What did the Pandemic do for you ?

[HorseGuy]

I must admit, there is a certain frustration in watching this stuff come out in the media now. For years people were denigrated and treated appallingly for even just asking questions regarding 'vaccine' efficacy, mask mandates, consequences of lockdowns and so on.

I've got a respect for those people who decided against taking the 'vaccine' and stood their ground throughout those years. It showed a strength of character to stick to your guns despite all the threats, manipulation and abuse thrown their way.

I refused to take the vaccine due to it being rushed through to market so quickly without being properly tested over a suitably long time-frame that would have been necessary to determine what the long term side-effects are. Especially when you consider it worked using a totally new and previously unused mRNA technology which works in a totally different way to how all previous vaccines did before 2020.

No way under any circumstances was I going to put something so experimental and untested as mRNA into my body without there being several years of comprehensive long term side-effect data to back up the safety claims that were being made about it at the time. My resolution was absolutely rock solid and unbreakable regarding this.

This does not mean that I as antisocial in any way though. I was always very respectful of others and was extremely careful to follow social distancing and all of the other rules to the absolute T at all times. More carefully than the majority of vaccinated people did in fact. At least for the first couple of years or more until after the virus mutated several times and naturally became less dangerous. I also had respect for how potentially dangerous it could be too. Particularly the early strains at the beginning.

In late December of 2019 a bad virus was doing the rounds where I work. We will never know for certain but I suspect that this might have actually been an early strain of covid-19 that we had (there is now conclusive proof found using saved blood samples that were taken from the cadavers of people who died in December of 2019 which shows that Covid-19 was already present in parts of the UK shortly before January 2020). Assuming that what we had at work in 2019 was really covid-19 and not something else then I can attest that it was a particularly nasty virus. One of the worst I've ever had in my life in fact and I can see how something as severe as that could easily kill someone who was elderly or weak. Luckily for us we were all reasonably healthy and had good immune systems so we just felt really bad (and I do mean REALLY bad) for a week or two before recovering naturally.

 

[Toddy]

Reply @Broch

Aye, and it's amazing how statistics are used and misused to validate opinions.....

I tell you though; I wonder what we'd do if ebola or Marburg got a real grip in the population. 50% fatality.
There's a vaccine agin ebola, but not yet for Marburg.

 

[TLM]

there is always a third truth

I think the word "truth" is not quite the right one here, I would prefer "facts".

 

[HorseGuy]

Reply @Broch
I wonder what we'd do if ebola or Marburg got a real grip in the population. 50% fatality.

I dread to think. Many people no longer trust what the government or other institutions tell us anymore and wouldn't listen to them. Who can blame them either considering all of the manipulation and lies that came from the 'experts' and 'officials' last time round?

 

[TLM]

Luckily for us we were all reasonably healthy and had good immune systems so we just felt really bad

In previous "cytokine storm" viral epidemics people with robust immune systems were the ones suffering most. In elderly people in this case of Covid19 it might have been the viral infection that did most of the damage.

I have not seen things analyzed in my way of thinking, cynical empiricist engineer, so I really don't know how to comment on a lot of things. On the third hand there is the possibility that real professionals do not get their voices heard, most of them are not politicians or political animals.

 

[William_Montgomery]

This does not mean that I as antisocial in any way though. I was always very respectful of others and was extremely careful to follow social distancing and all of the other rules to the absolute T at all times. More carefully than the majority of vaccinated people did in fact. At least for the first couple of years or more until after the virus mutated several times and naturally became less dangerous. I also had respect for how potentially dangerous it could be too. Particularly the early strains at the beginning.

I think if you made it through with a sense of respect and decency towards others, then that says a lot. It's important to be able to ride out storms like that without losing your integrity.

Likewise, I was always respectful of people's position and never forced my opinion on others. I was always cautious about making people uncomfortable at such a time. I was also mindful to avoid any 'them' vs 'us' polarising, tribalistic nonsense that seemed so prevalent and so easy to fall into.

