Future generations will judge us harshly

[MyGardenSanctuary]

In years to come, people will be horrified at how we handled this pandemic.
We've denied kids (from babies to teenagers) a decent education and proper social contact for 18 months, isolated the vulnerable and elderly out of fear, delayed cancer treatment, denied access to dentist, doctors, support groups, banned partners who didnt live together from seeing each other, banging fucking saucepans, washing shopping, quarantining post, banning grandparents from seeing and hugging their families, dodging people on pavements in case we killed them, abusing those without a mask....I could go on.

Future generations are going to laugh at how this was handled and how we just took it.

I think that ‘future generations’ will be angrier that we’ve used up all the oil and fossil fuels without researching a replacement

Loooool we do have a replacement for it. It’s called nuclear energy.

Oh, but I forgot. Climate change extremists don’t actually want solutions. They just want to wallow in self-pity and/or they hate capitalism.

I don't think they'll be thinking too much about our response to the pandemic as much as they'll be thinking how terrible our response to climate change has been... and the potentially awful impact that will have for many generations....

Well said OP. People seem to have lost all sense of proportion around the risk levels. I follow The Bowel Babe (Deborah James) on Instagram. I was upset to see that she was admitted to hospital after having an infection, and, at the point of almost dying, was heartbroken to be refused visitors because of Covid protocols. I don't have any time for anti-vaxxers, or silly conspiracy theories, but the hysteria around the risk levels really gets me down.

Agree. Our kids are all going to put us in crooked nursing homes to punish us for this

If we didn't do anything, then those future generations who judge us may not be there to judge us.

@duffeldaisy

The percent of young people with long covid complications will probably think a bit more highly of the things people did to try to protect others from getting it.

This.

The Westminster government is pursuing a policy that they know will kill and disable hundreds of thousands.

I'd say you're right OP. History will definitely judge harshly.

Future generations will hopefully learn that the collective health of its nation must be a priority. The privileged middle and upper classes couldn't simply ignore this virus and let the working classes and poor put up with it. They quickly realised that without a functioning health service they too would be impacted. Also too that key services were at risk.

About 90 years ago it was a different country in Europe, that was killing disabled people. Nearly a century later and this time it is England.

@mrshoho

Future generations will hopefully learn that the collective health of its nation must be a priority. The privileged middle and upper classes couldn't simply ignore this virus and let the working classes and poor put up with it. They quickly realised that without a functioning health service they too would be impacted. Also too that key services were at risk.

We can but hope.

Yes to essay questions. I found an email I sent to a friend on 23 March 2020 discussing this: 'what was the name given to the virus at the heart of the pandemic in 2020?' 1 point. 'In your own words explain what social distancing is?' 2 points. 'Compare and contrast the different strategies used by the Chinese and the UK governments to contain the spread of the virus. You should explore the rationale behind measures implemented and the consequences of them for the mortality rate and economic impact on each country.' 10 points

@suggestionsplease1. That was quick! I would have guessed at least ten years would have passed before it reached the curriculum.
How wrong was I.

@PopcornMuncher

Working class people HAVE been left to get on with it. I know I was. As were several family members who work in essential roles

Yep. Definitely this.

@Toesies

Kept hundreds of thousands alive and healthy ....

Just this.

As one of the vulnerable isolated I am fucking grateful for that.

We’ll look back that we didn’t start mask wearing and PPE for healthcare workers earlier when the rest of the world was wearing space suits.

But future generations will have access to data we don’t have yet. Such as how many will have died as a consequence of not receiving early medical intervention during the last and next few years.
We think we’ve saved hundred of thousands, but the data yet to be seen may not prove that. We could have lost just as many as we’ve saved. We don’t know. I think that what future generations may judge us on.
(Along with several pages of other things).

Hopefully they will learn from our mistakes.

Such as how many will have died as a consequence of not receiving early medical intervention during the last and next few years.

Yes. They'll look at all the consequences of delayed or failed containment. Including patients being unable to access early diagnosis and treatment - due to hospitals being full and staff off sick with Covid, Long Covid, and PTSD.

@Tealightsandd
That may well be the thoughts of the future. We don’t know as we haven’t got the data. Conversely we won’t have any data to the contrary - how many dies as a result of doing nothing, nor any data to prove we did exactly the right thing at the right time. Because there isn’t anything to compare the present too.
It’s an interesting discussion on what the future generations will think of our actions here and now.

@PopcornMuncher

Working class people HAVE been left to get on with it. I know I was. As were several family members who work in essential roles

Well yes we have but the government quickly back tracked on their original idea of herd immunity with no restrictions back in feb/March 2020. Do you really think they would taken the measures they took if it was just the weak/poor/vulnerable that were going to suffer?

Who had no social contact for 18 months? That's an outright lie.

@ladygindiva

Who had no social contact for 18 months? That's an outright lie.

Feasibly it could be argued that many care home residents didn’t. However, you could also argue that they had interaction with care home staff.

@TheKeatingFive

From here, the biggest question seems to be why we didn't lock down extremely fast, extremely hard in the first place and stop all this from ever getting out of hand?

Mostly because that wasn’t in the official pandemic response plans, even from the likes of the WHO.

What Sweden did was much closer to what most countries had as their ‘official’ pandemic response.

But then China locked down, the pics from Italy spooked everyone and the west slapped down lockdowns without much prior planning.

Yup, and in Sweden so far very few people under aged 80 have died...of course different set of circumstances but most educated scientist (pharma industry and key opinion leaders) would not have expected the complete lockdowns we've seen. And it was never part of the pandemic response of the UK and Nordics (and probably not part of most countries pandemic plans)....

The op inferred that children had no social contact for 18 months. I was referring to that. I don't think care homes were closed for 18 months either were they? That would be from January 2020 to now.

Restrictions have and are still in place in care homes. As such there will be some people who won’t have received a visit from anyone other than staff, as volunteers and performers have not been allowed and sadly some won’t have had friends or relatives to visit - either they’ve out lived them or they may be isolating.
Sadly I know of several residents who would be in this very situation. It happens.

I missed the 18 months and children bit - sorry but again if they were shielding and /or home educated. Might be possible??