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!

Their personal stories are tragic.

@Ddot I hope when historians evaluate this time they don’t just focus on the extremes. So not just on the 10% or whatever of conspiracy-touting anti-mask anti-vaccine sceptics, nor on the 10% of hardcore “lockdown sooner! Lockdown harder” types.

But actually acknowledge that most people were somewhere in the middle - agreeing with some govt policies, disagreeing with others, ambivalent about others. Just because those at the extremes tend to shout the loudest doesn’t mean they represent the majority!

Just seen two young lads 20s walking with very old man granddad maybe, he said I need a mask at which lad replied no you dont need it now it's all over.

I think another time for me was when I asked my husband, sometime in early February, if I should stop taking our then two month old daughter on public transport because of “the virus in China”. I’m a worrier and he’s pretty relaxed so I was expecting (and hoping) he’d just laugh at me. But he didn’t - we agreed at that point that I’d take her on the bus, but not on the tube “because it goes to and from
the airport, but the bus is more local”. That’s when I thought that maybe I wasn’t being crazy to worry.
A few weeks later I was on the bus with her after a physio appointment and the bus suddenly got very busy. I was very uneasy all of a sudden and I got out and walked the rest of the way home.
A few weeks later still, it was that horrible limbo period in early March when the writing was massively on the wall but the government was busy washing their hands singing happy birthday. My husband was in the office in central London and I took our daughter for a quick walk round the neighbourhood. It was such a lovely, sunny day, the trees were in flower, but I was pushing the pram in tears thinking of what was coming and if we’d all make it the other end in one piece. I felt such a failure that I had promised to always protect our daughter when she was born, and here was this horror coming at us which I could do nothing about. She was snoozing in the pram and I was talking to her promising I would do all I could to keep her safe. I could see through windows people taking calls and working on their laptops and it was clear many had already started working from home. Our friends had mostly been sent home from their offices, and I was terrified for my husband still spending 2.5 hours on the tube every day to and from work.

DS was supposed to go out for his birthday the night the pubs shut. Before that there was advice not to go, but they were still open, which seemed like no one was taking it seriously.

Even then though, I really thought it would only be for a few weeks, fully expected schools to reopen after an extended Easter break.

Even then though, I really thought it would only be for a few weeks, fully expected schools to reopen after an extended Easter break.
We all got sent home from work on 24th February and I thought it would last a week....we didn't go back for 16 months!!

Late January seeing an imagine of the sick in the streets in Wuhan, I knew then it was too late ... i.e. it spreads so fast that hospitals were overwhelmed therefore airborne/easy droplet spread... Living in a hyper connected world meant it would be spreading gpbally already. I remember being mocked at work for telling them I'd bought face masks in late jan I secretly stocked up on a few basics also. I was hoping i was wrong.
In the end I was both worse and better than I thought it would be certainly thought it would be all over in 6 months or so (doh!) But thought it would have a higher death rate.

@Xigris

When the ICU I work on went from 5 ventilated patients to over 20 in the space of a few days. We felt like we were in the middle of Armageddon with not a clue as to how it would pan out. This was pre lock down. We were terrified and the patients just kept coming. They were so, so sick and whatever we did didn’t seem to work.

But oh my God. The team work was unbelievable and most people just got on with it. I am so proud to be part of that team.

We are dealing with the fallout now in terms of illness, exhaustion and PTSD

Thank you.

January 2020 a vegan friend mentioned the dangers in a Chineses wet market, so took notice. Late January/early February, read that a head of department at Imperial College had told all her staff to go home and not come back to work until she said.

Then Hancock, told the press the chances of it coming here were low. That made me suspicious, followed by the PM telling everyone he was shaking hands with Covid patients in hospital and everyone should do the same.

We locked down the week before it was official.

We stayed clear of covid but various other health issues means we are so grateful to all those at our surgery, local hospital, local food suppliers, volunteers, family and friends who got us through. People have been amazing, shame about the politicians.

In a meeting at work, probably around mid/late February and we were talking about the impact on our (community NHS) should things go the way they seemed to be going in other parts of the world badly hit.
I clearly remember saying “What about care homes, what’s going to happen if this thing spreads into care homes?”
We all just sat in dread silence. We knew it would be catastrophic.

When my DP, a medic, in February said something nasty is heading our way and it's serious. He's not a man given to hyperbole.

