If someone said to you last March...

[Wowcherarestalkingme]

That this would go on for another 16 months would you have believed them? Did you think a year ago that schools would still be closed, businesses going under left and right and still having to wear face masks all the time?
Do you think it would have affected your behaviour in the first lock down?
I was just thinking today that it’s coming up to a year when lockdown was first announced and I truly believed at the time it would all have blown over by Christmas. Never did I think we would still be where we are a year on. And thank goodness for the vaccine!! Just interested in peoples thoughts on how they felt a year ago to now really

[quote Porcupineintherough]@Kazzyhoward I've got friends in both Australia and NZ. There lives are pretty much back to normal and have been for a long time. A 4 day lockdown every now and then doesnt change much.[/quote]
They dont have a tunnel, dozens of short daily ferry crossings, an open border with Republic of Ireland. They're more independent in normal times pre covid. The UK could never have coped with proper closed borders and the reality of what that means if literally no one came in (i.e. no van drivers with their vans, etc). Look at IOM - a ferry worker causing the latest spike. I don't think technology allows ferries to run without staff!

@Kazzyhoward ok, then let's compare ourselves with Norway, or Finland, or Greece, or South Korea, or one of the dozens of countries where a better government response has resulted in less deaths and less disruption to every day life. Because it really didnt have to be this way.

I mean, didn't people understand what "pandemic" meant?
Probably not, given that we have never seen a pandemic of this scale in our lifetimes. And all the previous "pandemics" we have seen were almost nonexistent in this country e.g. bird flu, swine flu.

Yes, I did think it would go on because I couldn’t see how it wouldn’t.

Although if I had stopped to think about the details of schools still being closed and so on it would have still been mind boggling.

But yes, expected it all to drag on like this.

I would have been really pleasantly surprised and amazed at how quickly vaccines started to happen though.

I remember my boss ranting that any lockdown couldn't go on for more than two months, 'or the economy would collapse completely'. Ten days later we were all on furlough for the next five months.

I said this time last year it would be this summer, so summer 2021 earliest that things would start getting back to normal. Everyone thought I was insane and making a mountain out of a molehill. Could see it wouldn’t all be back to normal last year though

Yes, l was beside myself with worry last Feb as we saw the effect on Italian hospitals......
That was when l could see no way out, only many deaths,long term health effects, recession, businesses folding, repossessions, high unemployment, tax rises...for many years

But l felt like l was living in a parallel universe as all around me were so disinterested. I couldn't believe people thought it would just magically go away!

Dh's work told them to take everything home and prepare for up to 18 months wfh.
My work said at least a year.
Neither had any inside information.

I would have thought they were being ridiculous. I remember having a conversation this time last year with my mum who informed me we would probably lock down China style. I called her ridiculous. I had also noticed a LOT of tinned food in her cupboards and thought she was being very dramatic.

I thought it would take us 2 years to get back to some kind of normality. Would be happy to be proved wrong by being quicker.

A year ago it was still unthinkable that we would be put into a lockdown at all! There was a bit of nervous talk - but a full lockdown? Never!!
One thing I would have done 12 months ago though if I had known ... bought shares in zoom!!

@Neron

A year ago, if someone told me it would be illegal for me to work, and illegal for me to see my family and friends, I wouldn't have been able to catch my breath from laughing so much.

Same here!

I know it's all gone so wrong. I cannot believe it's illegal to cook for my family or visit my family. I cannot believe police are arresting folk for getting a coffee or going to a car park to see a friend. I can't believe we have to wear face nappies everywhere and that my kid has missed most of year 8 and 4 months of year 9 education.
I can't believe what a bunch of snitches and busibodies some have turned into.
I cannot believe how many have died and that their funeral attendees were limited to a handful.
The care homes. No hugging. The threat of vaccine passports. Makes me sick for the future.

