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Covid

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Original poster

to be sick of the gaslighting and rewriting of history over Christmas.

74 replies

MercyBooth · 24/03/2021 23:17

The gaslighting continues.

graziadaily.co.uk/life/in-the-news/covid-a-year-on-frontline/

Janitha Gowribalan, 36, an ICU doctor in London who told us at the start of the pandemic she was worried about how they were going to cope. ‘I didn’t appreciate the fragility of life before. It’s been profound,’ she says. She hasn’t seen her mum since before it all began. ‘I’ve forgotten to be kind to myself and make sure my needs are met
Janitha has patients still in hospital who caught the virus when rules were relaxed before Christmas

The sensationalist press conference on the 19th December put London and Essex into tier 4 banning families getting together #christmasiscancelled was trending on Twitter. The rules wernt relaxed at all. WTF

Gaslighting people just before you expect them to do a SECOND Easter in lockdown. Not a great idea i would have thought.

Makes me wonder how much history was rewritten after the two World Wars. Living in the digital age that is harder. Doesnt seem to stop people having a bloody good go at it though. This is a bloody insult to those who have made sacrifices not seeing their families for many many months. DB hasnt seen our parents for months. He would go tonto if he read this.

People have made so many sacrifices not seeing family , including relatives who were terminally ill. Good luck getting compliance for another winter lockdown if its needed.

OP posts:

AlexaShutUp · 24/03/2021 23:52

For those of us who were in tier 3 at that stage, the period in early-mid December looked remarkably relaxed in London. I would definitely describe that period as being "before Christmas" so I don't think it's gaslighting to say that the rules were relaxed at that time.

I do think that the government monumentally fucked up over the whole mess at Christmas, but that's a separate issue.

Original poster

MercyBooth · 24/03/2021 23:53

@Tippexy Doesnt change the fact that there was no RULE relaxation.

Your link to that assertion please?

OP posts:

Original poster

MercyBooth · 24/03/2021 23:54

"You can have Christmas at Easter"

OP posts:

MajesticWhine · 24/03/2021 23:54

People talk a lot of shit to serve whatever purpose it might be for them. We are not rational beings. Even ICU doctors.

StarCat2020 · 24/03/2021 23:56

"You can have Christmas at Easter"
Yep and there are so many more

nancy75 · 24/03/2021 23:56

The rules were relaxed in London, we came out of lockdown at the end of November & until 19th December ( a few days before Xmas) pubs, restaurants & shops were open - this was despite the numbers steadily rising at that time in London.
I am absolutely certain pubs were open as I live in London & my husband runs a pub.

Original poster

MercyBooth · 24/03/2021 23:56

@MajesticWhine It reads to me like its the journalist at fault.

OP posts:

MajesticWhine · 25/03/2021 00:01

Yeah ok.
Even less surprising then.
Journalist spins a load of bollocks for a good story.

AlexaShutUp · 25/03/2021 00:06

OP, if the journalist had written that the rules were relaxed at Christmas or for Christmas, you would have a valid point, but I don't think there is anything wrong with saying that the rules were relaxed before Christmas because they were.

AcornAutumn · 25/03/2021 00:51

@AlexaShutUp

If I recall correctly, theatres were open in London during that period too? I think London was still in Tier 2 at that stage?

I think six theatres were open for a few days.

I was baffled at the time because why they trusted the government was a mystery to me.

www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/michael-harrison-pantomime-london-lockdown_53022.html

AlexaShutUp · 25/03/2021 00:55

I was baffled at the time because why they trusted the government was a mystery to me.

I was baffled, too. The case numbers were clearly rising really quickly in London but they were left in tier 2 with lots of stuff open and people behaving as if everything was fine. It was a disaster waiting to happen!

AcornAutumn · 25/03/2021 00:59

@AlexaShutUp

I was baffled at the time because why they trusted the government was a mystery to me.

