What was your "this is serious" moment at the start of COVID-19 outbreak?

jetsonx

What was your "this is serious" moment start of COVID outbreak?

What was the moment in time where you realised that COVID was not some far-off disease but was going to reach our shores?

Was was that moment for you?

Wibbs

Seeing wards full in Italy prrobably.

Bombaby1974

Images of the tent mortuary in the carpark of Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

Not sure if it was ever needed but it was pretty gim to see them getting prepped for a high number of deaths.

One Who Waits...

Leo scaring the bejaysus out of the country* on Paddy's Day with his "and may God have mercy on us all" speech.

*may have just been me.

jetsonx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118973656#Comment_118973656

lol...I doubt it!

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118973628#Comment_118973628

same here, was downplaying till that moment

Brussels Sprout

It seems benign now but I remember being shocked when I heard that Italy was closing its universities (must have been the beginning of March 2020).

The next shock was a few weeks later seeing this footage

https://twitter.com/gavreilly/status/1240911320750448641

And then the army vehicles lined up in a queue in Bergamo to collect all of the bodies because they had run out of hearses.

Xander10

Honestly, none.

Shedite27

Cancelling St.Patrick's Day

Princess Calla

Having to pick the kids up early from creche on the 12th. The eldest has spent a fair bit of time in hospital with breathing difficulties caused from normal childhood viruses so obviously a virus that attacked the lungs was less than welcome.

Then seeing the army vehicles in Italy.

I did follow all the guidelines etc but I'm not sure if the whole thing would have registered if I didn't have kids to be honest.

Strumms

Sitting down to do groceries shopping order online for myself and folks.

I’d forgotten to renew my gym membership, got second automated notification and realised that there wasn’t exactly any great rush, there would be no going for a while.

nothing so much in the news media but just being aware that things I liked and took for granted wouldn’t be returning for quite a while.

JimmyVik

Bergamo for me.

drunkmonkey

When I bought the fake news coming out of China and ran into problems sourcing goods, a lot was posted here but scrubbed, it's a pity as it would have been a great record of how much nonsense China (along with me and a few other posters) were pumping out. Mass Graves been dug, bodies lying bleeding in the street, people hanging from Goalposts. It did look very serious.

Then we got the mortality data out if Italy around April 2020 and it was obvious who was really at risk and we'd just been Punk'd by China.

There was never any justification for lockdown for the vast majority of people, targeted care/protection for the vulnerable.

I did enjoy the holiday though and clapped like a seal at the thought of my biggest length of time off in 25yrs.

I just hope the nonsense is all over, I fear it's not though as some EU countries don't look like they're going to let go of the emergency powers completely.

Goldengirl

Yep . Bergamo was my omg moment .

Was off sick from work with a " flu " so felt like I would be ending up like one of those poor Italians .

Then my husband got it , and my son was hospitalised .....and I couldn't go in to be with him...among the worst days of my life so far .

Sunny Dayz

When the schools were announced as closing. I had to leave work straight away to get him. Sitting in the carpark with an extra bag for my son as they had been instructed to clear out their lockers. He was in 3rd year. Myself and the other parents in the car park thinking WTF is going on!! I was sick to the pit of my stomach, it got real then.

Up until then everything was in the news, on the tv, so it did feel a bit alien and removed to me. But this was the first action relating to covid to see or experience first hand.

Cluedo Monopoly

When I saw people walking out of shops with as much toilet roll as they could carry.

Be right back

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974777#Comment_118974777

The s*** got real then!

seamus

Yeah, the army trucks picture out of Italy was where it became definitely more than just a bit of 'flu going around. I was aware of where the main risk was, but that didn't make any less serious or concerning. You don't line up the army to collect the bodies of elderly people when there's a bad 'flu going around.

The "this is world changing" moment though really came on the 12th March. Up to then of course it had all been a bit, "Virus is here, we'll see how things go". The announcement to close schools and government buildings indefinitely was a signal that something was happening that was literally unprecedented in living memory and was a line in time after which everything would feel "different". I also happened to be bouncing between hospitals on that day and got to see in real-time, the change from "everything is normal" to "hospitals are on lock down and bracing for the worst".

I wasn't catastrophising it, but for some reason I was reminded of one of the characters from 28 Days Later describing the progression of the virus;

"right from the beginning you knew this was different. Because it was happening in small villages, market towns. And then it wasn't on the TV any more. It was in the street outside."

gladvimpaker

When I went on a hike and was 4km outside my boundaries and seen the guards wandering around in the middle of nowhere, I hid and kept looking out until they were gone.

Actually it was quite exciting being a goat rather than a sheep.

10-10-20

I took a cycle into the City on the 22nd March and cycled up the North Wall Quay from the Eastlink.

The LE Samuel Beckett was alongside John Rogerson's Quay as part of the Covid support deployment and the testing tents and ambulances were in-situ.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/health-news/coronavirus-ireland-irish-naval-ship-21731370

It's was poignant: here was the Irish Navy being pushed into a support role for a health epidemic which was expected to rapidly overwhelm our hospitals and we appeared to be standing on the very apex, not knowing what was ahead. I found it moving to see the big-gears in motion as the HSE set about figuring this out from a very weak base.

We had seen only 3 deaths up to that point but the atmosphere in the city was tense with many having seen the images from North Italy. people were gathering in small groups, but not a face-mask was to be seen (the guidance for masks only came months afterwards).