@Dee1975

A year ago it was still unthinkable that we would be put into a lockdown at all! There was a bit of nervous talk - but a full lockdown? Never!! One thing I would have done 12 months ago though if I had known ... bought shares in zoom!!

It really wasn't unthinkable. It has always been a strategy to deal with pandemics. A full blown pandemic had always been high on the government's risk register. And Italy was already in lockdown yet everyone was still jetting round the world, bringing it back to the UK. It looked pretty inevitable to me by this time last year and I was already sending vulnerable staff home. It was a horribly frustrating time dealing with so many colleagues etc who were in total denial. Baffling.

I would never be any good as a professional psychic as I gave it three months.

@AlfonsoTheTerrible you didn't need a crystal ball. There were plenty of scientists who were experts in epidemiology /virology who were sharing their expectations and predictions.

Last summer I booked a weekend break in the Norfolk Broads for next month, i.e. April 2021. I remember thinking at the time "surely this will all be over by then". Feeling a bit foolish now. As it happens we're not going anyway for health reasons regardless of covid. Gutted, it was literally the only thing we had to look forward to.

@Monkeytennis97

Yup I knew it would go on longer than a year at least. Anyone who thought it would be over in 12 weeks or by September when the schools went back needed their heads read. See also the bullshit lies about schools being safe.

I thought it would go on for a good year and was getting frustrated with people thinking there wouldn't be a second lockdown.

Forgot to add, but I didn't forsee years and years of this.

@Foghead

I thought it would take us 2 years to get back to some kind of normality. Would be happy to be proved wrong by being quicker.

Once I realised the government weren't going to nip it in the bud, and weren't going to do TTI properly, and had chosen an "allow it to spread, lockdown, repeat" strategy I thought 3 years. After a year of failed mitigation I think I was naively optimistic.

I had no idea they'd choose this many deaths, this much disruption of health and education, this much disruption of our whole lives.

PrincessNutNuts
*Once I realised the government weren't going to nip it in the bud, and weren't going to do TTI properly, and had chosen an "allow it to spread, lockdown, repeat" strategy I thought 3 years. After a year of failed mitigation I think I was naively optimistic.

I had no idea they'd choose this many deaths, this much disruption of health and education, this much disruption of our whole lives.*

Do you really think this was completely in the hands of the Government? Do you really think the government had the power to stop a pandemic?
They have made lots of mistakes (as have almost all Governments around the world,) but your attitude is pretty insulting, after all the Prime Minsister almost died, did he do that on purpose too?

@Dragongirl10

Don't you remember Chris Whitty telling us on March12th 2020 that the reasonable worst case they were working to was that 80% of us would get it, 20% would be hospitalised and 1% would die?

And our Prime Minister told us that many families were going to lose loved ones before their time?

What did you think they meant?

It's etched into my brain because I remember thinking Christ, that's half a million people.

At the time Italy had lost about a thousand and that was horrific.

And a year later, either this Tuesday or next we'll reach the 150,000 British people dead of covid milestone.

@Dragongirl10

PrincessNutNuts *Once I realised the government weren't going to nip it in the bud, and weren't going to do TTI properly, and had chosen an "allow it to spread, lockdown, repeat" strategy I thought 3 years. After a year of failed mitigation I think I was naively optimistic.

I had no idea they'd choose this many deaths, this much disruption of health and education, this much disruption of our whole lives.*

Do you really think this was completely in the hands of the Government? Do you really think the government had the power to stop a pandemic?
They have made lots of mistakes (as have almost all Governments around the world,) but your attitude is pretty insulting, after all the Prime Minsister almost died, did he do that on purpose too?

The government have made choices right along the way. Frequently they have chosen not to do things that would have reduced the number of deaths.

It is not insulting to recognise that the government are in power and made political choices.

I am glad I didn't realise how long this would go on for. I dont think I would have coped with it (mental health wise).

I certainly think if someone told us in March 2019 that this was going to happen and start a year from then, we would have thought they were mad.