Covid

I knew there was at least one mask that was fail safe, the majority weren't. I hated seeing the filthy used paper ones discarded all over the place.

We always ate outside, the one thing we got that year was an amazing summer and it started early, I remember walking in Bushy Park in April everyone was in t shirts, unusually hot.

I agree Galaxy it all got so authoritarian and at times ridiculously contradictory, the PM in NZ well she wouldn't even let her own people back in the country, they couldn't even be quarantined, friends of ours who live there said she was an absolute dictator. She wasn't as bad as Katy Perry's latest squeeze. I think it made us view some of the so called previously revered leaders very differently.

Galaxy totally agree 👍🏻

I think that is something that has also been overlooked, I think covid and the lockdowns impacted so many areas of how society functions, trust in government, trust in institutions, how we function as a society,I am hoping in the future it is possible to examine that. I am not really interested in blame games but in an honest discussion about the impact. I don't think that is possible at the moment to be honest.

Galaxy

Well yes, the rules were nonsense but were dispatched with such authoritarian zeal. It is that contradiction which I think will make it extraordinarily difficult to enforce any future restrictions if necessary.

I know that I will never again be dictated to regarding who and how many I can invite into my home.

MaizieD I was frequently told on here that any face covering would prevent transmission of Covid.

I gave up in the end.

You are correct regarding N95 (or above) masks.

Well yes, the rules were nonsense but were dispatched with such authoritarian zeal. It is that contradiction which I think will make it extraordinarily difficult to enforce any future restrictions if necessary.

My actual point is that 'the rules' were useless as far as preventing infection with covid was concerned. It was (finally) established that it spread by means of aerosols, not droplets, which quickly fell to the ground and were inactivated. Whereas aerosols, which are very fine particles, lingered in the air for along time and diffused throughout the space.

So it didn't really matter how socially distanced you were, or how many screens were erected, if you weren't wearing an N95 mask, which were the only ones that would keep out (or in) the aerosols, you were very likely to be infected with covid.

The best place to be was out of doors, where diffusion of the aerosols was over a bigger area and there were likely to be fewer lingering in any concentration.

I did read the research...

Yes that's how I remember it, there were very strict rules surrounding bookings. A distant memory, but there was a lot of caution and maintained distances.

Smileless2012

Those restaurants and their customers were breaking the rules Maizie. In our sea side town there was social distancing inside and out with perspex screens between the tables inside and fewer tables than normal.

Orders were taken at the customers table and payment was made there too.

That’s what it was like round here, even the local pubs had screens, less tables and table service only.

You had to book in advance and was allocated a two hour slot at the three pubs in our road.

Regarding schools, I knew of a headmistress who died from Covid, aged 52. A very energetic woman and with many years of service ahead of her. This was in March 2020, before lockdown.

Those restaurants and their customers were breaking the rules Maizie. In our sea side town there was social distancing inside and out with perspex screens between the tables inside and fewer tables than normal.

Orders were taken at the customers table and payment was made there too.

MaizieD

GrannyGravy13

Onlymedea I can only describe the restaurants that we went to, (including our local seafront ones) and going by what my family and friends said at the time my experience was very much the same as theirs.

I'm afraid I can tell you that restaurants I saw in our patch of Durham were packed out.

It obviously varied across the country.

Maybe to do with the amount of restaurants in the vicinity participating in the scheme 🤷‍♀️

GrannyGravy13

Onlymedea I can only describe the restaurants that we went to, (including our local seafront ones) and going by what my family and friends said at the time my experience was very much the same as theirs.

I'm afraid I can tell you that restaurants I saw in our patch of Durham were packed out.

Fortunately enough people chose to accept the Covid vaccine that it didn't matter there were some who refused it (and some for good reason). Deaths from side effects of the vaccine were very, very much fewer than deaths from from the virus through not having vaccine protection.

Has the question been raised anywhere in this report re how many people got unfairly dismissed from their jobs for refusing to have that jab? Has the question been covered re how many people got bullied into having that jab to ensure they werent dismissed - and what their health was like after the jab they didnt choose to have themselves?

I've certainly come across some people who got bullied into the jab - rather than having decided to do so themselves.

AGAA4 my Gra daughters lived in fear ,their mother is chronically ill and they were terrified they would take Covid home and kill her
There are many young carers who felt the same ,lockdown gave them some peace of mind though one gd was scared to go back to school after lockdown and had counselling for over a year before she felt confident to go out into the world.
It really wasn’t as simple as young people weren’t at risk,there were many types of risks involved .
My daughter thankfully came through it in part because her family were so thoughtful and careful around her .

TerriBull

We ate out to help out, after being locked down it felt like something really nice, given it was summertime. For us it was always outside, and the tables were fairly distanced apart. Great sympathy for the hospitality industry, they've been hit with just about everything. I get so angry when I read about dine and dashers, another subject I know.

