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.

It seems only logical to me that the lockdowns helped to keep the number of covid infections down. Without them, more people would have got covid, and a percentage of them would have ended up in hospital. The hospitals were almost overwhelmed as it was - so anything reasonable that meant no extra covid cases in hospitals seems like a good thing to me.

And since over 70% of people hospitalised with covid have gone on to get long covid, we would have had even more long covid cases too. I have long covid - 3 years on from getting covid - and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

Where we clearly failed was foreseeing the negative consequences of the lockdowns, the need to make the policies more nuanced, and the need to put in places robust measures to mitigate those negative consequences.

My point is that people who were negatively affected by lockdown WILL NEVER FORGET. Most people have moved on by way of necessity. But don't think for one second they'll just forget everything about it.

Arguably the people who had loved ones for tragically and painfully of Covid will never forget either?

Again.
Most people were negatively affected by lockdown and most people will remember what happened.
You're not special despite capitalising WILL NEVER FORGET like it's something ominous.

The negative repercussions of lockdown will be felt for decades to come, as would the negative repercussions of not locking down have been if we'd decided to do that. For most of us, this was the first big pandemic we'd ever lived through and for all of us, lockdown was a very new experience.

What this means is that those negatives are going to be talked about for a very long time as well, particularly when people are still experiencing them. Everyone would do well to make their peace with that now.

In reality, the only difference lockdown made to my family (immediate and extended) was my DH homeschooling our son (but he was already a SAHP) and we had to postpone our wedding from May 2020 to October. All of the rest of us were essential workers in one way or another so we carried on with our day to day lives with very little difference (other than mad searches for TP and eggs).

I don't regret it, I had to work throughout it anyway, so it didn't massively impact on me.
However I really hope that we don't have to do lockdown ever again. Doubtless lockdown saved many lives but the social and economic chaos left in it's wake make me wonder whether it was really worth it.

Like we care though, really

I work in a clinical capacity in an NHS hospital, so I saw first hand the results of those who were not behaving responsibly. Those who behaved responsibly were not 'arch lockdowners' they were decent humans who put the health and welfare of themselves, their families and the population as a whole above their own personal short-term desires. Was it hard? Yes. Was it necessary? Yes, very, and should've been implemented weeks earlier than it actually was.

I have no regrets about lockdown. So no. Live in a a hotspot for the new variant and it is scary - a neighbour has just been rushed into hospital because of it.

As I have a job which I had to continue doing throughout all of the lockdowns/various measures - and had to see people 'in person', I was out of my home more than many. I got Covid the first Christmas - as did my adult daughter who lives with me. I ended up with pneumonia and was ill for 6 weeks (and very fatigued for months after). I didn't break any lockdown rules and wore PPE to visit clients. Was so diligent about hand washing and sanitising I ended up with severe dermatitis that didn't clear up until I was prescribed heavy duty steroids.

I am still furious for the attitude and behaviour of the government and suspect the parties we know about were the tip of a disgraceful iceberg when people were banned from visiting dying relatives, women gave birth without partners or other family/friends to support them.

My niece gave birth to an extremely premature (23 weeks' gestation) baby and was unable to have her mum there to comfort and support her over the many weeks he was in critical condition. Thankfully, he survived.

I have sympathy for people who live(d) alone and broke the rules to speak to other people - at a distance - in open spaces. That was probably critical in helping them look after their mental health. I have no sympathy for people who routinely mixed with others and felt the rules didn't apply to them.

Rant over.

You know, if a disease is contagious and it kills people’s, which Covid did (and still does) and there is history of virulent diseases (ie Spanish flu, bird flu etc) then yes, I agree with a lockdown to stop the spread. I’d do it again if needs be. The world is not just about myself and if it saves someone not spreading a deadly virus, then I’ll play my part

This!

People forget (/deliberately pretend otherwise) that the Government initially tried not locking down. It was not the only place. It became clear it was necessary and the resulting lockdown was more severe for not hving done it early. Those claiming otherwise are lying.

We followed the rules, I didn’t see my partner for 12 weeks because I was with my son in our house and he was with two of his sons in our flat 65 miles away. My son and I had an absolute whale of a time, I worked full time and extra long hours at home, but loved the whole lockdown situation. I realise it is very controversial to admit that we sometimes yearn for that time again, life was so peaceful.

