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.

I loved it. Such beautiful days, so peaceful. My ideal life right there.

With hindsight, I wish I’d used my common sense. The ‘rules’ made no sense, but yet I followed them.

It’s worrying how easily so many of us were controlled. I regret getting the vaccine and giving it to my kids. I work in a school and the impact Covid still see the impact of Covid on young people (those who transitioned from primary to secondary in 2020 in particular).

The leaders of our country had access to all the information and chose not to follow the rules.

Next time, if there is one, I’d like to think I’d be more of a critical thinker rather than a blind sheep, but fear is a powerful thing.

There are just under TWO MILLION people in the UK struggling with Long Covid. Is that not ‘prevalent’ enough? COVID now and Covid then are completely different beasts.

My fit, healthy, slim then 17 year old daughter has Long Covid. She caught it before the vaccines at the end of 2020, and she ended up hospitalised with damage to her heart. It took three years for her to get to anywhere near a functioning life, and she had to drop out of school. She works full-time now, but from home and it’s a massive struggle for her. She caught Covid again a five weeks ago, and hasn’t been able to get out of bed. She’s back to square one.

Please do not underestimate the severity of this disease. A ‘cold’ for some people is disabling for many.

Lockdown was a massive massive mistake we are still paying for it economically and psychologically and will see it in social outcomes for years to come. It led onto the various vaccines which were adopted too quickly out of panic by regulators who bizarrely forgot that pharma companies exist to make money and have done so in highly nefarious and dangerous ways in the past and no doubt will do so again if allowed. All the vaccines were dangerous, there have been deaths associated with all of them, and doubtless more hidden harms that are not focused on by media.

If we hadn’t locked down we would have had a bad flu season. Many people died because of fear and panic. Fear makes respiratory illness worse and doctors and nurses were also panicking and over treatment was a big problem early on. Also under treatment of the elderly and fewer antibiotics for bacterial infections.

I understand fear and making mistakes. In the early stages the position was unclear and I wasn’t as sure as I am now. I still had huge concerns and questions about whether this was the right course. What really angered me was the public discourse made it a moral issue with people who asked questions being painted as evil antilockdowners and threatened with cancellation and loss of professional positions.

The vaccine was even worse. People acted in a religious way like they were having a sacrament and dissenters were evil. I would like a robust societal discussion about how on earth we made such disastrous decisions that all of us and our children are still paying for. But it won’t happen. Incidentally people often allege Russian shills on mumsnet, no idea, but there were definitely posters paid by the pharmaceutical companies in that time.

Thank you.

It was a rough process but it was good to get answers to a lifetime of questions. And it meant I got accessible tickets to see Taylor Swift within ten minutes of pre-sale opening so... swings and roundabouts 😂

^ this!

I did have to go to work as school was open for vulnerable children and key worker children. I removed my clothes and showered on return home each time. I didn’t see DD, who was at uni at the time, apart from on video call.

My neighbours decided the rules didn’t apply to them. It upset me when they had a houseful of people at Christmas (even had the cheek to ask if their guests could park on my drive) and I had to watch our daughter open presents that we’d posted to her by video call. BUT none of my family or close friends died - my neighbours can’t say the same sadly.

IMO lockdown was the right thing to do but it wasn’t done quickly enough. People were always going to break the rules and many of them paid the price.

I like your positive attitude

I actively ignored all lockdown rules as I thought it was terrifying how the Gov were trying to control the freedom we are all entitled too.

How people just accepted this, will forever be something that astounds me.

I am glad we continued to meet with people, had BBQs, parties etc throughout the lockdowns.

In fact, the greatest 4 months of my life were during lockdown and I will remember them fondly.

Did you actually read the PP properly?
They said they “broke the rules” by leaving the house more than once a day, travelling for exercise (alone) and seeing individual single friends and relatives (not having parties or large get togethers).
How is any of that making the society “shit”?
I’d say what’s more likely to make the society shit is people spying on their neighbours from behind curtains to make sure they don’t leave their house too often (as happened to our relatives).
Again, we’re not talking about people having secret parties here.
We also used to drive out to the countryside occasionally.
Technically not what you were supposed to do, but it made more sense to go for a walk in the woods where we’d rarely see anyone rather than pile into the local park with everyone else from our area.

I followed the rules and would do so again. My, then 38 year old otherwise healthy, husband almost died from covid. We have 2 young kids. There has been a lot of horrible mismanagement throughout the pandemic. I really hope those that are in charge of actually implementing such measures (not the politicians) have learnt something from this. I am worried though by the amount of people who say they would never follow any lockdown rule again.

I followed the rules and quite enjoyed down time with my family, however....

Mental health is awful among my kids friends - some are still school refusing and self-harming. And behaviour is still awful in schools.

Covid cost around £4k - £6k per person in the UK and contributed to increased taxes, poor economic growth and the cost of living crisis.

Increased poverty and poor mental health will have knock on impact for decades, causing more ill health and death.

We need to look the lock down in the round, not just focus on covid.

We took a pragmatic approach to lockdown.

Understood, with the facts available at the time, that they were a sensible step to reduce infection levels, take pressure off the NHS and attempt to buy time while we worked out how to handle the pandemic.

It made some things harder and there were some positives from it too so we chose to focus on the positives whenever we could. We lost my mum during covid in very traumatic circumstances made much harder by covid restrictions which made that bloody tough at times.

The lockdowns were poorly managed and communicated by an incompetent UK government which led to a lot of mistrust, but that didn't mean they were not a sensible step.

