Big disasters often change how we see the world.
The Lisbon earthquake in 1755 shook people’s faith in religion. After the 1918 flu pandemic, there was growing interest in fresh air, better hygiene, and healthier living spaces – ideas that influenced architecture and public health policy at the time.
Covid, though? So far, the public inquiry has focused more on WhatsApp messages and political drama than on the bigger lessons. But many Independent readers believe there were lessons, but we haven’t necessarily learned from them.
Before the pandemic, there were fears that people wouldn’t cope with restrictions – that “behavioural fatigue” would kick in and we’d all give up. That fear led to delays in lockdown and, in the end, cost tens of thousands of lives.
But that view turned out to be wrong. Faced with a shared threat, most people acted with care and responsibility. Communities pulled together. Many went without seeing loved ones, missed work, lost income – all to protect others.
Now, readers feel much of that collective effort has vanished. When we asked for your views, you told us that people no longer wear masks on public transport, and sick people are back in offices and schools.
The things we learned – about clean air, proper sick pay, the importance of staying home when ill – are being forgotten, even though the virus hasn’t gone away.
Many of you told us that the return to “normal” is anything but normal. You’re frustrated by the lack of public messaging, the scrapping of protections, and the ongoing risks, especially from long Covid.
Here’s what you had to say:
Covid is more like polio than flu
Unfortunately, Covid is still here, still causing ill health and disability. Doing nothing is a false economy: in terms of impact, Covid is more like polio than flu – and we don’t ignore polio. We don’t need extreme measures, but good ventilation, FFP masks (especially in healthcare), HEPA filters in enclosed spaces like classrooms, wards, clinics and offices would all make a difference and aren’t difficult.
Reversing the removal of NHS vaccination from most groups, and ensuring access to vaccines and antivirals – the norm in other countries that are doing better – is essential.
Multiple Covid infections, even if mild, increase the chance of complications, including cardiac, and damage the immune system, making it harder to shake off other infections.
Long covid is now the most common illness in US children, and the UK is on the same trajectory, for the same reason. In children, Covid can cause metabolic dysfunction and lead to diabetes. This is all avoidable.
Housemartin
We know what to do – we’re just not doing it
We haven’t learned anything. We need clean air in public spaces (especially schools and health settings); proper sick pay; to stop the ridiculous pressure to send infectious children into school; better public information about the benefits of masks and ventilation; use of high-quality masks where appropriate (certainly for people with symptoms, and routinely in healthcare settings and for travel); and vaccines available to anyone who wants one. Affordable tests should also be widely available.
We know what to do to reduce the spread of Covid – we’re just not doing any of it.
Kittensarecute
We didn’t learn anything
No, we didn’t learn anything from the Covid pandemic. It was all done through panic. It wasn’t handled right at all, money was wasted, and greedy firms faked the prices to make obscene profits. No medical authority had the faintest clue how to handle it. This must never happen again – separating families, causing misery and sheer panic.
We have had pandemics before and will again. Lessons must be learned from that last fiasco and handled totally differently. People will catch it regardless of what they do; it cannot be avoided. Time for a total rethink from these so-called medical experts.
Annieinthecastle
Long Covid is the main danger
The main danger with Covid is getting long Covid. The science says no one is immune to suffering from it, and it’s likely a lifelong chronic condition that could end your ability to work. 3.2 million English people know that is what they are suffering from, and the number goes up every year.
The only defence we really have against Covid now, since most of the vaccines have been withheld, is wearing an FFP2/3 respirator, which is hugely effective at stopping infection. These masks also stop hay fever and most other infections as well. People who have started wearing them haven’t been sick in years.
Paul
Covid could be eradicated – but there’s no will
Covid-19 could be eradicated pretty easily in this country with ventilation, investment in proper HEPA infrastructure in all public buildings, a functioning vaccination programme, and – most importantly of all – those who can mask to wear FFP2 or FFP3 respirators when indoors anywhere.
If the government could be bothered to protect our public health, it should lock down the country – properly – for a couple of weeks. With all that in place, it would disappear. There is no will or impetus among our leaders to protect us from this incredibly disabling illness.
Bumblebee
Sooner or later, a vicious strain will emerge
Covid is here to stay. There is growing consensus it probably escaped from a lab, and it will carry on rapidly mutating – picking off the vulnerable and elderly – saving governments a bit of cash, somewhat offset by the cost of Long Covid.
I mask in shops but rarely see anyone else doing so. Sooner or later, a vicious strain will emerge, and we’ll be back to square one.
Galileo666
Learn from countries like Japan
We should take the findings of other countries ahead of us into account – e.g. Japan on the spread of the virus – and improve ventilation of buildings, trains and buses… even doctors’ waiting rooms in the winter!
Jennifer
Covid is an inconvenient fact
Covid is an inconvenient fact that governments and the right-wing press prefer to suppress. Sadly, it’s still very much around, and it’s still killing the old, the very young and those with a compromised immune system. It’s also leaving a trail of devastation in the shape of long-term damage caused by long Covid.
And all of this relates just to people – there’s also the impact on the economy. Drugs which would have enabled the immunocompromised to live normal lives (hundreds of thousands are still shielding) have been denied by the UK government to cut costs. Drugs like Paxlovid – literally a life-saver for any immunocompromised person unlucky enough to contract Covid – have been made near-impossible to access.
The treatment of immunocompromised people by this government and previous ones is shameful. And to cap it all, there are still plenty of clowns around who somehow feel threatened by anyone taking the sensible precaution of wearing a mask, and feel the need to mock or display outright aggression.
DavidM
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity. You can read the full discussion in the comments section of the original article here.
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