine snacks to have on our table when drinking but then they changed the rules before we got to use them😅

You knew all this in March 2020?

Do you mean people who couldn't get NHS care died? If the hospitals had been overwhelmed with covid they wouldn't have got care anyway, the hospitals were pretty overwhelmed as it was but without lockdown it would have been worse.

The other thing that pissed me off was how everybody was suddenly spying on others and reporting them. A neighbour a few doors down had a police raid. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A young couple with two very small children. Turned out an absolute busybody from down the road called the police because she saw somebody going into their house. What busybody didn't know was that it was neighbour's sibling who had gone there because their parent had made a suicide attempt and was hospitalised. They were not allowed to the hospital so were comforting eachother. Every time I see that bloody woman I think what an utter cunt.

I lost my twin in 2021 (not due to covid), and her last view of me in the icu would have been me wearing a visor and a mask. I hope she at least recognised my voice.

This is true, however many of the people who died from covid would have died from any infection, including a cold. If they'd died from a cold, it would have been sad but it wouldn't have been considered scary and unprecedented. As I've written this post hundreds of elderly and unwell people have died from colds across the world and no one takes any notice, or counts them up to make the numbers seem huge, they just accept that it's part of life.

I was just saying this the other day. Clapping on the doorstep like demented seals and quizzes on zoom. 😆

I would add that my friend's mother tested negative for covid twice and yet on her death certificate the COD was covid. I don't know why but I wonder if it was because the decisions healthcare workers had made to deny her the healthcare she needed for her serious non-covid issues had contributed to her death and they didn't want to admit that, they just wanted to lump her in the covid box, fit the tragic narrative and move on without having to look at how their own actions killed her.

I banned the clapping on the doorstep in our house and my DP is a doctor and was working through the pandemic. So cringe and I genuinely think it was a government piss take of the masses.

Absolutely crazy. Standing in my parents garden talking to them from the back door. Not hugging our family members and friends. Rule of 6. I remember lockdown easing and you could only meet in groups of 2 families, no more than 8 people, outside. There are 4 of us and my sister has 5 in her household and I remember her setting up 2 lots of seating 2 m apart and I left my husband at home so as not to exceed the numbers in case anyone reported us. Restaurants opening only til 6 pm and no alcohol to be sold.

utter insanity the lot of it whilst the government carried on as before.

we were played like absolute fiddles and taken for mugs

never again

Yes it was a mental time for most of us, I remember crying for a few days because I thought it was likened to the Black Death, according to the news! Didn’t go over my parents door step for fear of being grassed on by the neighbors. Dad had dementia & I had no clue. First week ordered myself a large bottle of JD, haven’t had a drink for 15 yrs, caught up with all my relatives & old friends on the phone whilst getting tanked- only plus side of covid.
My house was up for sale at the time, had to sneak to another town, like it was a covert mission to make sure house was ok. The stress I felt was unbearable. When I hear about these government ministers taking the piss literally, it makes my blood boil. I will never, ever do another lockdown or take any more jabs. In my view the world has just going fucking nuts since lockdown 😩

Think the delays of not being able to see doctors, have scans etc for cancer at the time will kill more people than Covid overall.

I worked through the whole thing so didn't notice a lot of it, other than the roads being empty in the rush hour. All 4 adults in our house were 'key workers' in one category or another, so our lives were a bit more normal than for most people.

Exactly

I'll sneer at precisely nobody for making their own choices, but I'll certainly criticise those who expect to impose them on everyone else - especially if they do it by saying/posting endless untruths, insults, fake images and the rest

It's all very well for such folk to insist we should "move on" from that, when what they often mean is that they're embarrassed by their own behaviour and would prefer that attention wasn't called to it, but they didn't stop to think about what they were doing at the time so don't get to dictate now

Do you never do anything out of work though? I worked throughout, but everything else was affected. My hobbies were cancelled, my children couldn’t see their friends, or go to their extra curricular activities. We couldn’t see our family. I can’t see how life stayed the same for anyone, unless all they do is go to work and go home.

I find it hard to fathom that people genuinely believe deaths from covid outstrip lockdown deaths. How is that even possible? For the vast vast majority of people covid isn't serious. Lockdown affected literally everyone, from the tiniest baby to the most elderly person, there is no way you could escape its effects. If lockdown didn't kill you at the time the fallout could well kill you later on, whether that be from ridiculously long waiting lists or benefits being cut due to the billions of pounds wasted, or a knock on effect of the economy meaning that your quality of life suffers - there are many thousands of ways lockdown could damage your life. It doesn't matter whether covid will ever affect you, lockdown absolutely will.

As an NHS worker I was angry that we were put at risk. I would have rather have an option to work/ PPE / better pay.
But at least the clapping and rainbow and banners from ordinary people did make me feel that people recognised our sacrifices.

I was working away from home sleeping in a garage , missing my kids. On turning a corner , a banner lit by fairy lights by neighbours brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat.

thanks to those who showed that they cared.

My favourite moment was the family with the really badly-behaved kids who lived over the road from us. The kids, armed with pans for "clap for carers" proceeded to smash frying pans against cars in the street, effing and jeffing, causing carnage and thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Pointless to some of you. My daughter’s good friend died in hospital at 22 of Covid. I think it’s very easy for some people to dismiss the pandemic now.