I understand it was a very difficult time for some people whose lives were made unbearable during that time - those with SEN kids, those in abusive situations, those with health concerns of their own and couldn't get access to the services they needed, key workers who had to go to work and be in close contact with people when covid was still a big unknown and killing thousands daily etc and understandably some, not all, could still be struggling due to what the pandemic, not the lockdown alone, meant for them.

But for your average person - you choose how you react, it is past, if you chose to wallow in it it is your life you are still wasting.

I think you've hit on the answer, find the positive and focus on that. I'm trying to lose 14 lbs and finding it a struggle so I am a bit in awe at the 9 stone!!!!

As someone who taught for 14 years, way before lockdown, children or teachers going into school KNOWINGLY streaming with a cold are very wrong. It was so horrid watching it spread around the class. And usually the same kids getting every bug. As a nation we need nutritional equality, as that's a huge part of how susceptible a person is , more education on immunity and fgs DON'T go spreading germs. Stay in bed!!!! I hope the pressure to go whilst ill has lessened since our collective Lockdown experience?? The rule of thumb during my tenure was unless you are dying , come into work. I think getting a good rest and decent food in you and extra sleep can drastically reduce how poorly you get.

So did I. People were being absolutely moronic following the rules without question.

And I never took the vaccine. In fact I've never had any vaccinations but that's a different story.

I wasn’t an arch-lockdowner- I interpreted the rules and didn’t follow them blindly (eg the limited exercise rule was clearly bollocks). The first lockdown in 2020 was bliss - beautiful weather, I remodelled my garden, etc etc. After that it was much harder. And it was clear that the ‘government’ was taking the piss left right and centre.

The UK will never be the same again. A generation of young people who are poorly educated and psychologically damaged. A generation of older people (my DF included) sparked by isolation into a lonely decline and death. Terminal decline of respect for the political process. NHS staff who have grown accustomed to telling sick people to fuck off.

I wish we had not been so rigid. DS was 8 weeks old when we locked down, we had moved to a new area 10 weeks ago. It was so isolating, and I think has done permanent damage to my confidence, and to DS. Many of the rules were IMO cruel. A friend of ours spent Christmas alone because he afraid to break the rules to take the train to our house. DH didn't see his family (abroad) for 3 years. My oldest really struggled with the isolation, no parks, on and off school. In hindsight, we should have trusted out judgement more.
The fallout was not balanced against the risk IMO, and it is our young people who will suffer the most.

Oh I remember those threads. The language used was appalling and people suffering hugely with their mental health were rounded on because all that mattered was covid.

I'd also add to that the people who appointed themselves as mask police, policing people they didn’t think should be exempt.

I don’t think any of them regret it though. Because that would mean accepting they were over the top at the time and the chaos and bodies piling up in the street they gleefully predicted didn’t come to pass.

No, I don't regret it. I was 8 months pregnant when the first lockdown started, so high risk, and then had a brand new baby, who was high risk. My dad and all my grandparents were high risk... there's a good chance they all might have died if they'd caught covid before they managed to get vaccinated.

I'm bloody glad it's all over, but I think it's easy to look back in hindsight, now it's all over and we've all had the virus (after being vaccinated) and it feels like just a cold, and forget that intensive care units were full and hearses were queuing up outside crematoriums.

Arch lockdowners as in arch nemesis? Maybe time to stop living in a fantasy land OP.

The ‘rules’ made no sense, but yet I followed them.

It's impossible to make sense of rules made about something unknown.
No one knew how the virus would spread, which groups of people were most vulnerable etc.

Same.
I wore a mask in shops, but otherwise was quite happy to go about my life in the way I saw fit along with other likeminded people close to me.
No regrets.
And I’m not fussed what others think, judge away, it’s water off a duck’s back.

The first lockdown was logical and right, I followed religiously. HOWEVER

the yoyoing about that followed and scaremongering was ridiculous. If you're interested the richie allen podcast covers alot of the controversy surrounding covid with guest speakers on. I think we should always critically analyse what we hear and are told, gather the facts and make our own judgement NOT blindly follow what we are told, especially when the goverment didn't even follow rules them themselves! The rules never made sense changing every 5 minutes, people scared to leave their front doors. At some point I realised I wasn't going to live in fear and lose years of my life within the 4 walls of my house. - Alot of rules were broken but common sense was followed.
Alot of the deaths classed as Covid deaths were "if covid was in the system" on death to create falsified inflated figures.

Again personally don't know a single person who died, a couple got critically ill then recovered right at the start. And the fact it is back in the news as "high covid cases" despite most not reporting or checking their current cold / flus not sure how they can confidently put forward their figures. Not to mention the NHS currently silence doctors, paying off people with covid vaccine injuries...

EDIT to add - my elderly relatives cancer was missed and i do blame covid for this, due to reluctance to leave the house to get checked and delays in the service and treatment he was provided. he was neglected left in a lockdown hospital ward for months no one allowed to visit until he passed. it horrifies me to think of the neglect and emotional torture he suffered. I honestly think without covid it wouldnt have been missed

That said, I do think a lot of the rules were ridiculous, and even cruel, as someone else has said. Things like being allowed to go swimming but not being allowed to use the lockers or the showers afterwards (ridiculous), or families with young children being left without support and people dying alone, not being allowed to go to loved ones' funerals etc (cruel). If it ever happens again I won't be complying as rigorously as I did

It's a shame you didn't share your wisdom on how we should have got the pandemic under control - wisdom you had at the time I mean, not that we know now.