Sick of narrative that lockdowns were pointless

[Bagzzz]

I think lots of people are forgetting quite how scary the early days were, overwhelmed hospitals and exhausted (and now a lot burnt out) medical staff.

Many mistakes were made and some things that might have have been avoided but we know with the benefit of hindsight.
Scientists if not politicians were doing their best.

Maybe could distinguish later lockdowns but they weren’t done lightly either, knowing it would affect mental health and business.

Even with lockdown it was impossible to fully protect the vulnerable but that’s normal.

We are human, humans get ill and sometimes die from illness, there’s no point in us trying to live as if that isn’t inevitable.

Better just to accept that if there’s a pandemic, people will die. It’s awful but it’s life. We don’t need to make the situation worse by inflicting prolonged lockdowns because that actively created problems where there were none before and damaged healthy people who would have coped with Covid fine.

The vast majority of people were in support of the first lockdown. We were all willing to do what we could to protect the vulnerable by sacrificing normality for three months, so it is inaccurate to imply that people who didn’t support lockdowns don’t care about the vulnerable. But there is only so much you can expect people to sacrifice for vulnerable strangers who had the option of isolating themselves if they wanted to.

It is not the job of the entire population to protect the vulnerable, and that just needs to be accepted.

Exactly this
But the not using brains and minimising is exactly what the ignorant do

What proportion of the population do you believe were vulnerable?
Do you understand what that would mean?

I see they're suggesting border checks for China because their numbers are so high, there's real concerns about mutations.

It's crazy isn't it. People have asked on threads like this why those of us who feel that the way lockdowns happened ought to be scrutinized are still banging on about it when the country has moved on, then suddenly this.

Surely one of the reasons for the lockdowns was to stop NHS being swamped. Surely that worked.

it is pointless to say they shouldn’t have happened. We don’t know what the outcome would have been without them,

I think it would be sensible to have border controls for China. The NHS is struggling to cope just now. Letting Covid run through China could cause mutations that have global implications.

It seems to have become unfashionable to remember or mention that. It seems that the same could have been accomplished by letting them die so there was no need. That's as much as I can understand.

What do you mean- concerns about mutations? It's been mutating all the way through.

A lot of posters seemed to spend lockdown declaring how damaged their children were, endlessly arguing the point on threads all day until it was clear that they had the time to spend with their children, mitigating the effects, but would rather spend that time in a chatroom clutching their pearls. I would read back after a busy day with my kids and think wtf, where does this hypocrisy and learned helplessness come from. Just put your phone away and go be with them.

Do you not know by now? Vaccine evasion, increased transmissibility or severity are the standard concerns with mutations. A spike in cases raises the possibilities.

How do we keep a global mutation out?
According to Zoe monitoring we have a quarter of a million cases here, so must also have the same concerns here.

During lockdowns, people with worrying symptoms were asked to come in and have them investigated as usual. The NHS sent out publicity emphasising they were open for business in this respect. Because of lockdowns, doctors were available to investigate these symptoms if they presented. Without lockdowns, even fewer people would have felt comfortable coming out to see the doctor. People chose not to come forward with cancer symptoms because there was a pandemic, not because there was a lockdown. Chemotherapy was not always in the patient's best interests because there was a pandemic, not because there was a lockdown.

This just isn't true though. Not cancer, but my babies jabs were delayed, my 6 week check didn't happen. My dc2 had a skin condition that went undiagnosed because we couldn't get anyone to actually look at him. Despite what some people insist, the GPs stopped seeing people face to face and have yet to restart in my experience.

Well that's not cancer symptoms, is it. And it's clearly not lockdowns either if still continuing!

Well of course not. But this is what we were told, to protect the NHS. And this is the state of it anyway. What was the bloody point.

More the point that the NHS is now clearly completely fucked so what was the point. It just kicked the can down the road.

As for the impact on kids it’s very different for primary kids than teenagers which mine are, who developmentally are supposed to be cutting the apron strings and becoming independent.

I don't think you would really want policy makers to adopt an "ah it's fucked already" attitude. That's not what they're there for! Things are bad but clearly that's no reason not to protect and salvage whatever can be salvaged. Waiting for a vaccine and keeping Covid numbers manageable was a reasonable goal. Mental health resources and every other kind of resources including ambulances are affected by spiking Covid cases. Your six week check would probably have been prioritised if you had disclosed any sinister symptoms. My post was responding to claims that cancer patients missed out on treatments because there were lockdowns. That isn't the case. You're speaking to a different issue.

