Mumsnet during the beginning of the Pandemic - please tell me your stories of the maddest comments you saw

[mumofoneAlonebutokay]

Inspired by chat on another thread - one woman was told not to pop to the shop for milk but to put butter in her coffee instead 😄

I wasn't on mumsnet then but would love to know the maddest comments you saw?

I myself went mad during the pandemic 🙈 and refused to leave the house and judged anybody that did, I'll admit 😬😄 - I wish I'd been calmer

Please share 🥰

Edit - I know how awful the pandemic was for those who lost loved ones, and how serious those losses are - this is just about the unnecessary hysteria and comments stemming from that, not to poke fun at those who lost someone or became ill. 💕

😂 I do but as with so much of the pandemic it now feels like a fever dream. The fact you remember it too suggests that it was not.

I got told I'd be murdering grannies if I took my dog out twice a day rather than just once. Never mind that I lived in a tiny village and had masses of space to walk where I wouldn't see another person, let alone pass by them closely.

Something that is often not mentioned in the discussion about Sweden is that Swedish ICUs were never in danger of being overrun, which was one of the more reasonable justifications that governments gave for lockdown. Why? Because in Sweden, almost nobody over 80 ever gets sent to ICU, as a matter of policy (since well before Covid). It's considered unethical, both towards the patient and towards all of the other people who need the healthcare system, since the survival rates in that age group for something that puts you into ICU are so poor.

And indeed, we find that in most countries the survival rates in ICU for Covid were poor, to the extent that conspiracy theorists were wheeling them out as proof that "Covid doesn't kill you, ICU does, look, 85% of people who go to ICU with so-called Covid die". But it would have taken a braver man than Matt Hancock - and, to be fair, most other health ministers across Europe - to say "Sorry folks, your Granny isn't getting a ventilator, just diamorphine".

Also amusing is how about 90% of the people who were shouting "We should be more like Sweden" are the same people who claimed before Covid, and still do today, that we should be less like Sweden because Sharia immigrants etc etc.

This!!!

I also feel for my son who was at uni during this time along with a professional part time job and packed it in in March 2021 thoroughly disenchanted as for a whole year they either had the lecturers on strike or next to no tuition of any kind or very ad hoc , no face to face, plus no benefits of a social life from March 2020 to may 2021. He was totally disheartened and went back to his job full time - I think for that period they should get all tuition fees wiped off . As my son said to me he could have stopped it, got his rent paid almost in full and carried on just with a part time job - I don’t blame him for feeling resentful that they were paying for sod all

Sweden has changed its immigration policy recently though.

The ICU stuff is interesting, that is a big difference for them.

Exactly all I could think was how it must’ve been for Goebbels people just accept what they’re told by the government and don’t question. I found that far more frightening than the virus. You realised if there was anything bad to happen well the minority would have to stand up and be attacked. People were attacked for having a different opinion I think the only politicians who wasn’t entirely going along with lockdowns was Farage but I think he lost his job in LBC as a result.

I really enjoyed the paid for holiday of the government but morally and ethically it was totally wrong. Politicians at the start made comments such as “well if lots of old folk die it will help our social care”. Not pleasant I’ll admit and I think even Boris made the comment to the horror of some.

How on earth did we reach a point in society where the vulnerable and the elderly needs trump that of the economy and children? I still can’t get my head round it. Prior to covid I read an article about the Titanic and the “women and children first” and how views had changed and the comments section proved that someone talking about how their Father with umpteen aliments would come before any woman and child. I learned someone’s 80 year old Granny is far more important than young, economy, suicides and all other health conditions.

Exactly, no logical thought applied to these arguments, just a knee jerk reaction really to what we all found to be a deeply challenging situation, with minimal regard for the glaring differences that clearly existed and remain today.

@samarrange indeed - and I think there was a similar view in Denmark as we were there at that time- only 1 day did Copenhagen announce they were close to capacity within greater Copenhagen. It thing though that is also different is ‘press’ - I saw far less sensationalist main stream press- can you imagine here if the mail or express or Sun got wind that no one over 80 was being prioritised for ICU

@Crikeyalmightyand @DoubleShotEspressowould you have been in favour of Sweden’s over 80s ICU rule in that post?

My son was at Aberystwyth and whilst they had to pay reduced tuition fees they got all their rent for halls back during the early lockdowns when they went home.

For my son, whilst he missed out on the social side, he was glad he didn’t have to sit in exam halls…he found that very stressful.

From what perspective @Arraminta
Crazy obsessed ?
or
Not giving a toss ?

The Rule of 6, Eat out to Help out, Clap for the NHS....

Seriously WTAF?! 😂

@EasternStandard I’m honestly not sure - I had an 80 year old FIL in UK and a pretty fit one who had been widowed the previous year and who I love a lot- so my heart would probably have ruled -

I got into so much trouble at work over the rule of six thing - I worked in a cafe and had let a group of six in and seated them. Another table knocked over a full tray of drinks which made a huge mess so I went to the cleaning cupboard to grab to mop. Got it sorted and was dragged into the office by my manager who yelled at me for seating seven people together... 😡 I got a written warning for that and she wouldn't listen to anything I said. I fucking hate her guts to this day. Fuck you Julie T!

@EasternStandard Goodness no. I hated the idea when presented back than as much as I do now, as per my responses above. The comparisons then between Sweden and the UK were apples and oranges. to me, no logic as completely different cultures, mindset, family approaches and the infrastructure also vastly different. Held no water then and still do not today.

In the first lock down my neighbour ranted at me because i dared to go on a walk. I lived in a flat at the time and my granddad had just been sectioned. I really needed to get out for some air.

The frothing crazed, I'm afraid.

We knew very early on that over 98% of people who caught COVID would survive. To decimate this country in the way we did just to ostensibly save people who were already extremely elderly/frail was immoral and madness.

I vaguely recall that too, which was funny because round my way many of them were still very much continuing to offer their services on the quiet! Especially during the second lockdown.

Sweden isn’t the only country that didn’t lock down. Taiwan, Uruguay and Iceland are others. It was not the only option.

I’m one of the ones who embraced the fallout of hairdressers being shut. 😁

I stayed away from those threads at the time, and now I remember why!

Better to experience in hindsight I think.

98% survival means one person in 50 dying. It's the odds of cutting a pack of cards and getting the ace of spades. I suspect that "Only one in 50 of you will die in immense distress" on Boris's nightly updates would not have gone down very well.

But the person cutting the pack and getting the Ace of Spades would, in all likelihood, also be over 80 and have other serious health issues.

Or they could have been much younger with respiratory issues or other disabilities. Some ethnic groups were also disproportionately affected. But maybe those people deserved to take a death lottery ticket too, to avoid "decimating the country" (in some way that over a million deaths wouldn't)?