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 think it was the right thing to do at the time, I followed the rules and have no regrets.

I rarely think about it these days, life has moved on and it's no longer relevant to me.

I'm sorry if it was difficult for you, OP. If you're still struggling to come to terms with what happened, would it help to get some counselling so that you can start to move forward with life again?

I disagree. I think it was quite clear within 6 months. The duration of restriction was absurd and we should have been able to trust the authorities to make these judgments sensibly.

I relate to this! but I've always had an intolerance for ILLOGICAL rules.. rules for the sake of rules. And some people just love to be correct and enforce ... while shouting at you wearing a facemask that stopped working half a day ago

I really struggled with lockdown - as a single mum in a job that couldn’t be furloughed (public sector) but wasn’t considered “key”, and two then primary aged children it was intolerable.

We stuck to the rules, but tbh there wasn’t much option not to!

I had my son in May 2020 and had a long hospital stay due to preeclampsia. I was crying everyday as no one could visit me in that hellish post natal ward. I wouldn't wish that time on anyone again, especially as the hypocrites in charge wouldn't even stick to the rules. There needed to be a balance.

I lost my mum in the 1st week of the 1st lockdown and not only were some of the precautions unnecessary, but downright cruel. The one that stated my (then), 83 year old frail dad should be left home alone after burying his wife of almost 60 years was one of them. That one got ignored by me and my sibling (the only other people to attend mum's funeral). The words "our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones" said by Johnson, Hancock and many on here were laughable. When it came down to it, nobody cared about us, we even had rules on how to fucking grieve as in no hugging, no meeting up, etc. Nope it was a "you've lost someone, suck it up and don't be selfish, my family's needs are greater than yours" mentality.

Admirable.
The OP gave a nonsense post.
I am not sure there is any campaign for us to have lockdowns for the sake of it now we are out of Covid-19, so there are not really arch Shutdowners, despite the bad faith arguments on this thread.

I wasn't an arch-lockdowner but I do look back now and think what on earth were we thinking for parts of it - how could we think sitting with one empty seat in between us on the Tube would make a difference, or standing 6ft apart in supermarkets?! Or that walking outside with someone was a huge risk?

I remember at the time being really uneasy with people's policing of others though. I reminded my mum several times over that she had no idea of others' reasons for not wearing a mask when she complained, and my auntie even mentioned how everyone on their street had noticed a neighbour's car missing for a few days so they must have gone down to their seaside home, as if it was a huge scandal. I never got into all that.

Arch lockdowner here, mostly because of my Asperger's, I think.
I actually had the best time of my life,
with no other people demanding my time, energy and biting chunks of me they seem so entitled to.
Married, no kids.

I broke the rules plenty. Some of my family were washing fucking cans from the shop.

My brother basically barricaded himself and my nana in the house and she hasn’t been the same since. The muscles in her legs went and is now in a wheel chair. Up until that point she was getting the bus every other day to go in to town, playing darts in the pub team. He LOVED it as he’s an anti social bastard who had a good excuse for no visitors.

I was very very lucky that I live semi rurally and life here for me and my neighbours didn’t really change. We had BBQs and lots of boozy summer days together. I also bought a paddle board and spent most of the summer on the lake near me with my kids.

I drove in to town one day and seen a little child up on a balcony in flats and they were on a little plastic bike going from one end of the tiny balcony to the other. I actually cried when I seen that. The whole area was deserted

I came off MN because of the crazy threads about people buying wine in Tescos. It’s really shocking how easy to manipulate an entire country is. The videos I seen of police bashing doors in because neighbours had grassed people up or pulling people for walking with a fucking coffee.

I’ll never view society the same again.

It might have been the ‘ law’ but if the law was that you had to sacrifice your eldest child would you? Where would be the line for you?

Being allowed to leave the fucking house for 60 mins a day? And people were actually timing themselves. Easy to see how Hitler managed to do what he did so easy

Not an arch-lockdowner, though when on Good Friday 2020 holidaymakers turned up at the holiday rental property next door (after lockdown had been declared and people had been told not to travel) and proceeded to carry on as if on holiday — sending unmasked children to the shop several times a day for ice creams and provisions, spending the whole day on the beach while other people stuck to their single hour's exercise, going surfing and sea kayaking, and then having another family show up to join them (breaking travel and visiting rules) I did phone 101 to let them know what was going on. I have no idea whether the police visited or not. The people (six adults, three children in a 2 bedrooms plus a bunk room cottage) stayed for more than a month. The owner expected them to leave once their week's booking was up but they argued that because of lockdown it wasn't safe for them to go home and stayed on — and they didn't pay the house owner for the extra weeks.

