What were your predications in March 2020. How do they compare to now….?

Iwannabelikeyouohh · 2021-09-15T21:52:39+00:00

Back in March 2020 what did you predict was going to happen. How did it compare to what has actually happened?…. Did you think you’d be fully vaccinated now (if you chose to be fully vaccinated) Did you think restrictions would be fully lifted by now? My predications were very catastrophic 😞 I was suffering with awful PND and post natal anxiety. I honestly thought we were heading into some sort of zombie apocalypse 🤦🏻♀️

Mantlemoose · 15/09/2021 22:54

I think we're still in a zombie apocalypse!

Original poster

Iwannabelikeyouohh · 15/09/2021 22:55

@Mantlemoose

OP posts:

Sparklingbrook · 15/09/2021 22:57

I didn’t really make any predictions TBH. I was impressed with how quickly the vaccines appeared.
It doesn’t feel like a zombie apocalypse to me now but was frightening to begin with.

Dghgcotcitc · 15/09/2021 23:49

I thought we would have eliminated it by lockdown I really don’t want did! I thought that lockdown was what China did to get rid of the virus and we were doing it for the sane reason.

It never occurred to me it was a long term “we can live in lockdown forever” I think pro lockdowners didn’t make the long term agenda clear and I am pretty annoyed that my support for lockdown in March 2020 is being g read as “I do t think kids need to go to school ever” because that isn’t what I thought.

I didn’t think of vaccines in March 2020 at all I don’t think I strayed to think about vaccines at their crucial roll until autumn last year when it was clear that lockdown hadn’t worked!

sleepwouldbenice · 16/09/2021 00:32

@Dghgcotcitc

I thought we would have eliminated it by lockdown I really don’t want did! I thought that lockdown was what China did to get rid of the virus and we were doing it for the sane reason.

It never occurred to me it was a long term “we can live in lockdown forever” I think pro lockdowners didn’t make the long term agenda clear and I am pretty annoyed that my support for lockdown in March 2020 is being g read as “I do t think kids need to go to school ever” because that isn’t what I thought.

I didn’t think of vaccines in March 2020 at all I don’t think I strayed to think about vaccines at their crucial roll until autumn last year when it was clear that lockdown hadn’t worked!

We didn’t lock down like China though??

sleepwouldbenice · 16/09/2021 00:37

I will always remember an early briefing showing flattening the curve for lockdown 1 and it clearly showed a massive further curve in winter
So expected further lockdowns
Also read articles re vaccines and hoped they would be ready by Xmas
Also listened to advice that even with vaccines it would last 18 months to 2 years
So mostly rightI guess but no my personal prediction!
But the speed at which rates increased in northwest last autumn and the impact of the 2 variants.p…..? Incredible

nordica · 16/09/2021 00:42

I was always ahead of the government in a kind of personal lockdown avoiding indoor spaces long before that was recommended. Expected lockdown when much of MN was still saying it was never going to happen. I was listening to the news and scientists and kept up to date with the world situation. Didn't really have predictions far ahead except it was clear quite early on we were in for the long haul, pandemics generally last at least two years.

GoWalkabout · 16/09/2021 00:50

I thought that a second lockdown would be untenable so thought it was a 'once only deal'. I was bracing myself that we were likely to lose several members of our families (we have been v lucky and no losses only two mild cases among all my wider family). I thought people's mental health would get worse when the lockdowns ended.

cloudacious · 16/09/2021 00:50

Everything I thought would happen has more or less happened sadly, with the exception of the delta variant. I'm glad I didn't know about it and I'm glad I don't know what happens next.

The death toll in countries without much healthcare was always what this should have been about. Anyone with a brain to care could see the suffering this would cause and the knock on effect for aid to developing countries. I doubt many of us have personally seen the worst of this and are not therefore in a position to sit back and say 'it was a fuss about nothing'.

