To ask what we SHOULD have done during the COVID pandemic

[tunainatin]

So I realise the government made mistakes at the time of COVID. They also acted completely immorally by not following the rules they imposed on everyone else.
However, I suspect any government in this country would have been criticized whatever their response.

I was mulling over the rules and restrictions and trying to work out which ones were actually worthwhile. Some rules seemed so petty (e.g. the one a day walk) but there has to be a line drawn somewhere, otherwise the parks would have been full of people.

Once we were allowed to attend things with restrictions in place, I went to an event which was meant to have masks and social distancing but everyone kind of got carried away and forgot about. Everyone got COVID, including me, badly, and one person was hospitalised.

So if you were the government what would you have done during the pandemic. Which of the bizarre rules we followed do you think saved lives, and which just causes stress or distress?

Anyone who 100% would have been at risk of death should have isolated the rest of us should have cracked on. Can still get Covid now and go to work so what’s the difference between now and then.

No, in that situation you'd likely get complete societal collapse.

Covid was specific in that risks to healthy, working age people were not particularly high. Do you really think essential workers would be happy to trot out everyday to keep your lights on if they significantly risked killing themselves or their children to do so? I doubt it.

Not given billions to cronies.

Yep, unless the disease wasn't particularly serious. In which case people wouldn't uncomplainingly acquiesce to restrictions.

Erm the vulnerable are vaccinated twice a year and they can get an anti virals IV or tablets now. In 2020 you would have just been left to die whilst the fitter got the ventilators....

Infection rates were already showing falls BEFORE the lockdowns. That was just down to people being told about it, and being "recommended" to take precautions such as avoiding indoor crowded places and social distancing. I think that message should have been sent out a lot earlier which may well have lessened the first peak considerably.

I also agree about "protecting" OAPs and the ECV groups of people. Plough the resources into making them safe, a "ring of steel" around them if you will. Facilitate home deliveries of foods and other goods, "protected" home visits by doctors, nurses, carers etc., of staff using proper PPE to protect the vulnerable. For those working who don't want to risk going to work, pay them full wage for the duration of the pandemic - much cheaper paying a small number of people a full wage than furlough to millions who should never have been stopped form working! Certainly no stupidity like discharging covid patients to care homes!!

VERY limited closure of businesses, basically just the highest risk ones, maybe cramped pubs, cafes and nightclubs. Proper financial support for businesses that "have to" close, no stupid exclusions for financial support! Also limited support for those who have to scale down operations, i.e. reduced numbers of tables in cafes, or where opening hours are deemed a sensible precaution to reduce risk of spread (i.e. pubs closing earlier). Stupid for building sites to be closed down when most work is outdoors/ventilated and most workers are younger/healthier people - by all means, remove any ECV workers from the building site, but not young healthy 21 year old lads! Same with factories, warehouses, haulage, etc. "Social Distancing" could apply in most places.

After all, after the first lockdown, lots of things did re-open, ie shops, factories, warehouses, construction sites etc - they have to as you can't just shut down for a couple of years. It's all a matter of balance and protecting the most vulnerable - not protecting people who don't need nor want protecting at a cost of hundreds of billions!

And more than anything, LOGICAL rules. None of this "tier" stupidity. None of the Welsh supermarkets being banned from selling anything other than food. None of park benches being covered in hazard tape or locks on gates to kids play parks!

Closure of playgrounds was particularly revolting. That generation of children shouldn't ever forgive us for it.

Nice in principle, but some CEV people were essential and the healthy people looking after the frail, elderly and CEV would have been infection risks

Totally agree with this. Schools should've reopened after the May half-term for ALL students. SEN pupils should've been prioritised too, alongside those of key workers. My dyslexic Y5 DC didn't set foot in school from the end of March to the start of Sept and it was catastrophic for his education.

God forbid if monkey pox becomes rife as that does hit the young hardest

Yeah, I think things would get pretty nasty if that happened.

There's a tendency for people to default to assuming everyone would have to behave if things were bad enough in another pandemic. Actually, there's another, much less pleasant option on the table.

Closed our borders from day one.
I remember listening to what was happening in Italy and feeling relieved that we are an island and closing borders is simple. Did the government do it? No. Thousands of lives lost.