How we were all duped and bullied into going around with masks, particularly the fabric ones that were absolutely useless. There are one or two speciality masks that were effective I read, but most weren't

There were so many mistakes for example, I do agree about the potential dangers of letting flights in for so long particularly people emanating from China, by the time those were stopped the virus was all over the world. Of course completely unprecedented and at the time, with hindsight I think we were over panicked, younger generations were massively affected, I'm not sure young people would be so co-operative if there were to be another pandemic it was more hellish for them. Many younger people are against an overreach of government control, their compliance is understandably not the same as from say an older demographic. I think there would need to be a different approach, some would have had an eye to Sweden who didn't adopt the same draconian measures, pro rata they didn't lose any more people and neither did they tank their economy. All the stupid extreme measures spring to mind, like two women having a coffee on a park bench fairly apart got a dressing down from patrolling jobsworth, it was like entering into some Kafkaesque scenario. Clearly whoever the government of the day had been, the measures would have always massively contributed towards the national debt, so many costly emergency measures, so many catastrophically expensive mistakes. Yes! as others have pointed out thousands of people died with Covid not necessarily from it, I even read victims of fatal road accidents their death certificates may have wrongly stated Covid, so the true figures were somewhat masked. I can remember so many mad occasions, queuing to go to our local M&S Food Hall, we bought a lot from there, my attitude was if we're going to be locked up, at least I'll get some good food, we could only secure Tesco deliveries and they aren't my favourite grocery retailer. The onus to keep distanced when grocery shopping, the public, were very aware of that, then in M&S, some of the staff, often the younger ones, would come and stand right next to you in the aisles The paranoia of some washing their actual shopping. The desire to wash my hands after touching surfaces that are frequented by the general public is something that's remained with me, even though I believe that picking up the virus from say a handrail was disproved too.

I know there are a lot of long time members on here that have seen me post this before.
It’s the evidence that the expert who predicted how many would die if we didn’t stay home then proceeded to invite his married lover over to his house for some afternoon rumpy pumpy.
So he is obviously a fool or a www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52553229

I’m always sceptical of the lasting value of public inquiries, whatever the reason they are called. It’s easy to hyper focus on the detail of what went wrong, but I think that is less important than identifying what can be done to stop the things that went wrong happening next time - because there will be a next time. This one contains some key actions to protect the country in the event of a future pandemic. Will it change much? It should, but I doubt it.

MaizieD

FriedGreenTomatoes2

* or just prop the bluddy doors open then with a doorstop?
No, let’s escalate costs getting in Council workmen to go around all Scottish schools.

Madness on steroids.

You've clearly never been a teacher...

Anyway, to reference another post

Assuming the UK population at about 66 million, 0.1% is 68,000, 0.5% is 340,000. You would have been happy with so many deaths?

5

Your figures do assume a 100% infection rate which just didn't happen. I know people who have still never had Covid.

On the classroom door issue, cutting a couple of inches off the bottom of a door was not going to do much without all windows and exterior doors of the building being wide open. It was a silly idea, although even silly ideas should be voiced and considered.

**Onlymedea

Thank you. Yes they came through it ok

An attitude that is infinitely preferable to the I must follow orders attitude.

GrannyGravy13

Onlymedea I can only describe the restaurants that we went to, (including our local seafront ones) and going by what my family and friends said at the time my experience was very much the same as theirs.

Much the same here, and we too have local sea fronts.
The measure that earned most praise was the putting up of screens next to supermarket cashiers. In our local area they said there had been fewer respiratory diseases , colds, coughs and flu thanks to those screens.

Re the fabric masks. They were washable so you could have several at hand -(we usually boiled ours), and correctly worn they were definitely better than lanyards.

I remember being rebuked for not wearing a mask, by someone wearing a lanyard.

But those are just examples of the GBP You can’t make me! attitude.

GrannyGravy13

Onlymedea I can only describe the restaurants that we went to, (including our local seafront ones) and going by what my family and friends said at the time my experience was very much the same as theirs.

So when you said restaurants weren't packed you weren't talking about all of them. Here they were crowded and numbers rocketed. I wonder what the connection was?

What a scathing report. Lady Hallett is to be congratulated.

Those of us lucky enough to survive the pandemic must never elect such a load of muppets again and the Chief Muppet shoukd be barred from any future public office. He and some other puppets should be summoned to the House of Commons and publicly reprimanded by the Speaker.

The present government should immediately appoint a Secretary of State with responsibility for ensuring preparedness for pandemics and similar events, such post to be permanent.

We ate out to help out, after being locked down it felt like something really nice, given it was summertime. For us it was always outside, and the tables were fairly distanced apart. Great sympathy for the hospitality industry, they've been hit with just about everything. I get so angry when I read about dine and dashers, another subject I know.

How we were all duped and bullied into going around with masks, particularly the fabric ones that were absolutely useless. There are one or two speciality masks that were effective I read, but most weren't

There were so many mistakes for example, I do agree about the potential dangers of letting flights in for so long particularly people emanating from China, by the time those were stopped the virus was all over the world. Of course completely unprecedented and at the time, with hindsight I think we were over panicked, younger generations were massively affected, I'm not sure young people would be so co-operative if there were to be another pandemic it was more hellish for them. Many younger people are against an overreach of government control, their compliance is understandably not the same as from say an older demographic. I think there would need to be a different approach, some would have had an eye to Sweden who didn't adopt the same draconian measures, pro rata they didn't lose any more people and neither did they tank their economy. All the stupid extreme measures spring to mind, like two women having a coffee on a park bench fairly apart got a dressing down from patrolling jobsworth, it was like entering into some Kafkaesque scenario. Clearly whoever the government of the day had been, the measures would have always massively contributed towards the national debt, so many costly emergency measures, so many catastrophically expensive mistakes. Yes! as others have pointed out thousands of people died with Covid not necessarily from it, I even read victims of fatal road accidents their death certificates may have wrongly stated Covid, so the true figures were somewhat masked. I can remember so many mad occasions, queuing to go to our local M&S Food Hall, we bought a lot from there, my attitude was if we're going to be locked up, at least I'll get some good food, we could only secure Tesco deliveries and they aren't my favourite grocery retailer. The onus to keep distanced when grocery shopping, the public, were very aware of that, then in M&S, some of the staff, often the younger ones, would come and stand right next to you in the aisles The paranoia of some washing their actual shopping. The desire to wash my hands after touching surfaces that are frequented by the general public is something that's remained with me, even though I believe that picking up the virus from say a handrail was disproved too.