Sunday 9th March 2025 is Covid Day of Reflection.

GrannyGravy13

Our neighbours on one side work for NHS, a senior nurse and a clinical nurse manager.

Their house was party central throughout all lockdowns.

We have two lockdown GC babies, along with GC who were let down with online learning.

I will never let any government dictate who, when or how many people can access my home.

I was classified as vulnerable, my lungs, my life, my choice.

Party Central. Beggars belief doesn’t it GG13?
Add in Matt Hancock snogging his mistress in a lift, Dominic Cummins going to ‘get his eyes tested’ at Castle Howard, that SNP woman who tested positive for Covid getting a train back up to Scotland from Westminster, Professor Neil Ferguson on the motorway to see his dad miles away days after telling the government that his modelling (never accurate at the best of times so WHY did they give him any credence?) showed that there ‘would be 500,000 deaths’ without lockdown.

It’s as though they didn’t believe their own BS given to the rest of us.
Strange that when you think about it more deeply.
They Weren’t Frightened.
Just us.

I started to take precautions before the lockdown, 2/3 weeks previously I had bought masks, sanitiser etc.
I was terrified and would have done anything to keep my loved ones safe.

However as time went on the fear lapsed and I realised the stupidity of it all.
The day Boris allowed a premier league football match at Wembley to take place with a crowd was the day I refused to wear a mask.

Our daughter was pregnant during Covid, the midwifery team had the temerity to call her before her planned section and ask if she or her husband had been overseas and if they had received any overseas guests in their home in the past month.
She said no to all of the above and then asked if she could have the same information for the medics that would be present during the procedure.

The midwife told her that was a ridiculous demand!

I don't think we were ever told not to go outside and breathe the fresh air- in fact I remember being encouraged to do so. I had lots of meet-ups with people in parks and local woodland.

Once it was admitted that a large number of the ‘covid’ deaths actually involved people who died with covid and not from it, it put the situation in perspective

Exactly this JenniferEccles.
Bit like saying red cardigans were a danger as those dying were wearing one. It was wrong and scaremongering to report deaths as they did. Matt Hancock wanted to ramp up the fear (he admitted so, much later, saying it was necessary for compliance) and it was done callously to justify the draconian measures.

Remember Drakeford in Wales ordering the taping off of toy aisles in supermarkets? And Sturgeon contemplating the sawing off of 3” of classroom doors ‘to facilitate air flow’?

Madness on steroids.
I could cry now thinking how we were coerced into bizarre group think.

Why on earth we weren’t allowed out into the fresh air beggars bluddy belief. I don’t even mean in ‘close proximity’ but come on - a walk to blow away the cobwebs and fill our lungs with oxygen. Some scientists who (in the end were proved right, Great Barrington) were vilified as ‘Covid deniers’ and ‘granny killers’. Hysteria reigned and epidemiologists at the top of their game were discounted because it didn’t fit the narrative.
“Save the NHS”. Pah! Errant and foolish nonsense. “Flattening the Curve”. Nope. Special testing and proof to prove travel abroad was permitted at £50 a pop? Someone was making an awful lot of money out of that particular edict.

glasshalffullagain

Marydoll

No thank you, I have no desire to reflect on a traumatic time, which has contributed to the physical deterioration of my health.
This thread has resurrected memories, I had buried.

We should be careful what we read and expose ourselves to.

In my case, I should have known better.

I do like your name, my persona too. However, it is not easy at times!
Someone actually said that about me yesterday.

Marydoll

No thank you, I have no desire to reflect on a traumatic time, which has contributed to the physical deterioration of my health.
This thread has resurrected memories, I had buried.

We should be careful what we read and expose ourselves to.

In my case, I should have known better.

I reflect on Covid all the time, because my DH of almost 50 years died from it (not with it) at the beginning of 2021. We assume we caught it when we visited the opticians during one of the times we weren’t locked down. Couldn’t wear masks and the ophthalmologist wasn’t wearing one either. We assumed we had colds as we had none of the symptoms the NHS was warning of, so couldn’t get tested. At the time vaccination was only available to the over 80s. My DH was 77 and I was 73.
Looking back on the whole experience, it was just a nightmare which feels as real now as it did then.

A night tossing and turning about this. Maybe it's the good weather that's triggering memories.

