I was talking to my sister about moving here during covid and the time in holiday lets that could only be used if you were moving and needed somewhere to live and people were banned from actually using them for a holiday. She said " in April 2021? I thought it was over by then."
That made me look back at some of the "Strange Times" posts I did at the time. The last post with that label was in February 2022 - almost two years after the start.
It made me smile to re-read these headlines of the time from another Strange Times post...............
Here are some of my 'favourites'
From The Independent. 19th April 2020 "UK must prepare for volatile and agitated society after lockdown lifted says a senior police officer
From The Daily Telegraph. 28th July 2020 "People over 6ft have double the risk of Coronavirus"
From The Daily Star.23rd July 2020 "Baldies are 40% more at risk of coronavirus says a US study
From The Daily Mirror 12th November 2020. "Covid survivors could have life threatening allergic reaction to hair dye"
From The Sun 13th November 2020 Doctors say "Masturbate during Coronavirus to boost your immune system and fight off infection"
From The Daily Mail 16th November 2020 "Dog owners face 78% higher risk of catching Covid 19 and home grocery deliveries DOUBLE the risk."
People who read and took that last one as gospel presumably then starved - being too afraid to enter a shop and then finding their home delivery was too risky to receive.
Those quotes came from a book I borrowed called "A State of Fear". They all seem even odder now than they did 5 years ago. I looked on the library website to see if they still had the book. And yes, there were 4 copies in the County , but only one copy out on loan. I've no intention of borrowing it again!
Back Soon
Nothing has worked out as predicted! But the world sure has changed...
ReplyDeleteThere were some very odd newspaper reports at the time - and Covid affected so many businesses - many have never got back to how they were before
DeleteI know someone who used to wash all her grocery delivery . . .
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember wiping things once - don't think I did it again
DeleteCovid restrictions were still in place in April 2021. Our church provided more than 40 Easter Lunches for people on their own ‐ prepared and distributed under strict socially distanced conditions. A week later 4 friends donned masks and helped us load the hired van so we could move to Norfolk. And the big Retirement Event at church could not happen - people said Goodbye on Zoom. No hugs and kisses as we left. It was such a strange time. My sense of smell still comes and goes, but it is much more reliable now. Some sections of the media did not help with scaremongering headlines, I think.
ReplyDeleteLooking back I do wonder why I moved then - it was so complicated
DeleteSo if you were a bald, 6'2" dog owner who had their groceries delivered, you would have needed to masturbate every day to help protect yourself, but, as every cloud has a silver lining, being bald you needn't worry about the hair dye! 🤣
ReplyDeleteApparently so! No idea where some newspapers got those ideas
DeleteMyself and my sister saw a window of opportunity to get a self
ReplyDeletecatering holiday in Sheringham in October 2020.We had to book every outing and wear masks even for a pub lunch ( the locals didn’t bother ).Very strange times.Marilyn
It certainly was, I was foolish to even contemplate moving at that time!
DeleteThe headlines at the time were all over the place, all the theories, it was scare mongering at it's best, as we all agree strange times.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder where some newspapers found all their odd ideas.
DeleteAll I remember is Lillie's moan...'It's not fair granny gets a jab but us young people aren't given one. The implicit message, granny is going to die soon anyway ;)
ReplyDeleteOh dear! The joys of being young when you think you will never get old!
DeleteFunnily there was something in our local paper this morning listing when the last lockdown was in each Australian state (South Australia was July 2021). It seems so long ago now and a lot of what happened was very weird when you think about it.
ReplyDeleteThere really were some odd ideas at the time.
DeleteHow long did covid last? Ask my friend who has been badly affected by catching covid a couple of weeks ago; she was still breathless and struggling with long covid 18 months after the last time. Three other friends have had covid this year, more or less seriously, ranging from a week in bed to just unwell for a couple of days.
ReplyDeleteI'm still taking precautions and social distancing, wearing a mask in crowded spaces, because I'm immunosuppressed and have several lung fibrosis; covid, pneumonia or flu would likely mean hospital and ICU and... let's not go there.
I know Covid is not a big deal for most of the population these days, but for around 1,000,000 people, catching covid would have serious consequences.
Sorry, this is a long reply, but I feel strongly that it needs to be said!
If you have a cold or sniffle, please be conscious of people nearby, and don't, like a well-meaning friend, visit someone who is vulnerable! It's also worth testing if you are unwell with a flu- like cold, because if it lingers on it's useful for the doctors to know if it was flu or covid.
Over and out, as they say!
Apologies, I hope this post didn't come over as ignoring people still suffering in some way.
DeleteIt was my sister not realising that moving in the spring of 2021 was still complicated that made me look back and find those odd newspaper reports at the time with strange ideas.
No offense taken, I hope I did not come across as too strident! I did wonder if you were meaning the end of official restrictions... very controversial now with hindsight but I reckon they were necessary and lifesaving at the time until we knew more about the threat. I remember the tragic reports from covid hotspots in Italy.
DeleteYes! I just had my first bout in March...and I don't find anything about covid funny. We were terrified, I lost so much, life changed so much. Everyone lost their jobs. We couldn't visit sick friends in the hospital, or welcome new babies, people died alone. People we knew DIED. Still makes tears pour down my face, remembering.
DeleteI wish those who do not worry any longer held a little more respect for those of us who need to continue taking precautions.
DeleteSo do I. Here in the U.S., those of us who still mask are being harassed more and more; we even have instances where people are physically attacked for wearing a mask. The ignorance and lack of respect is disturbing.