No, I don't mean that at all

It will have taken time to get all that sorted so they were believing promises made by government in the summer

But we are at cross purposes because this isn't about infection control. Just wanted to be clear why I thought theatre bosses should have been a bit brighter about this. I love theatre but they to wake up, it seems.

starfish88 · 25/03/2021 01:46

Totally off topic but an icu doctor didn't appreciate the fragility of life until covid? Surely in normal times the age of icu patients skews younger as they are the ones who will survive a ventilator and the things that can put a young healthy person in icu, car accidents, serious injuries, assault etc are more 'random' than covid.

bobbiester · 25/03/2021 06:15

The rules were relaxed in London in early December - i.e. BEFORE Christmas. They were then tightened again when the Government realised the danger.

But a lot of people still caught COVID and died.

You really want argue with an ICU doctor who had to deal with the deaths over the meaning of "before" ???

Graciebobcat · 25/03/2021 06:20

The only people that "went mad" were the government, only apparently noticing the steep climb in cases in December which had been happening since September.

bobbiester · 25/03/2021 06:23

@Graciebobcat

The only people that "went mad" were the government, only apparently noticing the steep climb in cases in December which had been happening since September.

Exactly. Promising people family mixing at Christmas was bonkers.

TheReluctantPhoenix · 25/03/2021 06:26

Early December was carnage in London, streets packed, shops with customers less than 1ft away from each other, let alone 2m. Restaurants and bars were also heaving the week or so they were open.

Covid was partying like it was 1999!

I am really not sure that an ICU doctor not making the distinction between rules relaxing or the majority of people at least bending the rules can be described as gaslighting. In fact, people who choose to blur out peoples actual behaviour in early December and refuse to take any responsibility for what happened subsequently are being disingenuous at the least.

MiaMc · 25/03/2021 06:27

@AlexaShutUp

I do think that the government monumentally fucked up over the whole mess at Christmas, but that's a separate issue.

This.

There were no bars & restaurants open in much of the rest of the country at that time.

joanna67 · 25/03/2021 06:30

The last time restaurants and pubs were open in London before Xmas was 15th Dec. In pubs you had to be seated and have a meal, you couldn't just go for a meal.

Shops were busy, but nowhere near as busy as normal, and only for a short period as we'd just come out of the November lockdown. It wasn't carnage as has been described.

Xmas in London was cancelled.

joanna67 · 25/03/2021 06:31

Sorry, I should have said celebrating Xmas with other friends and family cancelled. Of course Xmas itself wasn't cancelled!

TheReluctantPhoenix · 25/03/2021 06:32

@joanna67

I live in London. Our recollections differ. I think that it was carnage.

The doctor said ‘before’ Christmas. She is not an idiot (it is fair to assume) and is clearly referring to the period before we locked down again.

MiaMc · 25/03/2021 06:38

It was basically a mistake to put London in tier 2 at the end of lockdown 2.
The majority of the country remained in higher tiers and perhaps just as well otherwise our hospitals might not have had the capacity to move patients around from London like they did.

LivinLaVidaLoki · 25/03/2021 06:41

Im always a bit baffled by people who talk about how the shops just before Christmas were carnage.

Of course they were always going to be extremely busy when you close retail until a few weeks before Christmas, the busiest retail period anyway you are literally forcing everyone who normally does their shopping throughout November/December into the shops all at the same time.

Graciebobcat · 25/03/2021 06:46

The apex of a whole sequence of shit decisions by the government was threatening to take schools to court for closing early for Christmas, when Covid was absolutely ripping through schools and universities.

I can never forgive them for what they did from August - December last year. In the summer we had about 45,000 deaths, by January, 120,000 plus. This is on them.

TheReluctantPhoenix · 25/03/2021 06:49

@LivinLaVidaLoki,

That just is not true. If there is any type of shopping that is easy to go online, it is Christmas shopping.

People missed the retail experience. I went into shops and walked straight out again when I realised that they just weren’t safe. The flash mob outside Harrods was, almost certainly, a superspreader event.

The Covid curve is, itself, proof of what was going on. It is actually a very good indicator of what happened to contacts during that period.

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