To be honest, I never saw it as any of my business what medical decision people made, it's a personal choice all the way. Just as my decision was always my own.

However, I am acutely aware how hard it was for a lot of people who didn't get the shot. It was a fierce backlash, and those who stood firm in the face of it do have my respect.

 

[Toddy]

I think that backlash was not just because of their choice, but because many of them who made that choice ranted and deliberately were not respectful of distance or of the concerns of others.

We're all very good at the hindsight, criticising and pontificating, but the reality was that at the time, we didn't know whether the virus, which was particularly virulent early on, would mutate into something less harmful or go the other way....we got lucky. We got very lucky.

Everyone's talking about money now, how much it all cost, etc., but in those early days the scientists and the factories did sterling work trying to get something workable out there as quickly as possible. In the end there were multiple vaccinations available, and multiple options, as well as geared up pp clothing, etc.,

I'm still of the mindset that it could have been so very much worse and we have been very fortunate.

The reality could so easily have been that it was the young and fit that bore the brunt, as in 1918 -20.
Now people seem to be justifying their anti-vax stance claiming it was only the elderly, obese and unfit who were at risk.
We didn't know that then, it did eventually become clear that the elderly werre more susceptible, but again, that was hindsight.

 

[Woody girl]

Italy is a pretty sunny place compared to the UK, so probably absorb much more vit D, also most Italians eat a much healthier diet than us brits. My question is why did it hit them so much harder?
I know Italian families are larger, but so are a lot of darker skinned families in the UK, so if the idea that Italians suffered due to larger families all crammed together explains why they suffered so much devastation, why were our darker skin cousins not similarly affected in the UK? Or did I miss something?
Bearing in mind I don't read newspapers or watch TV, so could have easily missed some vital info on that bit of it.
Statistics is not my strong point either as I am numeralexic. (Similar to dyslexic, but with numbers.)
Sorry if I'm being thick, and it's a stupid question, but its a question that formed in my mind at the time, and never found an answer.

 

[Toddy]

Black and south Asian households were hit harder...especially older Indian/Pakistani ladies.lt was apparently because they were in households with younger people who through social connections brought the disease home.

 

[Pattree]

We can all be wise and self congratulatory after the event, now that we know what we are dealing with.

No one had any idea what would happen in 2020 . We watched as Italy couldn’t bury its dead as fast as they were dying.

Sorry, forgot to press post several hours ago. Enjoying Summer Moot too much- I was referring to people telling us that we got it wrong and we should have resisted advice. Easy to say now that we know what we are dealing with. In 2020 no one knew what to do.

 

[HorseGuy]

Italy is a pretty sunny place compared to the UK, so probably absorb much more vit D, also most Italians eat a much healthier diet than us brits. My question is why did it hit them so much harder?

Maybe it was because they had it first before everyone else when it was still an early/first strain which was more severe. Later by the time it had spread throughout the rest of Europe it may have already mutated hence the less severe symptoms for everyone else.

This theory is purely speculation and guesswork on my part but it seems like a sound theory based on the evidence and timeline. Then again maybe I'm way off the mark and totally wrong? I don't know.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Italy is a pretty sunny place compared to the UK, so probably absorb much more vit D, also most Italians eat a much healthier diet than us brits. My question is why did it hit them so much harder?

Italy & especially northern Italy, was hit pretty hard at first for a number of reasons. Firstly, there is a high population of elderly & secondly, the family structures, where all generations often live under the same roof, the virus could spread like wildfire, the oldies too were easily infected by the young'uns. Could be the same reason why Asian families in the UK were also particularly affected.
Vit. D isn't a cure or protection in itself, it's just necessary to maintain a healthy immune system but that isn't a guarantee of immunity with a virus such as COVID-19, as it was often the body's' immune response to the virus in otherwise healthy adults, which led to serious complications.