DeleteHow to spread fear and panic. People will believe the strangest things and then not bother to wear a face covering.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many people believed some of those very weird newspaper headlines.
DeleteThe vast majority believed those headlines and what they saw on the TV . People wouldn’t have accepted lockdowns so readily if they didn’t . The belief in the Covid narrative is apparently still strong 5 years on in this thread. Those headlines were the work of Susan Michie and her behavioural team amongst others. Google her.
DeleteI take it you are not a fan of this book? Why didn’t you like it? Did you actually read ALL of it?
We were locked down longer in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK. Our Golden Wedding party was cancelled in December 2021 as the then First Minister called a lockdown over the Christmas period. Eva use of my husbands health condition, we tried to obey the rules and I made hundreds of masks for people from double layered cotton which were possibly useless but we wore them as requested. I still occasionally find one in a jacket pocket! Catriona
ReplyDeleteI never understood why sanitiser bottles disappeared from the supermarkets. Money must be full of germs.
ReplyDeleteI think you will find Covid is not over, it's here for the duration. It is rife in my village right now!
ReplyDeleteSince the relaxing of Covid precautions, it is interesting that other highly infectious viruses etc seem to be on the up too. Like northsider says, I don't understand the disappearance of hand sanitiser bottles either.
I also recall, especially in the beginning, people suddenly "finding religion", and all those promises made that they'd be a better person if we came through it. Well, where are those promises now? If anything, we are worse as human beings now than at any other time in our history with less compassion, more violence and riots, shootings, stabbings, the list is endless.
DeleteWhat I remember most about Covid was the support we had from people who continued to work, the care someone took with our small Asda grocery order, the post and delivery drivers, the hospital pharmacist who brought my meds out to the car, and the antivirals which arrived within hours of a positive test. DH brought it home from bowls when he started going out again.
ReplyDeleteThank you to the maker of pretty Liberty print face masks, they worked for me.
Covid is still running strong here, though nothing like before. One of the people I was going to go to the protest with couldn't because he came down with Covid. I'm still hyper-aware because of my lung issues, but don't mask as much as I used to. I think our restrictions ended in 2021. Those were challenging times but being an introvert who was already retired, I was in many ways better equipped to handle it than many. I know people who died from Covid (many of us do) and who were intubated for several months, still struggling with it. But at least now with Paxlovid and other drugs, you stand a better chance of not getting so ill. When I went to England last year, my docs gave me a script of that to take with me in case I got sick. I was glad I didn't have to use it!
ReplyDeleteHow strange it all was, still is at times. I remember going to my cousin's funeral in August 2021. All the doors and windows were open, masks were worn, seats were partitioned into sections so people didn't sit too close to each other and there was no singing of hymns, the vicar had to play all the music chosen by his family on a tape You were very brave to move when you did:)
ReplyDeleteWhat I remember about those days is that a nursing home lost 1/3 of their residents here. It hit the Amish elderly population quite hard. The dialysis unit, years after the fact, still operates on a part time basis because so many critically ill patients died during covid. There was so much misinformation. My sister is a nurse and she refused to get the vaccine telling everyone it changes your DNA. Her response to all the deaths? That they were mostly old people...as if they could not be counted as covid deaths. It was maddening.
ReplyDeleteI remember I'd planned to move in spring 2020, but ended up not being able to - nobody permitted to show or visit properties because of lockdown and social distancing. It turned out just as well, for other reasons, but I felt very frustrated!
ReplyDeleteI did read that book - complete nonsense. It starts off by explaining that you could tell Johnson was lying by the way he was clenching his hands…and the book goes downhill from there.
ReplyDeleteThe misinformation around Covid and vaccines continues. At least, there are fewer Covid deaths.
ReplyDeleteToday at the pharmacy, they state: "You are approved for the Respiratory Vaccine." This is a Covid vaccine, but they do not acknowledge.
PCP's do not want to provide or talk about the vaccine. Everybody reacts differently to the vaccines. Some have no reaction and others are unwell.
My neighbor's pregnant daughter decided not to get the vaccine until after she delivered the baby. She got the vaccine after delivery and breast fed the baby which provided the baby with protection. She is a Ph.D. from the Harvard, Chan School of Medicine.
Covid still goes on here and I will get the latest vaccine soon to keep myself protected. We had several family friends and a family member die of Covid so I was glad of all the protections that were out there.
ReplyDeleteStrange times indeed. It all seems so surreal now. I wonder if authorities will be less likely to impose lockdowns in the future, knowing what a detrimental effect it has on people's mental and social health?
ReplyDeleteWasn't it Trump who suggested disinfecting oneself by drinking Clorox? [chlorine bleach.]
ReplyDeleteAnd taking ivermectin. People died from that.
DeleteIn Canada we didn't have quite the lockdowns that other countries had, but still it was strange to go for a walk wearing a mask and yet not seeing a single person while doing so.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It was strange times indeed, we were travelling between Wales and England (we had travel permits due to work) trying to obey the various rules and restrictions. We sold the caravan as it all got too complicated with the site closed down, and then we stayed mostly in Wales with just Alan travelling for work. I broke my 'best' wooden spoon banging it on a saucepan on the 'Clapping for the NHS' Thursday nights ... we were in competition with a neighbour on the other side of the road, that night they won.
ReplyDeleteThen all restrictions were lifted, we went on holiday to Spain a year later ... and I caught Covid. I've not had a sense of smell since! Mum's nursing home were on 'short visits' and mask wearing last week due to a small outbreak of Covid, so it's not gone away, just morphed.