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.

Me too.

Sorry, do you have a specific point?

I wouldn’t say my support went either way, we just largely went along with it. We never limited ourselves to just an hour out per day though. I actually remember lockdown really fondly. No pressure to be anywhere or rush around getting the kids ready. I spent a lot of quality time with them which is something that I usually get anxious about not being able to do because of other commitments. At the time we had no family nearby but now my parents live very close. If it happened again, and we were all at home so not at risk of getting getting the disease, we would definitely still see them. There should have been more freedom for families to see each other when there was no risk.

This thread has brought the rule followers out in force! Nothing like a good set of rules to set the British alight with joy 😝

You are the only person talking about ego. Constantly.

The staff working in Tesco who were trying (when they themselves were potentially scared) to ensure that their customers were safe and that tensions were minimized. I was talking to someone the other day who worked in Tesco during Covid. They were saying that they employed security staff from the nightclubs which were all closed, in order to keep the peace because tensions were so high.

Why would you want to contribute to that level of stress for people? You might disagree with what they’re doing but you don’t have to make that worse and be a dick about it.

@Coatsoff42 isolated the vulnerable 🤦🏻‍♀️ we had my grandparents in total isolation from the February until they were vaccinated. They also refused to allow challenge trials when people were happy to participate.

The issue was our freedom was taken away and we weren't allowed to make a decision about our own risks. We will never get that time back. We are one of the lucky ones where DS 100% was told it was the governments fault he couldn't see his friends so he has come through it relatively fine but some kids aren't and that is more of tragedy than the death toll.

Where's the evidence for that?

I miss the fuel prices that we had during lockdown. I was paying less than £1 a litre at the pumps.
I don’t regret thinking that lockdowns were the right way to go. I had three relatives die as a direct result of Covid after we had come out of the first lockdown.
I do regret being married during lockdown and not separating prior to lockdown. Being married to an abusive man during lockdown was absolutely hideous.

I do not regret it at all!

Hypotheticals are indiscernible - we cannot evaluate the what if. What if we didn’t do lockdown? We could have had the same outcomes (same number of deaths, same number of long covid disabilities). Or we could have had a different outcome (increased deaths, increased disabilities).

The lockdowns really affected me. I lost a job (thankfully got another), lost income, didn’t get to spend time with dying father, mental health ravaged. Yet I believed (and still do) the public health expertise. There was reason to fear and reason to put our individual desires for socialisation etc as secondary to the public good. I am proud that I did so.

Are you joking? Or just rewriting history?

Lockdown hurt so many people

Meanwhile nobody will so much as cancel a social plan when they're unwell

It was never about "protecting others"

Fucking love WFH tho

Sacrifice? Worthy? It was a virus. A shitty situation where we were trying to slow down the spread as best as we could while scientists tried to figure out what it was.

One day - perhaps in a generation or two - the world will scratch its head and wonder what the he'll went so badly wrong in society.

Hopefully there’ll be historians alive to mine artifacts from social media like this comment.

Yes they can, so why believe someone putting a video on YouTube, over an article written by multiple people, which has been peer reviewed and published in a scientific journal?

Well you didn't benefit others, you colluded to hurt people (and the Covid inquiry is full of experts testifying that lockdown was hugely excessive)

I was extremely conscientious and followed the rules very closely. It was a very hard time for our family and I had something of a mental health crisis in September 20..I shudder looking back to think how deeply depressed I got so quickly.

However, my friend's 26 year old niece died of COVID early in the pandemic, and my neighbour's 52 year old brother was in a coma for 6 weeks before they switched life support off. The stories from Italy of wards of old people dieing were horrendous. So no, I don't regret it, I think it was necessary.

I find it hard to forgive the government though. The parties, the corruption, sending schools back for one day then closing them again.

I do think if there is another pandemic of an even more fatal type, the population will be less compliant and more people will die. But I can't see any solution to that after what's happened.

It’s burnt into my brain Biden saying “if you take the vaccine you’re not going to get covid”. I’m sure I can find a compilation video online somewhere of similar admissions.

I followed all the rules the first lockdown because I was scared. Then never did after that.

Never vaccinated, and touch wood, have never got covid.

