Do any of arch-lockdowners regret it?

[Refractory]

Just that really.

I haven’t really been on MN since 2020 because I found the near complete support for lockdown far too upsetting.

the lockdowners in my life seem to not think about it much. For them, it’s just over.

with hindsight do you wish you’d been more sceptical?

would love a civil conversation about this.

Definitely.

The very best decision I made during the pandemic period was to ensure that my children continued to receive socialisation, particularly in 2021 when half their classes were in but they weren't considered to merit it.

I hope your DD is able to recover.

Sorry you went through that.Truly scary how people changed (or showed their true selves maybe).

You badly break a bone and you’re out of action for 3 months, but people don’t act as if their whole life was been ruined.
The government didn't present restrictions as a short-term measure. They were quickly sold as the "new normal". This is why many of us were worried about restrictions with no end in sight.

It wasn't 'lovely' to watch family die of cancer, family whose lives could've been prolonged or saved had society (and subsequently the health service) not acted as though cancer, heart disease and dementia were no longer that much of a threat, never mind the biggest killers (they still were, and still are).
There were people (who actually considered themselves sane) saying they'd rather get a cancer diagnosis than covid.
Your comment illustrates perfectly the insincerity of those who consider themselves terribly noble to have adhered to covid restrictions 'at all costs'. There was nothing 'lovely' about being one of the many bereaved who were, and still are, dismissed as mere collateral. My Mum died of cancer in 2020, and virtually every person I spoke to after lockdown asked had she died from covid. "No, just cancer".

I followed the law and the recommendations from authorities trying to deal with a new and unpredictable virus.

New viruses are generally more dangerous in the beginning, and will then mutate into something more contageous but less deadly (as this also enhances the strength and survivability of the virus). Covid WAS actually dangerous and deadly in the beginning and people did get very sick - also young and healthy people. Since then we've all been vaccinated multiple times and the virus has mutated multiple times. It's not near as dangerous, new and unpredictable now as it was in the beginning. Imposing the severe restrictions now seems ridiculous, but it wasn't at the time. I don't regret following laws and recommendations at the time, but I sincerely hope we won't find ourselves in a similar situation again in my lifetime.

I wonder if any of the people who didn't follow the rules and didn't support lockdown, feel bad about how they benfitted from other people following the rules and preventing the complete breakdown of the NHS. I guess some people are always happy to ride on the backs of others.

There's usually two ways to look at these things. It is done, nothing to do about it now.

I always struggled with the logic of lockdown, covid laws and measures.

1. We spent just under half a trillion to give a few thousand a few extra months of life. Per person saved, the spend was a few million.
2. Lockdown didn’t stop the main vectors of transmission: while the healthy were locked up, there was continued movement between hospitals and care homes, including that of care workers.
3. The vaccine didn’t prevent catching the illness, transmitting the illness or experiencing symptoms - technically there was no need for vaccine mandates to work or travel
4. The overall rates of death increased in the first few months of the pandemic and then settled down. What most people don’t realise is that deaths normally peak in winter and are at their lowest mid June - exactly the timings of when lockdown measures were lifted. The natural increase in deaths was put down to covid and the natural decrease in deaths was used as ‘proof’ that lockdowns work.
5. It upset me that children and young people’s education and mental health were seen as acceptable collateral damage.
6. We looked to the government as our saviour, as if it had God like powers when at best all it could do was tinker with collateral damage
7. The best antidote was and is always good health, and yet there was no narrative of ‘put down the crisps and go for a walk’. We actually had the opposite of ‘order a takeaway and sit down indoors’
8. Wearing a mask meant your exhalation simply came out the sides. For most of us, it was an inconvenience when we spent 20 mins in the supermarket. For some children and young people, wearing masks was an 8 hour ordeal from the moment they stepped on the school bus, to the moment they stepped off, with just 10 mins removing their mask to eat their lunch. It meant for the best part of 2 years CYP had a banging headache and never saw a smile.
9. New virus strains typically arrive with a bang and then tend to become less virulent over time. I disagree with the narrative of continued restrictions now - if we followed the same logic some would like, we should ban cars (in case someone gets run over), ban alcohol (in case someone gets liver cancer) and ban sex (in case someone dies in childbirth) and ban walks on Snowdon (in case someone falls down a ravine).

Very true.
The balance is actually difficult. The noise from idiots makes it very difficult.
I was very peripherally involved in contributing to a pandemic preparation document (focussed on flu and and society threatening rather than corona and health system threatening) and it is mainly a societal issue.
A minor point to this is it was always misleading to talk about needing to know more about the virus. The virus was very simple, it is the human that is complicated and variable and the interaction of the two that causes the disease. Then we have the added factor of how people interact!

Thank you! You pulled me up very politely and very well.

I’m quite happy I’ve never given it to anyone else because I’ve never had it. I’m still testing regularly (I have people around me with compromised immune systems) and I’ve been very careful.

