Sunday 9th March 2025 is Covid Day of Reflection.

nanaK54

JaneJudge

is it 5 years since we locked down today?

No that was 23rd March

thank you, tbh my recollections of the build up are muddled as we started staying at home much earlier than the lockdown

Sadly, I don't think our lives have been the same since

Pantglas2

“Some of the regulations did see people like Mark Drakeford behave like petty little dictators. “ CumbrianMale

The worst thing about him was he was very South and Cardiff centric - when their infection/death figures were atrocious he shut down the whole of Wales, saying we were all in it together, even though many rural areas in north Wales had very few cases.

When S Wales had fewer cases and North Wales soared up the scale he shut down only the north…so much for that eh!

He was spotted at a " diversity " event without a face covering. However, both he and Nicola Krankie insisted everyone followed the rules to the letter and behaved like little Gauleiters at times. It was bad enough in England, but these two seemed to delight in how many petty rules they could dream up.

I found Sturgeons daily advice much better than Johnson et al. It was also signed. At least they didn’t say ‘let the bodies pile high’ or try to visit the Queen when they had covid.

Viewing life through a distorted lens. Political leaders throughout the world did what they felt would best protect people, given the evidence they were presented with at the time. Mark Drakeford and Nicola Sturgeons both saw their popularity with the public in their own countries rise as a result of the actions they took at the time, which is more relevant to how well they did, than musings with hindsight.

I was peeved to read this morning (headlines in Observer) that the U.K. has had the worst outcomes compared to other developed countries.

Largely to do I think with the wide inequalities in this country.

Calendargirl

I assumed (wrongly) that we were talking about the UK.

My DD, who lives in Australia, had different rules to us.

They limited travel there for quite a while after the pandemic.

Their rules were even more stringent, power-hungry State Premiers enjoy the control over people.

Disagree Casdon.

Drakeford may be popular in south Wales, up north he’s seen as the man who ruined our NHS both as a health minister and First Minister and we’re still paying the price!

In rural Wales he’s known as the plonker who went to Builth to tell Welsh farmers he had to justify any financial assistance to his Bangladeshi taxi driver!

keepingquiet

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.

Meeting up with others, even in the 'fresh air', was against the rules.

Driving a couple of miles to woodland to take dogs for a walk was forbidden but walking dogs around the neighbourhood where there might be others doing the same was apparently fine.

Pantglas2

Disagree Casdon.

Drakeford may be popular in south Wales, up north he’s seen as the man who ruined our NHS both as a health minister and First Minister and we’re still paying the price!

In rural Wales he’s known as the plonker who went to Builth to tell Welsh farmers he had to justify any financial assistance to his Bangladeshi taxi driver!

It’s just a fact Pantglas that his popularity rose during the Covid period, from numerous opinion polls. I’m not defending him, just saying that’s what happened at the time.

MayBee70

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.

Life expectancy has dropped slightly but some of this was due to delays in treatment during the years of the pandemic rather than from Covid itself.

Life expectancy 2010:
78.7 years for males and 82.6 years for females

2017 to 2019
79.3 years for males and 83.0 years for females.

2021 to 2023
79.0 years for males and 83.0 years for females.

There is no point in being annoyed at the way things happened, always easy to say what we should have done in hindsight.
It was an unknown occurrence and I think the majority of people , general public and government did what was thought best with the information they were given.
Let’s hope we have learned lessons and will be better prepared if something similar should happen again.
I’m not being complacent, we lost a close friend during the epidemic and had several other events that could not be as we wished.

Calendargirl

But 5 years ago, as now, it was all so frighteningly new and unprecedented.

Yes, reading through that list, it all looks so completely over the top. But there was no vaccine, no cure, no one knew what was going to happen.

Plus how many on GN were disinfecting the groceries before putting them away? (Not me, I never did that).

We all now know so much was wrong, but the fact remains, 5 years ago, we just didn’t.

And we were all scared.

Very true.
That’s where the inquiry comes in handy tho, to make sure we do some things differently next time round, some things faster and some things better.

Oreo

Calendargirl

But 5 years ago, as now, it was all so frighteningly new and unprecedented.

Yes, reading through that list, it all looks so completely over the top. But there was no vaccine, no cure, no one knew what was going to happen.

Plus how many on GN were disinfecting the groceries before putting them away? (Not me, I never did that).

We all now know so much was wrong, but the fact remains, 5 years ago, we just didn’t.

And we were all scared.

Very true.
That’s where the inquiry comes in handy tho, to make sure we do some things differently next time round, some things faster and some things better.

How many people died, not from Covid, but because they couldn't get a GP or hospital appointment during lockdowns?
🤬

A fair point, and also the banning of wives/ husbands from ICU when partners were dying was terrible.That must never happen again.

Not just GP appointments either Allira, but mental health appointments, counselling etc. My friend's brother had mental health and addiction issues. His whole support network, including the local church which had been a lifeline to him, switched off overnight. Sadly the poor man took his own life during lockdown. There must have been thousands of people in the same position.

Honestly? I think this thread is somewhat cathartic. Recollections are interesting aren’t they?