 

[Woody girl]

Black and south Asian households were hit harder...especially older Indian/Pakistani ladies.lt was apparently because they were in households with younger people who through social connections brought the disease home.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that as I kept away from the news most of the time, listening to radio 4 extra rather than msm.
Rarely talked to anyone for a long time as I was isolating, and if I did chat, I kept away from the covid subject as much as possible. So I probably missed a lot of facts.

 

[HorseGuy]

Italy & especially northern Italy, was hit pretty hard at first for a number of reasons. Firstly, there is a high population of elderly & secondly, the family structures, where all generations often live under the same roof, the virus could spread like wildfire, the oldies too were easily infected by the young'uns.

Yes I had completely forgotten about that bit but now you mention it I remember seeing it the news during the early days of covid too.

Vit. D isn't a cure or protection in itself, it's just necessary to maintain a healthy immune system but that isn't a guarantee of immunity with a virus such as COVID-19, as it was often the body's' immune response to the virus in otherwise healthy adults, which led to serious complications.

From what I remember of the studies into covid-19 and vitamin D is they concluded for it to make significant difference to reducing the symptoms and speeding up recover you needed to take a larger than normal dose of vitamin D. I forget exactly how much was required but it was a dose several times higher than what you would normally get just from spending time the sun or will find in a regular one-a-day multivitamin tablet.

 

[Toddy]

@Woody girl
This, and two other forums, are the sum total of my social media. I read BBC and STV, so that's pretty much it unless I actively go looking for a topic.

 

[HorseGuy]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that as I kept away from the news most of the time, listening to radio 4 extra rather than msm.
Rarely talked to anyone for a long time as I was isolating, and if I did chat, I kept away from the covid subject as much as possible. So I probably missed a lot of facts.

In my opinion the BBC seemed to be openly scaremongering and over exaggerated many of the facts to the point that they appeared to be deliberately trying to stir up hysteria in people. They weren't the only MSM doing it but they seemed to be one of the worst offenders. Especially later on, even towards the end of covid two or three years in when it was clear that the virus had mutated and was now much less severe than it was at the beginning. Yet the BBC were still continuing to ramp up their scaremongering and keep pushing fearporn (as I called it) as hard as they could constantly calling for more mass lock downs and harsher more draconian measures. It was almost like the people there took some kind of sick perverse pleasure from frightening people.

 

[TLM]

Italians tend to dress fairly coveringly (is there such a word) and Jan-March is lowest D anyway, that just might have been enough.

 

[Stew]

Truth is though, none of those masks (even the medical ones) would stop virus sized particles from being transmitted - but it gave people a sense of (perhaps dangerous) confidence. They would need to be FFP2 or FFP3 (down to 0.3microns) to be of any use and they weren't generally available to the public.

As to the opening question - the only real change for us was we had to chat to the grandchildren on Zoom instead of visit. I loved the quiet and the lack of planes in the air (but, then, we live a pretty isolated life anyway!). It hasn't changed how we live, how we look at the world, or our life in general. Neither of us have ever caught Covid to our knowledge.

As it happens I had some dust collection systems being serviced yesterday and the chap said that it's generally safer to have no dust collection than a bad one as the bad one gives people false thoughts of protection where with no system they take other measures (decent face masks) to protect themselves. It's quite apt really.

 

[Stew]

Beyond all the death, what did the pandemic do for you?

Have you noticed anything about yourselves be it your health physical and/or mental that is different to how it was or maybe it's changed you in ways perhaps in positive ways?

What did the pandemic experience do for you?

It gave me the worst experience of my life and I wasn't hospitalised from it. I dread to think how it felt for those who suffered worse. It was an awful fight.

 

[Herman30]

Funny thing with Covid; forced people to start living like I have all the time. I´m introvert and have mostly stayed at home, seldom going out for other than food shopping. So Covid really did not change my life much anything. Have never been going to where there are big crowds.
During Covid I was at work (kitchen help in an elders home) so forced to wear mask and I absolutly hated it. So I never wore any mask outside work.