If someone is struggling to breathe, they are an emergency that will be prioritised. It makes sense for everyone to avoid having people in that position.

A lot of posters seemed to spend lockdown declaring how damaged their children were, endlessly arguing the point on threads all day until it was clear that they had the time to spend with their children, mitigating the effects, but would rather spend that time in a chatroom clutching their pearls. I would read back after a busy day with my kids and think wtf, where does this hypocrisy and learned helplessness come from. Just put your phone away and go be with them

Maybe you were paid to stay home and do nothing but fiddle around on your laptop but some of us had to actually work. And we can’t do that with young children about. You speak from a place of privilege no doubt.

Can’t believe children’s education was considered non-essential. And no, I don’t consider online a reasonable substitute

They stay home along with their families (or families move out) whist everyone gets on with life. We did it with my grandparents and great grandparents, they formed a bubble before it was even a thing. Socialising amongst each other but not even going to the shop for milk, everything was dropped at the door and sanitized, we sat on the car bonnet talking to them from a distance. We then got them in the 1st vaccine trials we could. None of them got COVID despite it working through our family quite quickly.

DS was at home doing home school whilst we worked. We made fun outside of schools hours but he missed out on football, scouts and guitar lessons for no reason (see above elderly were well protected).

We are a multinational family and very much you have kids and look after your parents. DH is currently trying to buy a house with space to build a granny annex for his mam but it will be detached so we can look after her when older but she isn't moving into our house for reasons like this!

I did have to juggle work as well. It's the people who spent all day having time to fiddle around on mumsnet bemoaning the fate of their children (presumably elsewhere in the house) that I can't credit. I am quite privileged, yes. Lockdown was not as hard for me as it was for others. At the same time, I was too busy working and supporting my kids to be on mumsnet all the time!

We have various American states that did not lockdown or lifted them early. They did no worse than American states that did heavy lockdowns.

Sweden never locked down. And did better than the UK and many other European countries

You identify the vulnerable and concentrate support there. For Covid, this is typically in care homes. But you can also tell people the risks and let them decide

(eg do home delivery and online grocery shopping if over 60 or otherwise vulnerable, but encourage young and healthy to shop in person so the vulnerable can get slots more easily, etc)

Well I don’t feel working parents were considered at all and I still feel bitter about it. I know women who permanently dropped out of the workforce because of school closures. Reducing their earning potential forever 😡

@Reindeersnooker

"MintyFreshOne
A lot of posters seemed to spend lockdown declaring how damaged their children were, endlessly arguing the point on threads all day until it was clear that they had the time to spend with their children, mitigating the effects, but would rather spend that time in a chatroom clutching their pearls. I would read back after a busy day with my kids and think wtf, where does this hypocrisy and learned helplessness come from. Just put your phone away and go be with them

Maybe you were paid to stay home and do nothing but fiddle around on your laptop but some of us had to actually work. And we can’t do that with young children about. You speak from a place of privilege no doubt.

Can’t believe children’s education was considered non-essential. And no, I don’t consider online a reasonable substitute"

+++

metro.co.uk/2020/12/02/baby-drowned-in-hot-tub-while-mum-worked-from-home-during-lockdown-13687584/amp/

This is what can happen with the pressures of lockdown, no child care provisions and working from home. It wasn't all baking banana cake and long country walks for the majority, it was an impossible juggling act of child care and trying to keep your job and yes the children didn't get as much supervision, support and education as they should have had.

Poor mother, she will never forgive herself.

Well it is fucked already and they're not doing anything about it. So that is the attitude they have adopted.
So cancer patients shouldn't have to wait, but babies, toddlers and new mothers don't need medical care? A 6 week should be essential basic medical care. Who exactly should i have disclosed symptoms to? Where exactly do we draw the line at what is necessary and what's not? And how do you get a cancer diagnosis if you can't see a gp? But there's a hospital bed for Granny with covid, so none of our problems matter right?
If lockdown had been used an opportunity to invest and improve then perhaps it would be justified. But it started out shit and has been allowed to get shitter. So I ask again, what was the point?