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.

At the beginning we stuck to the rules, out of fear probably as it was all very unknown wasn't it. As time went by though we decided to still visit my in laws in their house as they needed help (fil with dementia), and we went out for walks more than we should. By that stage anyone with an ounce of sense would have known that an outside walk involved minimal risk.

Looking back, I'm also glad we relaxed the rules around our teens and allowed them to meet friends.

It didn't really need to be controlled to the extent that it was. Let's not forget that average age of death was like 83. It did not need to drag on anything like as long as it did.

at the time, people who questioned the longer lasting and stricter rules in Scotland, or things like not bring able to leave a council area, or sawing bottoms of doors off for ventilation were called covidiots and lumped in with anti vaxxers and covid deniers.

fir most people that wasn’t the case, we accepted covid was a thing and had the vaccines when offered, but still thought the rules were ridiculous after a certain stage.

I broke the rules too. We regularly left our council area for non essential reasons and in the second looooong lockdown from Christmas to Easter 2021 were regularly seeing people and letting kids visit friends.

I didn’t agitate for or support lockdown but I obeyed all the rules including cancelling my parents coming for Christmas on two days’ notice. Massively regret it and would never follow rules like this again. I feel like such an idiot looking back.

And no I 'wasnt' allowed to go the funeral!

I don't think they need to at this time of year, but I can certainly see the value in people wearing masks on public transport between November and February (would reduce colds and flu as well).

A lot of the lockdown rules were ridiculous, had a disproportionate impact on women, and didn't take account of the fact that it's much harder to catch something outside.

I also never supported vaccine passes as the vaccine didn't prevent transmission.

I do feel we have a problem with todays youngsters if having to have a couple of terms of home schooling has deeply affected the rest of their childhood and early adulthood.

I was unfortunate enough to be extremely unwell as a child and miss year 7 and 8 of school. I’m talking hospital stays, no contact with other children, no weekends/days out.
This was obviously pre mobile phones, Netflix, computer consoles, internet. Once a week a school friend would ring my landline and we would have a ten minute chat.
So I have very little time for the swarms of children who seemed to have a meltdown because they had to do online learning for a few months (obviously those in homes of DV is a different thing entirely)

I really do feel something has gone wrong with todays young people.

I hope Mumsnet report you to the authorities for your shameful admission to how you ignored the lockdown rules. I can only hope you didn't have someone who died of Covid!

I followed the rules, but I was also a nurse on a resp HDU ward. What I saw on there still haunt me, but also cemented why the lockdowns were important.

In a way though, it was probably easier for me, in that I wasn't confined at home everyday and was still seeing people at work. Was I scared? Yes, very much so. My brother took my kids in before first lockdown started (I'm a single parent and he was able to WFH). I gave him a copy of my will, any paperwork he may have needed (in case) and letters that I wrote to the kids (in case anything happened to me). I didn't see them until after lockdown finished.

I'm furious at the government though, for making a mockery of the lockdown rules, and for the rubbish provision of PPE.

You seriously think that people who wanted to follow the rules, who thought that the rules were there to protect themselves and others, were gleeful at the prospect of multiple deaths? I would have thought it was fear. Concern. The drive to protect life. Not glee. I think that’s a disgraceful comment to make.

I was not “arch lockdown” but I did it and followed the rules. Looking at it with the benefit of hindsight, the effects were not as serious as forecast (especially for the very young) but that may be partly due to lockdowns, the truth is we will never really know what the outcome would’ve been if they went down herd immunity path - I’m not sure if any country (with reasonable health care and accurate mortality recording) chose that path and if they did are there reliable stats on deaths. I don’t know how anyone can really slag off govt (other than for breaking their own rules) for the choices made as they knew sod all for certain and were reacting to situations.

Clearly there was a lack of up to date disaster recovery plans and other things. It just is what it is.

As far as now is concerned people seem to be less blase about respiratory illnesses like flu and covid. Covid itself seems to be less severe which apparently is the normal development in the life cycle of a viral infection. Some compromised people will still die though, same as with flu.

You do realise not all youngsters struggled to that extent. On a population level, of course some are going to struggle with extended periods of isolation and imposed anxiety.

I worked throughout lockdown in a specialist role to coordinate gov rules to the nhs and local authorities and then with forces setting up vaccination rollout.

The everyday response was amazing. Front line workers, businesses and the public - just amazing and altruistic.

The government. Much less so. Not enough diversity in life experience to make the right decisions

Id lockdown again should another novel virus come along.

I find only lucky people who didn't lose fanily members to Covid can look back and think some of the precautions were unnecessary.

To be honest I would refuse to do another lockdown in principle unless people were dropping dead in the street. I still remain very angry about how the later lockdowns played out. I didnt see my family for over a year and a half, and some passed on before I saw them after the lockdowns

Completely agree. I'm clinically vulnerable and 7 months pregnant and just caught Covid despite taking every precaution I could myself. Every time I've been outside there's been an insane amount of people coughing their lungs out without second thought and it just makes me so angry. My little sister is also immunocompromised. People just don't care unless it impacts them.

would love a civil conversation about this.

Well that would involve you participating in your own thread OP...

No, lockdown was one of the best experiences of my life. Lots of positive change came from it for us too (hybrid working).

I know with hindsight some things should have been done differently but we didn’t know and we tried our best.

I don’t view it negatively at all.

I appreciate my view partially comes from living rurally and not having my income i impacted and it would be quite different had I had a different job and lived alone in a high rise with no garden.

But I was on mat leave for most of it and didn’t get the leave I expected so it wasn’t all roses either.

Oh absolutely. But it does seem to be something thrown out there by a lot of people.
I think as a general rule, resilience in children and the ability to cope with upheaval needs looking at in a wider context.
Perhaps the pandemic was a wake-up call that we need to toughen our young people up because you never know what life is going to throw at you.

Take more precautions how though?

I have to work or I don’t get paid. If I don’t get paid I can’t pay the mortgage. I can’t take a week off every time I have a cough, neither can most of the population.

DH works in a school with 30 children per class that rotate hourly. DS is in a school with 100+ snotty children, my younger 2 are in nursery which is a germ pit. Not going to the shops or on a day out is not going to help the spread of any disease because the sources are places you can’t avoid (unless you WFH and never go out!)

I caught covid while pregnant twice so I know how awful it is, but realistically life can’t stop when you have a cough or a cold.

If only we hadn't had that pesky 3 year limitation on the covid regulations!

Hindsight gives you this insight.

This! The fact some people know most of the measures were utterly ridiculous and would do it all again is frankly mind-blowing. It's not 'caring', as some are claiming, just bloody virtue signalling.

People revealed some very nasty true colours in lockdown. They might be able to 'forget' it... but I sure as hell won't.

I fully supported the lockdown and restrictions and followed the rules, and was happy to do so. At the time I believe it was the right thing to do as it was such an unknown virus. I would have been more anxious if we hadn’t locked down. I don’t feel angry about the politicians parties because at the time I would have thought they were daft to risk themselves that way. I didn’t wish I had broken the rules myself. Now, I have more or less forgotten about covid.
My DC actually look back at lockdown fondly and reminisce with real nostalgia being homeschooled. We were fortunate, but most people I know were not effected psychologically or physically by it either. We all just made the best of it. No regrets.