We didn't lockdown like China. I was in daily contact with many friends there. We didn't share their experience.

urbanbuddha · 16/09/2021 01:15

I didn't think it would be so inefficiently handled. Always going late into lockdown for instance.
I didn't for one moment that wearing a mask to protect other people would be seen as difficult and a total infringement of personal liberty.
On the other hand the speed of the vaccination programme rolled out by the NHS was brilliant.
We're about where I thought we'd be overall.

JaffacakeJanine · 16/09/2021 01:18

When it all kicked off I naively thought we would be back on offices fully by summer 2020 at the latest and blithely kept pushing back a musical date rather than cancelling it, expecting everything to blow over! If only.

lljkk · 16/09/2021 06:47

I can't remember anything I was right about.
I never thought we'd get a vaccine so quickly.
I didn't think the govt would have the stomach to impose such strict conditions.

DH thought there were would be civil unrest. We didn't think there would be generous benefits & furlough: a Tory govt paying ppl to stay home? I couldn't have predicted that.

The economic hit hasn't been bad at all (seemingly). I am confused why govts couldn't have invested huge amounts more in preventive medicine & social support for last 40 yrs without economic problems. Why can't we just spend & spend forever?*

Most of all I didn't predict the tribal fury about covid management & personal behaviour; I also suspect I'm getting exaggerated impression of it from online communities. In real life, I reckon ppl aren't half as opinionated and intolerant as they are online.

*Not being disingenous. After decades of limited budgets, now budgets don't seem to matter at all. Why not?

hellcatspangle · 16/09/2021 06:58

I thought it would've been all over by now!

To be honest I don't think about it anywhere near as much anymore - I used to check the figures and watch updates, now I don't bother. I've just accepted that it's part of life and that it's inevitable we will get it at some point (none of our household have caught it or had to isolate so far despite a few close calls)

Geamhradh · 16/09/2021 07:00

I didn't think the UK govt could be as callous with the lives of its citizens, was horrified at the idea of 20,000 dead (which I believe is the first number Boris Johnson mentioned, though can't remember exactly)

I didn't think it would go on for so long or that the psychological impact or economic impact would be so great. (I suppose I hadn't, in my innocence factored in that if everyone is working from home, then city centres are dying- as we are now seeing happening with, at best, branch closures, at worst, entire companies, many of whom have been around and successful for my entire life going bust) The Economist says it will be two entire generations before western countries' economies recover.

As pp I also just kept moving dates for things. Things I've still not done!

AFuturisticalSound · 16/09/2021 07:06

How did you all have such detailed thoughts about an unprecedented world wide event a few weeks into it?

I don't believe anyone could possibly have considered all those things when we'd been lockdown for 7 days

heldinadream · 16/09/2021 07:15

@AFuturisticalSound

How did you all have such detailed thoughts about an unprecedented world wide event a few weeks into it?

I don't believe anyone could possibly have considered all those things when we'd been lockdown for 7 days

Having previously considered that at some point there'd be a pandemic, due to modern patterns of life. Having watched a documentary on the mechanisms of a pandemic. Having been interested in the effects of previous global events. Having been alive during AIDS. Having a fairly pessimistic outlook on humanity. All of these (and other) reasons meant I was primed to immediately leap into detailed speculation on outcomes. I'm not really surprised by anything that's happened, except I didn't expect such early vaccines and I thought the world death toll could have been much, much higher and civil unrest greater and more disruptive.

PicsInRed · 16/09/2021 07:17

I expected a massive pandemic from early on, especially when we stubbornly refused to stop the flights from high infection countries and temporarily close borders. It was a matter of simple mathematics.

I didn't think vaccines would be quite as successful as they've proven to be and I'm delighted to be wrong about that and happily doubled jabbed with the new mrna technology which hopefully heralds a new age in preventing viruses we previously couldn't control (RSV, nasty "colds" etc).

I expected the pandemic to run for 2+ years and I'm disappointed to be right on that.