OP, I stuck to the rules and I don’t regret it at all. We lost more than one close relative or old friend because of Covid and they didn’t all have underlying medical conditions. A friend of mine is spending a fortune on private healthcare and alternative therapies because she’s suffering from long covid and her GP can’t do anything else for her. I didn’t police what anyone else did. I didn’t give a shit if the neighbours had a full on house party, so long as they kept their distance from me & mine. It wasn’t about a slavish devotion to rule following for me. It was about it being common sense to stay as far away from other people as I could if I didn’t want to catch it and pass it on to my loved ones. It worked and I’d do it again if I felt I needed to.

I followed the rules but didn’t go over the top by cleaning the food shop or anything.
I didn’t agree with how children and young adults were treated. It was evident early on, that covid was a very mild illness for the overwhelming majority of this age group. Schools were closed too long and the well being of children and young people was completely disregarded. A targeted approach which involved the clinically vulnerable and their family members staying home, rather than the entire country could have been implemented first. Plus encouraging those who could work from home to do so.

i carried on as normal and didn’t take any of the vaccines. My parents locked themselves inside for two years and my mum has complications from the AZ vaccine.

They have deep regrets for not listening to me.

Not at all! I think your summary here re needing to know more about human responses is a great way to put it. And will be nicking it!

I was scared of Covid pre the vaccination programme so yes, did follow the rules during the first lockdown.

Once all the vulnerable people had been given the opportunity to be vaccinated however, I became more relaxed and stopped following some of the more stupid rules. Being a key worker in education, I could see how ridiculous some of them were, like kids wearing masks in schools and being socially distanced then taking the masks off and mixing freely as soon as school ended. People showing high levels of hypocrisy in being precious about keeping themselves 100% safe while happily accepting that others kept society going re delivering their shopping, working in supermarkets, running public transport, running hospitals, running schools etc.

Some of the restrictions went on way too long, in my opinion. And we are paying the price not just economically but also in terms of an uptick in issues around mental health.

I followed the rules as I felt people like Chris Whitty knew more than I did. I was told on here though that bread and milk were not essential items and I should not have gone to Tesco to stock up on them midweek. The poster would have been horrified that my main aim was to restock my wine rack 😂

I'm certain no-one is enjoying the global COL crises that has followed artificially stalling the economy and printing money, as sure as night follows day.

😂

lol - it really did bring out some crazy views. A friend told me off for going shopping because I still had some tins and dried food in the house! Our friendship has only recently recovered from comments like that.

Children weren't locked down from March to September. It is possible to socialise without going to school, ask any home schooler.

I live in a seaside town and I can confirm that for July and August 2020 you couldn't get a table in a local restaurant, the beaches were full, the shops were crowded. No idea why a child who wasn't ill couldn't be out and about.

People showing high levels of hypocrisy in being precious about keeping themselves 100% safe while happily accepting that others kept society going re delivering their shopping, working in supermarkets, running public transport, running hospitals, running schools etc.

This is an interesting point. We as a society were very lucky to be able to maintain a class of people who worked to keep the lights on. I'm not sure how many of us realise that wasn't a given, and that we can't assume it'll happen in any future pandemic either.

I have only read the first few posts , so it may have already been asked ~ what's an arch lockdowner ?

What ever it takes to protect the NHS

So for people like me who caught covid and were ill and developed long covid would have been OK if we'd just ignored it all? You realise you were lucky?

I was berated by my neighbour for taking DDs to the supermarket with me

• they were just 7&8
• with the drive there (15mins), the queue outside, and actual shopping then home... we were out for 2hrs
• we were nearly out of food
• DH, essential worker but not NHS so no early opening for him, was working 10-12hr days and wasn't due a day off for over a week at that point.

People lost all sense of logic. Once that initial phase was over, DH had one day off we could shop on. But at that point... I had to feed them!

I wasn't an 'arch-lockdowner'. We followed the rules mainly but did go out for exercise more than once a day and sometimes I walked with a friend, and we did sometimes travel to exercise eg drive to remote beautiful Northumberland beaches. I shopped most days locally.

We were careful because DH's grandma lives with PIL and she is very elderly- but she got covid and sailed through it with barely a snivel.

We didn't go mad when things relaxed eg didn't do Eat Out to Help Out - patently a stupid wasteful initiative that encouraged greedy people to stuff themselves and spread the virus.

Life returned to a new normal pretty quickly.

I think the whole thing was responsible for encouraging laziness, reliance on public money to support individuals (many still think they are entitled to support for anything and everything), absence from work and school if they can find any tiny excuse, greed for money and exploitation of the State and the public by the super-rich who had billions poured into their bank accounts for doing absolutely nothing. Businesses saw an opportunity to hike up prices way beyond what was necessary and we have all suffered and continue to suffer for that. It changed us as a country and it's a pretty shitty culture we now live in.

OP asked for a 'civil conversation' but hasn't even bothered to come back to the thread!