I can't believe people are still arguing about this. It was 4 years ago.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/dundee/5008016/nhs-tayside-anti-vaxxer-discrimination-case/

Not remotely as the minute I went back to work -with other people - I caught it and it floored me. This was later on and the strain was meant to have not been as bad the previous ones.

I would have hated to have got it and been one of zillions queueing up at the NHS door.

Nobody 'loved' the lockdown (I know there were some flippant comments about 'LOL I love not leaving the house and not having to see anyone', but as I said, those were flippant). It was a novel virus. That means you don't assume 'Oh, it'll probably be fine, we don't have to do anything', the authorities have to assume the worst. Sure, early indication was it wasn't a massive threat to most of the population, but we didn't know longer term effects because, again, it was new, we had to assume the unknowns could be bad. For example, it could have turned out that huge numbers of people would be affected severely by long Covid, and it would take a while to work that out. And also the issue wasn't 'Arrrgh, everyone's going to die', it was preventing total overwhelm of the NHS until we were able to mitigate the worst more effectively, which was going to take some time.

The UK got off pretty lightly with lockdowns as it was IMO.

I ignored the whole thing. Met friends, had play dates for the DC, went out several times a day as I normally do. Used to go the for bike rides on Regent Street, which was incredible.
I think prioritising the medically weak, who should have shielded themselves at home and been supported to do so, over a nation of school children was an absolute travesty. The fall out from the collective mental health crisis in children has been unprecedented. The amount of heart disease and cancer ops missed due to what was at worst a bad flu is still truly shocking to me.
I applaud the Swedes who took a common sense approach to the whole thing although they were lambasted for it at the time.

So yes, OP, I do look back at how people blindly went along with it and wonder if people lost all ability to think critically.

I worked so lockdown didn’t apply.

Had Covid a month before the first lockdown then was clear until 18mnths later. Had it again in 2022 but not since. I have had the vaccine but haven't bothered with boosters since 2022.
I worked on the principal that the original strain didn’t kill me and subsequent infections were so mild I would not have known it was Covid without testing.

In fact I haven’t had a cold in the last couple of years.
Working in the field I do, I had no confidence in lockdowns. Only 50% of the population truly locked down. While the rest kept the food chain going, kept our energy source viable etc. So we’re moving the virus around.

I don’t believe lockdowns saved any lives. In fact the lockdown of care homes was criminal, shielding could have been done so much better and allowed the rest of the population to carry on.
Hopefully lessons have been learned.

Matt Hancock saying "dont blow it now" during a press conference when the public had already sacrificed so much.

Disabled and ill people being used as a tool to emotionally blackmail others into following lockdowns and restrictions when the Gov. and most people couldnt give a fuck about them under normal circumstances. I dont like users! I said it would be back to the default setting soon enough................and here we are Both Tory and Labour talking about people on benefits in a derogatory way and touting the idea of giving PIP claimants vouchers. Not vulnerable now eh!

We know that long Covid affects more groups of people than post viral fatigue. My DD (26) is now finding that she needs antibiotics when she gets a cough, after having covid three times. When I last went to the walk-in they were saying that this is common and they didn't see it in people who had flu multiple times. Likewise when my DD in her 30's had surgery she had to be kept in longer. The surgeon said that it is happening when people have gad Covid. My DP has been left with a restrictive breathing pattern. Many are left with internal organ issues.

I couldn't follow the lock down rules because I wasn't going to throw my family that I do childcare and caring for under the bus. I don't understand people who did tbh. I had to use public transport to get to them. I'm supposedly CV (although my consultant said that they didn't lose any patients). We should have locked down sooner, Cheltenham shouldn't have gone ahead and air travel should have stopped. It all became a bit of a joke and I'm angry about the child deaths because SS wasn't fully working and the suicides because of a lack of MH services.

I was no fan of lockdowns but complied with them.

However I look back and think how foolish it was to pay people to stay at home doing nothing. The £400 bn bill for furlough is not going to be easy to pay.

I did the same. No regrets. Would the same again.