Have people's opinions changed?

[MassiveOverthinker]

Just wondering really, if the last few months have changed people's opinion on how we managed covid in this country.

Anyone wondering if maybe fewer restrictions would've been better and if more draconian ones (often called for) were unnecessary. Anyone wondering if we needed to close schools, swab and isolate our kids, test and trace etc etc.

Or do people generally feel we did what was necessary at the time and are only okayish now because of weaker variants and higher vaccination levels?

Anyone feel less angry at the rule breakers, those who don't want to be vaccinated etc?

If it all happened again, do you think your response to restrictions would be the same, or would you be a bit more inclined to think "sod that for a laugh".

(Asking for a friend).

@TheKeatingFive Oh I see, a bit like the Candy Man 😂

I love how when anyone dares to take you lot on and isn't immediately scared off you trot out the predictable 'It must be NannyandJohn!' insult. Hilarious

Who are "you lot"? Why do we need "taking on" by brave soldiers such as yourself? Why is it an insult to be thought of that poster? Don't "your lot" aspire to be like her? Let me add the word hilarious to show how unbothered I am. Hilarious.

Oh I see, a bit like the Candy Man

Mine got deleted cos it quoted someone who was apparently troll hunting. May have been what happened with you.

I’ve mostly forgotten who was who from back then, tbh. It all sort of blurs into one cloud of “you’ll never have schools back again sorry I’m afraid!” after a while.

But I will always fondly remember the poster who was predicting hospitals overwhelmed with stab wounds from all the covid rioting, who went off on one at dissenters saying “just wait until you hear a cough and you start to shake in fear, you’ll know what you’re facing then!” Like Lord Haw Haw for the virus.

Mine got deleted too!
yes…it really got my hackles up too seeing ‘I’m afraid’ ‘sorry to say’ etc etc 😬
I also remember something about a poster who suggested we should have the army (armed) patrolling the streets, to shoot anyone not obeying the rules.
Have I remembered that correctly?!

I always remember a post on Mumsnet during lockdown 2020. The lady took her children to spend a night in their summer house at the bottom of the garden for a change of scenery. Someone had reported her to the police and she was told she wasn’t allowed to stay there and to go back into her house 🙄🙄🙄. Some of the posters on here were fully agreeing with the police and couldn’t wait to scold her for ‘breaking the rules’.

I think at the beginning when we were all trying to fathom Covid and all it represented the measures were appropriate.
I think since then the mixed messaging, government profiteering, incompetence and yes rule breaking have served to exacerbate public distrust - which is a vast shave as the net result is we are now pretending this thing that floored the entire globe and is still prevalent is over.
I do t feel we should be in lockdown but I'm furious at the removal of testing, masks etc and feel angry at there being no restrictions snd yet again the vulnerable are ignored.

People who dared to voice an opinion against The Situation two years ago were clearly an organised cabal of evil right wingers, intent on the destruction of old people, teachers and Our NHS Angels, who wanted to promote eugenics and reduce the pension pot.

I mean it was obvious.

rather than individuals who had reached similar conclusions and wanted to chat about them.

Like Lord Haw Haw for the virus

😂

Don't forget "The virus doesn't care if you're bored/frustrated/at the end of your tether" etc

Sometimes it's good to hear something outside your own echo chamber. As for N & J, I believe few aspired to be like him/her. That poster was toxic.

I do t feel we should be in lockdown but I'm furious at the removal of testing, masks etc and feel angry at there being no restrictions snd yet again the vulnerable are ignored.

Honest question: how do you think that masks and testing would improve things? Given that people often merrily wander round infectiously for a few days before they realise they feel a bit off? And looking at mask mandates in countries other than England who have had worse Covid outcomes, how would this reduce infection? I saw a chap walk into Tesco's the other day wearing a cloth mask over his mouth while his nose remained free, and he's far from alone. Was he less selfish than someone without one? Was he helping prevent the spread? And if he was worried about catching Covid, would this have helped him? Obviously not, and then you are in the realms of saying "Oh no, we need proper masks, worn properly like in Germany." The same Germany whose outcomes have been much the same as ours, despite an early lead when they seemed to be handling things well.

Sometimes it's good to hear something outside your own echo chamber.

Yes I absolutely agree. What goes around comes around. People who went against the grain in 2020 and early 2021 were torn to shreds for doing so on most Covid threads.

Honestly, the environment in the UK well into 2021 was such that people who either opposed or were unsure about lockdown couldn't have avoided coming across pro restriction arguments. It was very, very much the majority. The change in public attitudes didn't start to be really obvious until we saw the response to suggestions of lockdown or circuit breakers for Omicron.