I was able to get doctors appointments during lockdown, the dentist was another matter.

Calendargirl

But 5 years ago, as now, it was all so frighteningly new and unprecedented.

Yes, reading through that list, it all looks so completely over the top. But there was no vaccine, no cure, no one knew what was going to happen.

Plus how many on GN were disinfecting the groceries before putting them away? (Not me, I never did that).

We all now know so much was wrong, but the fact remains, 5 years ago, we just didn’t.

And we were all scared.

I think we were deliberately made scared. Politicians used well know psychological tactics to do it. They sided with large pharmaceutical companies who saw an opportunity to make money.
But boy, the reprocussions ramble on. Lack of trust in science - not science of course but the deliberate dishonest manipulation of evidence. And it all comes out now; how 'research' published in the most prestigious medical journals has been manipulated for years.
Many people died unnecessarily, and died before their time because good studies showing that known remedies and things like a person's Vitamin D status were just brushed aside and the only thing was 'the (untried, untested) EXPENSIVE vaccines.
Even now, those who did this go uninvestigated and unpunished. For shame.

Churchview

I remember the fantastic spirit of community in my town - people helping each other out, dropping groceries off, checking on vulnerable people.
The food bank in the station car park because you couldn't be indoors.
The quiet. No traffic.
The doorstep clapping and boats in the harbour sounding their horns in the background.
I remember the absolute commitment of so many key workers, the sense of fear as the number of deaths went up and up each day and the sacrifices so many ordinary people made.

Then I think of the lot at number 10 making a cock up of so many decisions and abusing their position to party.

Many communities have come together, both our old old and new homes had a new WhatsApp group - people in both areas have said how much this has improved the spirit within the community.

I know full well that my husband would have died if he had caught Covid and did everything I could to avoid this happening. I was super scrupulous about taking food deliveries into the house, always wore masks when making essential trips out, washed my hands like a lunatic after I had been shopping, and we managed to avoid it. Many of you may laugh at this, but those of us with friends and family at risk were glad of the protection.
Since then we've been immunised a few time (my husband twice as often as myself) so we can feel reasonably safe. However when I did catch Covid I took great care to avoid him catching it.
The Great Barrington Declaration sounded fine for the young, fit and well - but I do hope that we haven't all forgotten the young, fit and well (particularly from Ethnic minorites) working in the health service or for public transport who died of Covid. Had Covid been allowed to sweep through the population many more would not have survived, let along gained "herd immunity".

We we're at Heathrow in 1999 our first holiday for years flying to see some friends in florida. We couldn't understand why so many people, especially from the far east were wearing masks. Chinese crews were all masked up and standing together apparently praying. When we reached our destination noone was particularly bothered in fact apart from some idiots refusing to drink Corona beer,convinced it was the cause of the virus it was hardly mentioned. On arriving home after 6 weeks away we were amazed at the fuss. In fact we were lucky to be let back into the country as we were in lockdown the week after. It was terrible to hear of all the hospitals overwhelmed by the virus with people dying, then Boris was admitted into hospital, whatever your politics, it was frightening to see pictures of him gravely ill. No other government has had to cope with a pandemic so severe. Until a vaccine was developed the future was bleak. Lockdown was horrible, especially closing schools which caused lasting damage, it was awful for all of us but what would you have done? Hindsight is a great thing.

Wow, so much wrong with your comment. Not surprised though. Have some respect for the dead. BTW FFP2 and FFP3 masks work. I wore them and never caught it until I relaxed my guard after vaccines and when it morphed into Omicron. The major vector was children at school. If only we had learnt about airborne, HEPA and ventilation. Florence Nightingale had more understanding of this than our idiot health advisers.

MayBee70

When my family first heard about what was happening in Italy we started protecting ourselves and, when it was necessary we locked down to protect ourselves and protect others. And, if it happened again we would do the same. Do people really have such short memories of the vast numbers of people that were dying, so little knowledge of the virus and, at the time no vaccine? And then, when there was a vaccine, the realisation that the vaccine would reduce the symptoms but not prevent further infections.

Exactly this. If it happens again I will be ready with decent masks and knowledge on how to avoid infection from airborne droplets. My daughter was working as an anaesthetist in a UK hospital in 2020. They were given inadequate PPE and they had to reuse masks and fashion their own protection. People died horribly and alone apart from medical staff because they didn't want to have relatives infected too. After the vaccinations became available the deaths were heavily weighted to the unvaccinated, again direct from her experience. The UK leaders were fools. Here in the Isle of Man we used the New Zealand approach and lived normally for most of it apart from not being able to travel. I only saw my kids in the UK via zoom during that time. I am really angry with FGT2s rewriting of history, it's just despicable. I am certain we will have pandemics in the future. If the idiots who signed the Great Barrington Declaration are in charge it'll be a disaster. They wanted to go for immunity via natural infection rather than wait for vaccines. Utter monsters. I do see a lot of overlap between right wingers and anti vax pro disease types. Maybe down to a lack of human empathy?

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.

So you wouldn't have gone to hospital of you had caught it and just stayed at home to die? All our actions have effects on others.