Geamhradh · 16/09/2021 07:19

@AFuturisticalSound

How did you all have such detailed thoughts about an unprecedented world wide event a few weeks into it?

I don't believe anyone could possibly have considered all those things when we'd been lockdown for 7 days

Maybe some of us a) aren't in the UK b) had been following the news about Wuhan for a few months by that point c) were posting on the first "Worried About Coronavirus" threads?

heldinadream · 16/09/2021 07:20

@AFuturisticalSound

How did you all have such detailed thoughts about an unprecedented world wide event a few weeks into it?

I don't believe anyone could possibly have considered all those things when we'd been lockdown for 7 days

In fact I'm just remembering now I gave a friend a facemask in the middle of January last year when there wasn't much news because she was about to go to Thailand and other places in the east for a month and I knew it was all about to kick off. She thought I was bonkers!

mrshoho · 16/09/2021 07:29

Not being disingenous. After decades of limited budgets, now budgets don't seem to matter at all. Why not?q

It does make you wonder I agree! We were hit financially early on as my self employed husband had to stop working (inmunosuppressed) on advice from his consultant. We applied for universal credit and endured this frustrating system but only for a short amount of time. The very generous self employed grant came and we were then not much worse off for which I was very grateful. But I do often wonder about how all this money was effortlessly handed out whilst for so long before, people had only minimal UC/unemployment benefit to support them. I am aware that not all self employed were able to benefit and this adds to the injustice of the benefits system.

whatswithtodaytoday · 16/09/2021 07:29

I've kept myself sane by finding reliable scientists and scientific journalists who could explain what was going on better than the government. Not in the first few weeks - that was such a scary time, no-one knew what we were facing - but by summer I was scouring Mumsnet and Twitter for people who could explain it all. I have a background in academia so am probably better placed to find useful and reliable research than most. I became very interested in how vaccines work, it's a fascinating science!

Initially I did think it would just be a few weeks, but once I started reading about pandemics I quickly realised we were in for the long haul, and that there would be a winter lockdown. I'm fully expecting and resigned to restrictions again this winter - if Boris is sensible and doesn't let the NHS get to breaking point - and believe we need far more investment in the NHS if we're going to live with Covid being endemic. I'm hopeful that vaccines and treatments will be improved and in a few years it will be far less of a concern, but in the short term it will massively impact on NHS services.

The government communication around the pandemic has been utterly appalling.

TheNatureOfTheCatastrophe · 16/09/2021 07:30

The reason why the government can rack up such enormous debt without calamitous consequences is that we're in an unprecedented period of cheap long term borrowing, especially for stable G7 governments. We can borrow an additional 20% of GDP and repay over long period at fixed rates. It's not ideal but it won't break us like it would if we did the same thing last century.

whatswithtodaytoday · 16/09/2021 07:39

@lljkk It just proves austerity was always ideological, doesn't it!

Early on I didn't believe Tories would pay people to stay at home either, it seemed unfathomable.

SpnBaby1967 · 16/09/2021 07:40

I figured it wasnt going to be the huge killer everyone was terrified of, and I was right. Covid is still overwhelmingly very survivable by more than 99% of those who contract it.

I was worried that shutting schools for a protracted length of time would increase child abuse and domestic violence reports in my job and I was right. These reports increased by 181% by summer 2020 just to my employer.

I didnt believe the Gov't would pay people to not go to work for more than a couple of months & businesses would have to reopen. I'm still shocked by how long furlough lasted.

onelittlefrog · 16/09/2021 07:44

I wasn't sure how long it would take to develop a vaccine and was very impressed with the quick turnaround on that.

I also didn't think it would last as long as it has. I had my Spring 2020 wedding cancelled and rearrange it for Spring 2021. The venue wanted us to go for Winter 2020 but we thought we'd be "safe" and delay a year.

Then obviously this Spring rolled around and we delayed another year!