The experience of not being someone who actively bought into the lockdown case was quite different from the experience of being someone who did.

Honest answer : Yes I think testing alone is a great method of at least protecting care teams (very largely unvaccinated at locations I need to visit with both parents), the elderly, vulnerable at least could gain some scrap of confidence when being "out" and therefore have some better chances of enjoying life .
Masks I'll accept are not foolproof and yes the method in which many wear them is maddeningly useless, but I'll take at least an effort to reduce transmission wherever possible.
Did it work in Germany well? Not entirely no.
But then I pitch this against the fact that since the requirement was lifted I've witnessed a fairly hefty increase in team members off in schools, local authority staff and medical staff across perhaps 8 different buildings that either of my parents or disabled child need to access.
It's scary supporting 3 of them in these circumstances as if one of the three of them go down with this badly - how can I reasonably care for the other 2?
I don't have better alternatives but feel very tetchy knowing at any point my entire house of cards falls down .
"Something" as opposed to nothing when 480 have died in the past 3 days just seems a fair ask right now I don't know....

"Something" as opposed to nothing when 480 have died in the past 3 days just seems a fair ask right now

Not if it isn't making any difference. It is not reasonable to expect these things to be upheld just for optics or to make people feel better. All measures come with some degree of cost.

The problem unfortunately is that the situation being shit doesn't mean there are effective mechanisms to alleviate it.

@DoubleShotEspresso thanks for your considered and balanced answer to my question 👍.

Agree with @DoubleShotEspresso. March 2022 we did not know what we were dealing with and the news from China and Italy was very frightening. Work hadn't even started on a vaccine. It was pretty obvious early on that the elderly and clinically vulnerable were most at risk but the only way of stopping the thread was closing everything. I think the way we saw deaths fall very sharply (in Scotland at least) a few weeks after the first lockdown shows it worked.

My main issue with the way things were handled in Scotland was the prolonging of the restrictions in order to "be safe" or "cautious" or just to be different from England. My kids finished school on 20 March 2020 and did not go back until August 2020. And that was only after parents kicked up the most almighty fuss about plans for "blended learning" which offered my secondary school aged children - rapidly approaching exams - 5 days out of 15 in school. A third of their timetable. During that time in 2020 they had no online provision AT ALL.

Throughout the rest of 2020 and 2021 we had "rules" in Scotland about not leaving your local authority area for non-essential reasons, irrespective of how large your LA was, and how close it was to other LAs. These "rules" made it illegal for me to travel 2 miles to the nearest Tesco. We never ditched the masks in 2021 at all, they were compulsory from June 2020 to easter monday this year. OUr schools were closed again December 2020 to 20th-ish April 2021. Lots of things in Scotland are STILL not back to normal.

Despite all these extra, longer restrictions which we have had in Scotland, the country was the "covid capital of the EU" in Jan-Summer 2021 because they had restricted us SO much that any mixing meant cases zoomed up. They genuinely believed that "zero covid" was a thing, and achievable. The government advisors said so and Ms Sturgeon thought that getting zero covid would prove how much better she was than that nasty Boris man.

All it really meant is that they kept pushing the cases down the road, even after most people were vaccinated they kept restrictions.

But it does make a difference. I don't think testing is unreasonable - neither are masks .
The cost of stopping all measures is consider far higher than keeping some common sense measures in place for now.

All the measures were just figleaves to make people think they can Do Something! And that if you are Good you will be the magical “Safe”

But it does make a difference.

Where's the evidence? There have been multiple requests on here for evidence of masks making a difference to Omicron spread and nothing has ever been forthcoming

I don't think testing is unreasonable - neither are masks

You may not, but there are costs to all of these measures and a proper cost/benefit evaluation should be undertaken before implementing them.

Was it making a difference though? Were Covid numbers lower 6 months ago with masks and testing than they are today?

The evidence for that is pretty patchy though. At best.

I do understand why people want to retain free testing access for certain vulnerable groups. I've no idea how that would work in practice but it's a reasonable desire. Completely get it and I wouldn't in principle mind my tax money funding it.

The other things people tend to think are common sense measures like masks and isolation not only don't appear to have had much impact judging by the comparison between countries that carried on with them and countries that didn't (Scotland and England being a useful one here) but also simply didn't have the cooperation of the general public by the time they were phased out. There is a detriment to having measures that are widely ignored and that the government isn't in a position to enforce, both in general and with specific regard to public health measures that can be taken in this pandemic.

During that time in 2020 they had no online provision AT ALL.

@KnitPurlKnitPurl

That's awful, what were the reasons for that?