Some of it does seem almost laughable now. People with a dirty mask dangling round their chins for example. But it was frightening and ruined my elderly relatives' last years.

As for the PM and his so called Churchillian moment.In some ways it was the beginning of the end.

The Richard Craniums in charge of my state kept us isolated for 2 years, yes, 2 years. Untold harm to youngsters and businesses and we are now paying the price.

Oh I know all about it. My brother in law was in hospital due to a kidney issue when it all started. He contracted covid and died. He was 57. Friend of mine, early 60s, dreadfully ill in hospital with it. She survived but has lung scarring which has caused breathing issues and she still ends up in hospital when it flares up.

I was making the point that had we not had the Internet then we wouldn't have reacted in the same way .

The use of ventilators wasn't the way to treat this but at the time it was obviously the right way of treatment. This was only discovered months later.

But there has been a huge impact on so many areas of life post lockdowns. Which weren't all necessary.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing

Rula

Average age of death was 82 I believe.

Had this happened pre-Internet we'd have not reacted this way. There would have been news reports, newspaper articles informing us of a contagious virus that was most fatal to older folk and no doubt we'd have been told to try to shield that age group.

Looking back it was a disaster what happened to school age children. My 2 grandsons were 11 and 10 when it started. The eldest has been having problems, not wanting to go to school, he's struggling with anxiety and many children his age are having similar issues. Lockdowns are possibly the cause

Hopefully we'll learn from this if we ever have to deal with a similar virus

But people didn’t know the average age was 82 until thousands of people had died. My friend of mine was sent to a nursing home after a fall and she died. A nurse in the next village died. She wasn’t 80. People are still suffering from long covid but they are being ignored. It hasn’t gone away. Another friend of mine has just had it for a second time and said he felt incredibly ill.

Once it was admitted that a large number of the ‘covid’ deaths actually involved people who died with covid and not from it, it put the situation in perspective.

With the benefit of hindsight there certainly were some nonsensical rules, but what was the government meant to do? Virtually every country imposed some sort of lockdown so just imagine if Boris had followed his instinct for personal freedom.
There would have been hell to pay once the death toll started to rise, even though as I have said the figures didn’t tell the whole story.

However Sweden didn’t impose any restrictions other than asking people to take sensible precautions and despite that the country fared pretty well.

What I remember were dog walkers on deserted moors being threatened by the police even though they were not putting themselves or anyone else at risk.

Then there were neighbours standing outside clapping, banging on saucepans and looking up and down the road to see if anyone wasn’t out doing the same.

Let’s hope then that if there is another pandemic, lessons will have been learnt that in the long term, lockdowns do more harm than good.

Average age of death was 82 I believe.

Had this happened pre-Internet we'd have not reacted this way. There would have been news reports, newspaper articles informing us of a contagious virus that was most fatal to older folk and no doubt we'd have been told to try to shield that age group.

Looking back it was a disaster what happened to school age children. My 2 grandsons were 11 and 10 when it started. The eldest has been having problems, not wanting to go to school, he's struggling with anxiety and many children his age are having similar issues. Lockdowns are possibly the cause

Hopefully we'll learn from this if we ever have to deal with a similar virus

No thank you, I have no desire to reflect on a traumatic time, which has contributed to the physical deterioration of my health.
This thread has resurrected memories, I had buried.

MayBee70

ExDancer

But people were DYING.

….people have forgotten that…

Yes turning on the news and seeing it rising day by day, wondering how high it would go

There was no win really. The social consequences of Lockdown vs the social consequences of deaths in the family.

I shielded for two years. My physical and mental health suffered, I was deemed too vulnerable to attend hospital, no bloods done for two years, daughter due to be married on the first day of Lockdown, second heart attack in the middle of the pandemic ( terrifying, as no safe bed could be found and I was sent home) a DNR put on file, because those with a chance had priority over me for a bed in ICU and being advised that I would probably die if I caught Covid.

Nothing like this had ever been seen before and some of those stupid rules kept me alive, before vaccinations and anti virals became available.
We had no idea how to deal with this vile virus.

I will be forever grateful to the NHS and to one of my former consultants, who came out of retirement at 72, against the wishes of his family, to take care of his former patients. My new consultant had been seconded to Covid ICU and could not take car of his RA patients.
So many sacrifices made by so many.