The UK has a land boarder with another country. Closing that border was not an option politically.

Also, food distribution in the UK is dependent on trucks entering from the continent and delivering across the country. The UK is not New Zealand.

I’m in Sweden and looking back we did well. I worked as a preschool teacher the entire time, my children went to their school and we could go out nearly as usual. There was no big difference to our lives. Also our politicians stepped back and let our state epidemiologist make the calls as he is an expert and they are not. It turned out better than we thought at the time, but next time who knows what the rigjt thing will be.

I’m most happy my children didn’t miss out of school anyway.

Yep, this was also my experience in a London teaching hospital. So many deaths of young, fit patients. It was horrific. There absolutely was rationing of care, despite quadrupling our ICU capacity. It was horrific. A couple of my colleagues died - middle-aged doctors who still had decades of life ahead of them.

But people on here who had absolutely no exposure to any of that make out that the only deaths were one 98 year old in Rhyl, and it was all a nonsense. The UK had over 1000 deaths per day at some points - those weren’t all frail elderly people.

edit - meant to quote @Helloflo

Maybe the law said it was unlimited, but the enforcers had different ideas.

There were many cases of police officers challenging people exercising.

Many cases of over zealous Uni campus security staff challenging students just having a walk around campus, some Unis even stopped students actually leaving their accommodation blocks.

My son lived in a campus flat of 8 people. There were no "in person" lecturers, seminars nor tutorials, so they basically stayed in their rooms/flat all day, every day, except for exercise and shopping etc. They went out for a walk, all 8 of them, but the security staff challenged them and told them it wasn't allowed due to the "rule of 6". Utter stupidity. They showed their key fobs proving they lived together so qualified as a "household", but campus security were having none of it and threatened to report them and said they'd be expelled if they didn't comply and break up into two groups. As I say, utter stupidity!

Same in his Uni library when it finally opened during the second year of covid (it was closed for the first year!). They had an airport style zig zag queuing system. Son went in one evening as he knew it'd be quiet. There was literally no one in, so he ducked under the barrier instead of zig-zagging. Some crazed woman at the counter went bat shit at it for risking her life and called security on him! Utter stupidity!

If there are to be fixed rules/laws, then they need to be clear and unambiguous and those "enforcing" them need to be property trained and held to account if they go off-piste!

But your non-compliance was out of bloody-minded ignorance, or are you saying you knew better than the medical advisers? If a future virus had a mortality rate of 1 in 10, and everyone was equally susceptible (not just old people), would you still refuse to comply because you're "not a mindless sheep"?

Hindsight is 20/20 vision. There aren enquiries ongoing which will probably get to the bottom of what should have happened but we all have our own ideas.

I live in Scotland and we had more restrictions in terms of mixing and mask wearing than other parts of the UK, with no difference in rates/deaths. That was clearly a mistake and politically-motivated to show that Scotland was different from England/Wales. My eldest started Uni in 2021 and because of the restrictions on numbers/mixing did the whole year online - another mistake as by that time students in other places were attending as usual. The Scottish government also did not make schools a priority which was a massive mistake.

I do think however that the UK government did a great job of securing enough vaccine and rolling it out quickly and efficiently.

If a future virus had a mortality rate of 1/10 across the board, and presumably you also mean it would be similarly contagious to covid, a 2020 style lockdown is not what would happen! That sort of thing requires a functioning society.

If this person is an essential worker, would you expect him (or anyone else) to go out to work everyday to keep your lights on if they had a 10% chance of dying?

I remember the slight panic when our state epidemiologist said that the strategy of our country was that almost everyone would be infected sooner or later, we just shouldn’t all get infected at the same time. 😂

People in nursing homes and care homes are often immobile. They stay at home every day because they are bedbound, or only mobile with a frame. That didn’t protect them from catching Covid did it?

Well it’s a different strain, we have better treatments in place that we know work, most of the population have some immunity, and the CV are vaccinated. There are still people dying but not in the high hundreds a day. Did you think it was all a story??? Do you not know anyone hurt or bereaved by covid?

I agree on schools. They should have been kept open

But borders could not have been closed, this was confirmed at the enquiry

as the Beautiful South sang “carry on regardless” 🤷🏽‍♀️