When was the moment you realised covid was serious?

[namechanged984630]

For me I think it was when it hit Italy, so early
March. Until then I really believed it'd be a storm in a tea cup like swine flu.

I remember certain songs I was listening to as I refreshed the news in early March that still give me the heebie jeebies even now.

And I remember taking my dog for a walk at some lakes a few miles away (so drove there) and wondering, on about the fifteenth of March, if it might be the last time for a while. When I was there an elderly man said to me that it was nice to get out to forget the state of the world, I'll always remember that.

I remember seeing the Wuhan hospital be built and only paying the vaguest amount of attention. So arrogant to think it wasn't a problem for us!

Correction .It was January 27th 2020.

When it hit Italy and a school trip returned from the affected area the day before it hit the news about how bad it was over there. The Head of DD's school phoned me and asked me if I wanted to keep DD at home (she has a serious medical condition) until they were sure there were no issues with anyone who had returned from the trip. That was the first time I really thought 'what the actual fuck'.

The time I went shopping and there was no toilet roll. Whole aisle was empty. I'd heard reports but was a shock to see a clear aisle. Some other items were unavailable like pasta. Next day I went to the largest supermarket near me. It was a Sunday and it opened, or I thought I opened, at 10am.
It didn't, you could browse from 9:30am. I arrived to see a huge queue of full trolleys waiting for the checkouts to open. Did manage to get some toilet rolls and some basics but was rather scary.

When we were in the pub (not in UK) and at 9pm the police walked in and said all pubs/bars/restaurants were now closed.

The following day, my country’s flight ban was announced.

But being kicked out of the pub and told they didn’t know when it would reopen was a very harsh wake up call. Very light compared to most of these. But that’s when my actual day to day life got directly affected - up to that point it had been very much something that was happening elsewhere and not to us.

Incidentally, that pub has never reopened again. One of the business casualties of the economic crisis its caused.

This thread has made me cry.

I don't think I will ever be the same again.

I know what you mean @FakeFruitShoot. Things feel very changed.

[quote SciFiScream]**@Pissinthepottyplease* and @XDownwiththissortofthingX*

My DD and DS were very ill with something (don't officially know what) in November of 2019.

My daughter coughed every single second for more than 48 hours. I was terrified for her. GP refused to see her. A neighbour lent me her oximeter and her oxygen was down to 89/90 (her lips were blue) that stat got us an emergency out of hours appointment and treatment.

My DD was the first off her in her class, but like a ripple effect more than 2/3 of her class ended up off school.

She had a temperature too. The other pupils off were coughing the same with a temp.

My son was bad but not as bad so he kept going to school despite a constant cough and a temp. Local advice is to send them to school with a "head cold"

Daughter has a class mate with family in China, they'd recently visited.

It made the news here and another school locally had a class where almost everyone was off with the same symptoms.

We had a positive PCR test for DD on 21 June (missed the last week of term🤦🏼‍♀️) 13 of her class mates positive too but all of them shrugged it off like it was nothing.

To this day I'm convinced DD and DS has Covid in November 2019. [/quote]
That’s exactly what my DS (5 at the time) was like but in March 2020 - it was so worrying. And we couldn’t get a test. Any other time I’d have been straight at the doctor - it was like nothing I’d ever seen before, just relentless. Our GP said to ‘give it time.’ None of us slept a wink as he just couldn’t stop coughing. We took it in turns to just lay with him and cuddle him. DD (then 2) was coughing lots too but could at least sleep at night.

We were advised by work to stop using public transport for work purposes and use or our vehicles or use phone/teleconferencing if unable to access a private car. This was the week of Valentine's Day 2020, I remember there being chat in the office about whether people should still go into town on the train for nights out they'd booked.

I took my daughter out of school a couple of weeks later and had to repatriate my DM on St Patrick's Day after strongly encouraging her not to go on holiday at the start of March.