Some of the rules did seem silly.

I thought it was strange that people needed those specific rules and couldn’t just apply a principle of stay away from other people (even the ones you love) as much as possible.

I guess it was the people who said “but I need to see my mates\ hug my grandchild/visit my mum/ make my choice that meant there had to be rules.

ExDancer

But people were DYING.

….people have forgotten that…

But people were DYING.

Rosie51

Very good post 👏👏👏

My daughter's friend is a doctor. She had gone back to work 2 days a week because of the shortage of GPs. When Covid hit she went to work at one of our large hospitals. 72 hours a week, away from home so she only saw her husband a few times when he drove to see her with clean laundry. She is a highly experienced doctor, and a biochemist, and she said it was like no disease they had faced before. Victims were dying before they could even move them out of A&E. Lock Down was bad, but she was totally behind it. She was in no doubt what would happen if it was allowed to spread freely through the population.

Yes my oldest grandson's education was badly affected, but his father's health problems meant that he would never have survived catching it. I think my grandson would rather have his father here than have better exam results.

Galaxy

Yes it was madness, maybe understandable but madness none the less. I am a bit ashamed that I didnt think more about what it would mean to lockdown. To children, to society, etc.

No one knew at the time that children wouldn’t be badly affected by the virus. And no one knows that any future pandemic won’t target younger people. The Spanish flu did, I believe.

In my opinion one of the biggest problems with the lockdowns was the enforcement of some irrational rules. A few examples....

My midwife niece could be working alongside other midwives barely a foot apart while tending labouring mothers, but at the end of the shift those two would have to exit the hospital (into the open air) 2 metres apart.

I could meet my father alone in a park or other open space as long as we kept 2 metres apart. If I wished I could meet my mother separately (even though she lived with my father) at a later time. However I could sit 2 metres apart from a family of 6 strangers quite legally.

Primary age children couldn't go to school unless they were the children of key workers when they could go to school and mix with other children not related to them, most of whom came from families likely to be more exposed to the virus, hence their key worker status. I had a niece at university who was forbidden to travel back to the family home so spent weeks in a tiny university dorm room with no interactions except for zoom classes and facetime calls to friends and family. That was inhuman.

I respected there had to be some rules and restrictions but too many had no basis in common sense. The awful consequences of social isolation on mental health didn't seem to be considered at all. Maybe because too many who were making these rules up weren't observing them themselves. In another such situation I will form a company with my extended family and then we'd be able to have work meetings and maintain contact!

Galaxy

We should have taken responsibility for the welfare of children, and we didnt.

Oh this!!!

Covid was a horrible, horrible time for me for reasons which still deeply affect me now so much I find it impossible to talk about... traumatic in every sense of the word.

Yet, if I was told to do what I had to again in order to protect the vulnerable (and I include myself here) yes, I would do the same again.

Except- I wouldn't go out and clap (ridiculous idea) and certainly wouldn't give any money to any dodgy charity appeals.

The repercussions of having a GC born in the middle of lockdown are still being felt in my family, and very serious ones they are.

I didn't know it was a designated 'day' tomorrow but I don't need one. I reflect on it every single day.

I can hardly bear to look back at it. It certainly doesn’t occur to me that any of it was daft. My daughter was and still is a frontline NHS nurse and her husband a firefighter. Their children at the start of it all were 13 and 11.

After many years of providing childcare care we were separated and reduced to video calls. I could see my daughter looking stressed and unwell most evenings when they’d video call me for a catch up. She’d be home from work to try and have some normality with the children who’d been home alone with online learning while she did 12-13 hours at work in horrendous circumstances.

Some days without food and just gulps of water in between changing PPE. Trying to act normal with the children and hear about how they managed their online school work without any home support while both parents were at work all day.

My daughter is still traumatised by her experiences in the early months of the pandemic.

Imagine the horror of admitting previously healthy patients, maybe only in their 20’s/30’s and in the course of your shift seeing them rapidly go downhill and reaching the stage of requiring to go on a ventilator to give them any chance of survival. Or having a 15 min window to make a video call via an iPad to give their loved ones a chance to say their goodbyes as there’s no chance of survival.