In January 2021, when we were locked down again, I went to help a friend look after her dying mother. The mother had cancer with secondaries in her spine and brain. It was a nightmare. Very restricted help from the District Nurse, a GP who came once in a month and a lack of effective pain relief. MacMillan, Marie Curie and hospice at home support vanished. The mother needed a lot of help (doubly incontinent, could barely walk/ move for the pain) and my friend and I were on care duty 24/7. I don't think I got more than three hours sleep at a time.

After a month of deterioration the GP decided the mother had to go into hospital. Apart from FaceTime calls a few times over the first couple of weeks, my friend didn't see her mum again. Her mother became comatose and died after five weeks in hospital. When my friend saw her body, it was covered in bedsores: it was clear she hadn't been cared for properly. Perhaps OP you can imagine how bad you'd feel if you knew you'd allowed your much-loved mum to be admitted to hospital where she was neglected in her last weeks.

Nah, I just had a big karaoke party where people got pissed and puked up the walls and... oh no, hang on, that was the Tories...

There is a flu vaccine and now children can also get a nasal vaccine. Both reduce the risk of flu considerably and better uptake would reduce it still further. At the time of lockdown there was no virus and no effective treatment so not comparable. If doing what we were asked to do makes me an arch lockdowner then that's a badge i will wear with pride. Sometimes there are no good decisions only least bad ones. Given the same circs, i would do the same again. I did not and would not police others unless i felt they were putting people at serious risk.

We did follow the rules, begrudgingly. It shocked me how fanatical and deranged people behaved though. You assume most people are fairly normal and sensible but then you scratch their surface and underneath madness lies. Easy now to understand how the atrocities of WWII happened due to the twisted compliance of 'average' people.

COVID was only dangerous to a tiny fraction of people. Tiny. Hundreds of millions suffered in order to protect this tiny fraction and that was crazy. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

If we experience a similar pandemic again, I will support nothing more than properly funded sick leave.

The lockdowns seem to have worked so not sure what there is to regret?

Maybe they should have been stricter/earlier and definitely the government should have adhered to their own rules!

It was obvious at the time that lockdown was too severe and lasted too long. (This is not a political comment, as both Conservative and Labour parties broadly supported lockdown).
And yet, in spite of all the evidence we have of how disastrous lockdown was, there are still members of the public who think it was a good idea! It's absolutely baffling..... I just don't understand them.

Which of course we never got with covid. All the money in the world for dodgy deals and tracing services that didn't work anyway, but heaven forbid we pay ill people to stay at home and rest.

Hardly as simple as that. Some children had no access to the internet at home. Even if they did, the cobbled together online learning was in no way a replacement for the support and guidance provided by teachers when in school. The impact of social isolation shouldn’t really be underestimated either. Some children were scared, unsurprising given the hysteria displayed by some adults and it will have taken some time to work through these emotions. Yes, some children were unscathed by lockdown. But some weren’t and to dismiss their struggles is ridiculous. They are some of the most vulnerable people in society.

I have many friends and family who were/are NHS workers and they all thought lockdown was ridiculous and pointless.
And as for the f*ing clapping, they absolutely hated it!

I know people who lost their life - horribly alone in hospital - during the first wave of covid (the nasty one).
If lockdown even prevented one needless death it was the right decision.

The clapping was pathetic.

We didn’t clap but it was nice to see the neighbours were all alive 🤦🏻‍♀️

I have multiple friends who are primary teachers and they say they might as well have spent a year playing at home, they are so far behind. So many being diagnosed with ADHD etc not sure if related but the amount of parent at my work who are happy to diagnose and drug up so they sit quietly in class is astonishing

I don't know what OP means by "arch lockdowners", but I think it is unfair to blame people for following the rules. With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to say that some of the anti covid measures were wrong (and they were), but nobody knew much about Covid at the beginning as it was a novel virus.