To find all this COVID chat reprisal in the news so depressing

[Pavementworrier]

The phrase "social distancing" just chills my bones

If it had happened thirty years earlier things would have been sensibly managed without the apocalyptic horror and uselessness

I don't know how they can talk about collective bomb shelters for ww3 planning with a straight face - who in London would march into the dark to spend time with a random selection of strangers now! You'd be safer above ground

Many of us know people who are still suffering from long Covid

😂😂😂😂😂

I’m glad it’s not being swept under the carpet and that the enquiry is happening.

I think it’s possible to feel that it was a pretty impossible job - the idea of being in power in those days is terrifying, so I do have some sympathy about a lot of the mistakes that were made - and also to feel that specific characteristics of that government were especially badly suited to that time.

I remember seeing Raab, who was effectively PM at one point, on the news coughing over everybody in a meeting. His thick-necked machoism fitted right in with Johnson’s ‘I’m going to shake hands with everybody’ stupidity. All they seemed to care about was appearing ‘tough’. Everybody in the government who had Covid had ‘mild symptoms’. I dont remember much from my first bout of Covid in April 2020, it didn’t last long for me that time round but it was a wipeout - I was barely capable of choosing soup flavours, never mind governing the country.

They decided not to take any significant lockdown action early on in a global travel hub in a densely populated area of the country. Idiots. They also threw the north of England into the dustbin for years, nowhere was locked down longer than Manchester I believe. We got the worst of all worlds. I’m glad it’s being talked about.

Why ? That's to both of your concepts.

Why is disease X coming?

And why is the government faking climate data ?

That’s my opinion, it was a ludicrous over reaction that has bankrupted the country. I had to go in to work regardless, as did so many other people, while others stayed at home screaming for longer lockdowns on 80% wages.
The same people now demanding to know why the country is now so skint….

Oh good lord Chiseltip. If you mean that planning is being done for other future pandemics, well I hope so because they are going to happen.

Yes, it's astonishing how those 223000 deaths apparently didn't happen and that it was all a lot of fuss over " a bit of a cold".

The findings of this report are at odds with many people’s experience of Covid. I, like a lot of people are still WFH now and it’s transformed home and work life balance (and well-being) for many.

I don’t condone the arrogance and behaviour of some in Westminster - it was appalling but generally speaking, the policy decisions were based on very scary and worrying information that was new and emerging. They didn’t know for a while, for example, that covid presented in some children in a full body rash. It was only after doctors were reporting multiple cases - things were changing and evolving all the time.

How could it NOT have been chaotic? How could anyone have predicted the impact on children’s mental health years later? (My dd being one who suffered greatly). Most decent people upheld the rules and listened faithfully to the daily updates on the news. I’m actually amazed that they rolled out that vaccine so quickly and efficiently.

I wonder how many of the critics would’ve handled it? Not locked down when the rest of the world was showing windswept and empty capital cities? Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing.

I'm finding it depressing because in modern parlance it is 're-traumatising' me. I went into lockdown with everyone else but for various reasons didn't really start to come out until summer of 202.
So I'm avoiding it.

Exactly. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I think it's criminal the way Boris, Cummings etc acted, they appeared completely incompetent and actually like they were revelling in their incompetence. All fun and games when you're secretly getting the wine out in no 10 when the great unwashed are following the rules. The reality is people die when leaders are incompetent.

The ones I'm angry at are the WHO. Why did they just sit and wait and let it spread so far from China. They should have closed off flights etc so much earlier. It was maddening at the time - it was obvious to everyone from day dot that China were lying and the WHO just sat and watched it spread across the world.

I think the enquiry was a waste of time and money. My belief was that young people were let down and that we should have not had a lock down but the vulnerable should have shielded. I thought that at the time as did many, but when you feel of that you’re in the minority you tend not to speak out as much as you like to. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I do feel sorry for the government. They didn’t know what was going to happen. I think Boris did the best in many ways and he is naturally optimistic, he’s naturally a libertarian and didn’t like the whole concept lockdown I think without the advice or influence of others the UK would’ve carried on with no lockdown but we are where we are. If there would be another pandemic I don’t think it would be possible to have a lockdown as people would not go along with it so maybe that is the lesson from it and another generation of young people would be saved from isolation and losing their freedom

Yeah but mistakes tend to happen more in chaotic disorganised environments when people are trying to ‘battle’ a disease and prove how macho they are. If those in charge go to the appropriate meetings and act on earlier advice from their own experts then some mistakes can be avoided.

the language is fascinating - I teach English Language A level and a couple of students have compared the language of Johnson’s addresses to Jacobs’s Adern’s and it’s striking.

Can you imagine how the current government would’ve handled that shit show? I fucking shudder to think.

Boris did his best? Partying when everyone else was in lockdown and then not attending Cobra meetings- he was incompetent and responsible.

I think that would depend on mortality rate.

30% death rate? I think people would lock down,

Probably with more seriousness than the one at the time.

Save it.

The present government would undoubtedly make mistakes. They would not shit all over the UK population by exhorting the population to do one thing while doing the opposite themselves. Again and again and again.

I don’t yet believe all the conspiracy theories “2020 was just the warm up, proper lockdown on the way soon”, but I do think that once the government decided lockdown would happen, someone said “let’s seize this opportunity to find out exactly how far we can frighten, bully, coerce and manipulate the peasants public with the power of the media, and fear messaging”, hence the massive campaign of fear, and the absurd rules: it felt as if the government was deliberately testing the limits of what the public would tolerate. And to my dismay, the public tolerated a lot: not only was there not a shred of public resistance to the absurdity at first, but the public pleaded for more, and even the government was surprised by the compliance. This means that they have discovered that frightening the public “works”. The impact might have been lessened by Partygate, but I do think that similar tactics might be used later to frighten the public into obedience about something completely different, such as climate change.

As for the “reprisal” now, I avoid the news so I haven’t heard much, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the BBC and others are keeping the state of fear glowing slightly. And we’re back to the face rags littering the pavements.

Try doing some basic research first.

Conspiracy theory research?

You just believe most of them.

Could not agree more

imho, there's too much historical navel gazing in UK. Also, the atmosphere isn't "Lessons we can learn to do better in future" but rather "who can we be pissed off at" sometimes justified as "Getting angry is the only way things ever change." and then more fury that none of the villified paid a personal price that satisfies the furious. imho, Anger shouldn't make public decisions for everyone.

Agree with PP who said that Lockdown could only get high compliance and acceptance when it was obvious that nothing else would prevent huge harms. I don't think Lockdowns would have been accepted or even worked (fairly) well if imposed much earlier.

2021 was the huge mortality wave. I guess the handling then is geting a nod of approval from Enquiry?