Given the valid arguments within the cure/disease debate, you are not being unreasonable.
The 'in it together' mantra is/was a myth too - people were protecting themselves, not each other.
Looking at the entire picture objectively, the impact of isolation and (endlessly!) delayed healthcare had, and has had, every bit as much of an impact on the elderly as covid. But we didn't 'just' impact the elderly with isolation and delay, we impacted everyone. Young people died, and are still dying, because their diagnosis and treatment were delayed. The impact on children and young people has been vast.
Robust public health advice was necessary, it should never have been enshrined in law though. Criminalising people for sitting on a park bench was insanity - if you still don't think it was, you need help.
Shutting down the economy for months will take us decades to recover from. Therefore I have little sympathy for those to whom you refer @Refractory (the lockdown zealots), who were paid to sit at home, whilst piously sparing a 5 minute hand clap for those who didn't have that luxury (before promptly going back to their wine and netflix) and are now completely skint.

No, don’t regret it. You do what you can with information you have at the time.

My sibling had chemotherapy during lockdown, so I knew how fragile some people were.

I would do it again if another pandemic happened, not because I implicitly trust the government but more because if there’s a virus that kills people on the rampage, I’m safest away from people. That part felt totally logical to me.

Interested why people supporting lockdown was/is still so upsetting for you? (Genuine Q, not sarcastic.)

I tried to follow the rules and certainly stayed away from my parents, didn't go on holiday or travel further than necessary etc etc but did break a few rules like many others - went out for longer than an hour a day. Met a friend in his house a couple of times but generally at a distance. No crazy parties with multiple people. Didn't wipe my shopping or post.
I hated lockdown with a passion. My husband still went to work as was on the Front line. I couldn't work. The schools being closed was awful and will have long-lasting consequences. And as for the reluctance to everyone to go back to work and wfh forever - we have Boris to thank for that sense of entitlement. I also resent the general blaming of everything on Covid! It was 4 years ago but people are still picking the bits that benefit them and/or their business "because Covid"! Hotel rooms not being replenished daily, for example - I had to ask for my bin to be emptied and fresh towels
The meeting six people in a garden wasn't so bad but sitting in freezing cold beer gardens wasn't so great.
It certainly made me realise that I'm a more sociable person than I originally thought.
I think if it happened again no one would bother.

I very much doubt anyone ever believed vaccines would 'stop the spread' of Covid. Reduce transmission of the virus - yes.

There were huge problems and pain caused by lockdown and the way it was implemented but broadly, I believe that it spared us the unmanageable hospitals and deaths we saw in Italy in early 2020.

I have some friends who think the whole thing was unconscionably mad and I just don't agree with them, but we don't talk about it because they are too upset by what they see as blatant craziness.

I agree that the way it was implemented was unfair and ill thought through in its effects on the vulnerable and certain family structures (or lack of); and completely morally bankrupt in how the govt partied through it. But I think we had to do something; and I believe my dad (for instance) may only be alive now, living a good life, because he did not catch covid at that time, and I am grateful for that.

We will never know what would have happened without it. I think that one's response to it was largely influenced by emotions and your personal social needs. I know people who feel really desperate and thirsty for casual social interaction, they happily work in offices that they go to every day and love noise and bustle. They thrive in normal life and were desperate when deprived of that, so they are inclined to see the whole thing as evil. I struggle with that lifestyle, which is considered to be normal, but I find it very difficult and I do well with periods of work and leisure in solitude interspersed with meaningful, chosen social interaction and occasional forays into louder and buzzier places. It was easy for me to see the necessity of some form of lockdown (if imperfectly done) because it wasn't killing me. Those who need to rub shoulders with lots of others every day were missing something they personally, emotionally needed so they are more likely to see the whole thing as insane and evil, in my opinion. I have to fight hard to cope in a lifestyle without enough peace and space for me, so I am aware of the bias in emotional response

Where have I said anything about people putting videos on YouTube? Also by extension of your logic, if the people who wrote these articles you reference posted content on YouTube, would the fact it was a YouTube make it seem invalid? Does YouTube = wrong or something?

Agreed. Just shows even a tiny bit of perceived power will go to people’s heads.