At the time I was called all sorts by friends and family for over-reacting/scare-mongering - I worked in public health for 20 years, we had been expecting it.

When the primary schools closed and I felt terrible for my DD in yr6 who was missing out on all her end of school experiences.

By May 2020 I realised actually it's all got a bit out of hand and paranoid and we needed to get back to living life not shaking in a corner about the scary virus with a tiny % death rate. I felt silly for being so worried at the beginning, but then it was all so unknown.

I asked DS not to go into London for a social meet-up the week before Lockdown. The fact that he quite readily agreed not to, shocked me more than anything at that time. He had been quite blase prior to that.

When they cancelled the London Marathon for me was the first time I thought its all starting here now. Also around the same time (I think) they closed the pubs in Ireland and this was just before St Patricks day so that made me think that it must be serious.

TBH I didn't really give it much thought before then as it was something that was happening elsewhere, even though I knew it was coming here. How could it not?

Ooh I also remember seeing a photo on FB. It was Mickey saying how Disney was closing, but they'd be back real soon. Even though I've never been to any Disney resort and I can't see me going at any point, it still made me feel really sad.

When sow could go but not all, children skip past to school with their friends which felt so contrasting to our situation.

Sow - Some

Meant to put that on the memory one

I started worrying about covid before most people I knew in real life (I too was following the mumsnet threads about covid) so started prepping a while before - oximetry, painkillers, food etc.
I do remember crying in work a couple of days before they shut the schools (had heard rumours from a friend who works for welsh government) and worrying about working/dealing with kids etc.
Then DS1 had a high temp (wasn’t Covid) but we had to self isolate for 2 weeks (this was before testing etc) so we were already isolating when lockdown happened. Was about 10 days after that before we left the house to go to the supermarket and I remember being astounded by how quiet the roads were and then the queue at the shop. It was like something out of a film.

From w/c 9th March trains and major stations started to empty rapidly where I am. My employer wasn't geared up for homeworking and was really caught on the hop. I had to keep going in to work until 17th March - would have been the 20th but St Patrick's Day is when I got sick. People were dropping like flies in our big, air-conditioned office, what a surprise. That feeling of being hung out to dry was horrible, I am not doing that again.

the amazing scenes of locked down residents singing together from their balconies.

That seems like so long ago.

My DF was brought in for a heart operation in early May, when about 1000 people were dying from Covid each day. I turned up with an extra overnight bag that he'd requested the next day. There was just me and a guy in his 40s waiting outside the ward for about 30 minutes before a member of staff came out.

We got talking and I said I was dropping stuff off for my dad and he said he was picking stuff up from his dad. The poor guy's dad had died from Covid the day before in his early 70s and this guy had this awful thousand yard stare. He went on to tell me how close they'd been and how his father had recently retired from a demanding job, and that they'd planned to resume all the lovely activities they'd done together when he was a child, now that he'd retired from work.

It was heartbreaking. All I could do was offer my condolences from 2m away when this guy just needed a hug. That stayed with me.

It was like something out of a film.

I've said that so many times too over the last 18 months or so @BrieAndChilli

I'd always been mystified by those characters on film or TV who wanted to get 'killed by cop' or drive over a cliff rather than face jail. I now get it.

@Ineedaduvetday

I'd always been mystified by those characters on film or TV who wanted to get 'killed by cop' or drive over a cliff rather than face jail. I now get it.

I second this. I get it now too.

When our local hospital was full, and the nearest bed was 200 miles north. Scary.

The weekend before lockdown started. Suddenly the mood changed. Suddenly more aware of surroundings. The rumours buzzing around work about school closures. Lots of things suddenly cancelled.

When did pubs close ? Was it the Friday before lockdown or the week before

When McDonald's shut. That place is never shut, even at arse o clock in the morning at Christmas.

Driving past it and seeing it dark and locked up gave me a funny kind of chill.

By the end of January 2020....