Christmas 2019 my son told me to check out some videos of Chinese hospitals being posted by doctors. He wanted to me to listen to the Chinese and judge if it was just hyperbole or not.
I knew then that it was coming our way.
Awful dread when watching those videos. I remember going to work and mentioning it to my colleagues who laughed and then went off to celebrate Christmas.

Someone at work (part of NHS) told me to take off my mask, I refused saying I want to wear it and it's my choice. He screamed at me saying it's just flu just like normal flu. I calmly retorted, I think you will find it's not and I walked away, still wearing my makeshift mask. Few months later he was screaming at staff to wear a bloody mask. Still waiting for my apology.

When my Dad couldn't be 'dressed' by the funeral director.

@MirandaMarple
That was terrible for you. I'm so sorry. And also so sorry for all who couldn't say 'Goodbye' to those they loved including one of my friends. This truly has been a most terrible time.

I remember sitting in the office reading about the virus in Wuhan on BBC News and thinking 'well that's awful for them, glad we haven't got to worry about that'. A few days later a group of us were stood around a colleagues desk at the end of the day watching Boris' statement about a potential lockdown - I remember grabbing a few bits from my desk to WFH and saying to my manager, 'see you in a couple of weeks then!'.

I also remember walking around my local Morrisons just before lockdown and the amount of empty/trashed shelves. My dad had sent me a package of masks and gloves and I was so uncomfortable, and then the sight of all the empty shelves made me a bit tearful. It felt like the end of the world.

Lastly, I remember sitting in my living room watching the first big announcement from Boris when he was sat at his desk. I remember the voiceover intro - 'and now, an announcement from the Prime Minister' - and thinking it must be how people felt gathering around the radio to listen to Churchill. I remember feeling quite emotional thinking it felt like a historical moment I'd remember forever.

So sorry to hear stories from people who've been directly affected. Can't imagine how you must feel

I see patients in their homes. Had to give equipment to a patient with covid, only had a paper mask, gloves and a plastic apron. Was in the property for maybe four minutes.

My temp shot up to 39 degrees two days later, I didn't qualify for a test as not a GP or nurse (I am an AHP). A week later temp still up, work arranged eventually for me to go for a test, DH drove (wearing a welding mask) as I was too unwell and I had a mask on too, windows open.

A man in the hospital car park started shouting at us for wearing masks. I couldn't stop feeling that I was in a film or a nightmare.

Then hospitalised a few days later for treatment and DH had to stay behind when they took me in. I will never forget the fear in his eyes (and the fear I had that I had probably infected him too).

That was March 2020.

I looked back on Twitter and I retweeted about it mid February 2020 but I was following events before that .
We stayed in for a week before the official lockdown and I moved all my tutoring from face to face to Zoom.

When Mumsnet developed a "coronavirus" topic...

Returning home from hospital after having DS2 mid-March, and being told neither the midwife or HV would be coming to see us at home.... but they would phone instead. A few days later DH wasn't allowed to buy a pack of newborn nappies AND a pack of toddler pull ups in Tesco. The anxiety then well and truly set in. Terrified my tiny newborn either would catch this killer cold, or starve because no midwife or HV had seen him! It was difficult but thankfully am out the other end, and my boy is now a real brute!!! I often worry about the mums who maybe slipped through the net and suffered terribly - especially first time mums who had no other experience to compare to.

When I opened the guardian website and it had that red “breaking news” box but just for general coverage of covid.

Also what the OP said about songs, I had a particular album I was enjoying in the early stages of lockdown and would listen to it driving to work when the roads were empty and dead and now I can’t listen to it without recalling that time. So eerie and weird.

I flew out to the states on 29 Feb for a holiday/attend a conference. A couple of days before I went a colleague said 'what if you can't fly back because of this virus?' And I said how great that would be, to stay on holiday.
I got home on March 9th and all hell began to break loose. Panic buying, sports events cancelled, work told us to wfh a week before the government did. It really hit me when I saw the situation in Italy. I remember sobbing at my (home) desk several mornings, reading the news. When they made plans to turn our local ice rink into a morgue. I was terrified my 18 year old ds would get infected. He works in a shop and I used to make him strip off at the door to wash his clothes. I've only recently stopped cleaning my shopping. I remember when I first saw people (other than Chinese students) wearing masks in the supermarket. That hit me quite hard too.

It's felt like a dystopian nightmare for months but the worrying thing is how normal it all feels now. Also worrying is how fucking incompetent this government have been.

I really wish I'd kept a diary.

When the schools closed

When my colleague died of Covid in April, 2020.