Sunday 9th March 2025 is Covid Day of Reflection.

MaggsMcG Reading about the loss of your husband to Covid 19 brings home the awful toll of misery the pandemic caused.
You have my deepest sympathy.

Perhaps I should add that Covid is still with us and has by no means been eradicated.

My husband died of hospital acquired Covid-19 two weeks before I got my vaccine invitation. He was only 67 years old. He wasn't particularly healthy but nothing serious before that blinking
Covid-19 first year in 2020. He was in hospital the red of 2020 and came out safely. 12 weeks later he was rushed back in with an infected gallbladder, caught Covid in hospital due to exhausted staffing and never cane home. That's what I was reflecting on. As for the the parties, half my town were doing it too. The PPE was the real scandal but you can bet that had the Labour Party been in charge it wouldn't have been handled any better, just different.

MayBee70

orly

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? At the time it was both frightening and worrying but many of those who caught COVID and died in hospital, after being admitted with strokes and heart attacks and the like, may not have survived anyway. But many affected family members just wasn't to find someone to blame.

You mean that people (like me) who lost friends and relatives in nursing homes just want someone to blame?

People like me too whose aunt died from Covid 19 having been admitted with a stroke. There is no way of knowing if she would have survived if she hadn't caught Covid 19 but I am sure it reduced her chances of survival quite considerably. The chances of dying after strokes and heart attacks etc were greatly increased if you then caught Covid 19.

I don't remember wanting to blame anybody. We were all just found the situation very difficult and extremely sad.

I think it is important to look back and learn. I dont think that means people are necessarily blaming, they are trying to understand, and if they are grieving that is a perfectly understandable reaction.

orly

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? At the time it was both frightening and worrying but many of those who caught COVID and died in hospital, after being admitted with strokes and heart attacks and the like, may not have survived anyway. But many affected family members just wasn't to find someone to blame.

You mean that people (like me) who lost friends and relatives in nursing homes just want someone to blame?

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? At the time it was both frightening and worrying but many of those who caught COVID and died in hospital, after being admitted with strokes and heart attacks and the like, may not have survived anyway. But many affected family members just wasn't to find someone to blame.

It was a time for community spirit where I live! Everybody supported each other! Joe Wickes kept me fit: the allotment looked fab: we listened to our vinyls ; we walked: read: talked more and respected each other; zoom book groups: zoom choir nights!
Then we found out how much money was squandered which makes me sick to my stomach plus the parties 😱

IamMaz

But how many are dying now?
I was always frustrated that I could never see figures explaining how many MORE THAN USUAL were dying during Covid - whether it was from it or with it.

There is a weekly ONS bulletin which provides this information. The latest I could see was for week ending 21st February.
‘In the week ending 21 February 2025, 15.8% of registered deaths involved influenza or pneumonia (1,838 deaths), while 0.7% involved coronavirus (COVID-19) (76 deaths).
In the same week, influenza or pneumonia were the underlying cause of 5.2% of deaths (604 deaths), while COVID-19 was the underlying cause of 0.4% of deaths (50 deaths).’
So yes, people are still dying of COVID-19.

wibblywobblywobblebottom

What's Covid?

Something that has been responsible for the death of many thousands of people . Not something to be flippant about. Imo

But how many are dying now?
I was always frustrated that I could never see figures explaining how many MORE THAN USUAL were dying during Covid - whether it was from it or with it.

I hope that, when/if we have another pandemic, lessons really will have been learned.

What's Covid?

Yes but what we are trying to say is that the 'precautions' had a terrible impact on many, particularly the vulnerable. If a pandemic happens against yes I know it would be a different one, I would be much more cautious about blindly following the advice.

theworriedwell

I thought the daftest thing was eat out to help out. My town had very few cases till that stupid initiative but almost immediately the numbers started to climb and it was months before it was back down to previous levels.

Yup, Sunak was called Dr Death by Witty, with good cause.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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