NedsNotDead

When Kermit called it

Princess Calla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974635#Comment_118974635

My child being hospitalized and me or their dad unable to go in with them was my absolute biggest fear.

A "normal virus" that for another child would be a day of calpol, would land my child in hospital on oxygen for 5 days.

For me, I never thought it was that serious and still don't. We all got a bit hysterical and lost the run of ourselves.

Say Your Number

When the Ireland Italy rugby match was cancelled and there was cries to call off St Patrick's Day, think the first confirmed case here also happened the same week.

Gregor Samsa

When the schools closed, I knew no-one from our office would come back in (we could already work from home whenever we wanted, but most people only did it when they had to or on a Friday). I haven't seen most people I work with since that day. So that was the moment that I knew there would be significant changes to society.

Hearing about the Spanish army finding dead folk abandoned in the care homes - that (and the Italian hospitals) was when I realised that this could spiral out of control.

In April, having to go into the nursing home my dad was in to see him on his deathbed. Having to dress in head-to-toe PPE. Walking past all the residents rooms with biohazard signs on the doors - the normally busy corridors and common rooms totally empty. Sitting in the room with him unconscious, unable to touch him, and a nurse - who had to be seconded from the HSE, because there so few staff left in the private nursing home - saying that we could stay as long as we wanted, but every minute we did was an extra risk that no-one could quantify. That was the only time I was actually, genuinely scared scared.

By the beginning of the summer, 40 of the residents in that nursing home (out of 120) there were dead from Covid. I think reading that - given that I'd met or seen a lot of those poor people in the couple of years prior - really shocked me to my core.

HazeDoll

I stood with a colleague at a window on the top floor of the school on the day the schools closed. We watched the kids getting into parents' cars or boarding buses, or heading off home on foot. Some of them were huddled in small groups and some of them were clearly delighted to have a few extra days off. It was very strange. I stood in my own classroom for a long time and had a long look around, thinking I might never see it again.

None of us knew what was going to unfold but the thoughts of a 'worst case scenario' had definitely occurred to some of us.

Deeper Blue

As has been mentioned already, the Italy stuff springs to mind straight away.

NIMAN

I didn't panic much cos Joe Duffy told me that we as a nation would be safe cos we were an island.

When they couldnt take time to bury their dead in italy,

i seen an old woman on the news,who had essentially a death rattle and was denied access to hospiteal,as wasnt sick enough.....freaked me right out

I remember being up testing an mewp,as varadkar announcement was made,not knowing what was happening,and just seeing cars converge on nearby supermarkets...like a scene from a diaster film

I hope il never see similar again

amber69

The church in Italy full with coffins.

waterwelly

I always knew it was primarily a social media driven event never as bad as was being made out.

Every time they gave us hospital numbers I knew they were scratching around to include every possible patient being treated for every illness to justify it as much as possible.

It took almost 2 years for them to finally that half the covid patients in hospital were there for another reason anyway.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974977#Comment_118974977

Yes. For us the start of a road down which we had never thought we would be travelling ..it turned out he was suffering from an autoimmune disease that is now being treated with immunosuppressive therapy, and Covid may or may not have been the trigger . Scary time for us ..especially him .

Chris_5339762

I was in Australia on holiday as it started up. Had to cut the holiday short and come home. In the end, it was about €900 single from Cairns to Brisbane to Dubai to Dublin, so it wasn't too bad. But at the time, transfer airports were shutting down or not letting people in, or quarantining even transfer passengers. I was in straits until we boarded the Dublin bound flight in Dubai, which was full of Irish people getting out and flying home. Only then did I know we were "safe" and could actually get home.

I know of a couple who didn't leave Australia in time and were stuck there for a month until rescue flights became a thing.

maebee

The events in Bergamo were terrifying but what really frightened the life out of me was when Dr. Catherine Motherway, President of the Intensive care Society of Ireland, first appeared on RTE, saying "You do NOT want to meet me in hospital". She put the fear of God into me.

Princess Calla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118975847#Comment_118975847

It's so tough seeing them so sick and being powerless to help them.

At least you have a diagnosis and treatment plan. Plus the older they get the stronger they get, which is a big help in dealing with these things.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118976195#Comment_118976195

Haha , very good ...she is one scary Motherway alright 😁

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118976442#Comment_118976442

Ah he' s in college now 😊 ...but he'll always be my baby !

shesty

The day the schools closed.

It was a Thursday.I don't work Fridays,so I finished out my working day, packed up notebooks and bits and said see ya whenever to colleagues.Leo had said 2 weeks but I wasn't totally convinced on that.I thought maybe a couple of months.Two years, I certainly did not expect that anyway.

Sitting in a local coffee shop in a shopping centre for my lunch that day, watching people going in amd out of Dunnes and panic shopping -there were no trolleys left and the place was mobbed.I can't say that made it "serious" for me but it certainly made me wonder wtf is the going on.

Mars Bar

When our phones became sirens at 6pm announcing curfew being in effect to allow for sterilising of the streets (yes, they did that **** here. As if people were out licking the roads...)

At this point you could only leave to go to the supermarket or emergencies.

6th March 2020. Got an email from my mother's nursing home to say that all visiting was cancelled immediately until further notice. I never saw my mother again. She died on 22nd April and we weren't allowed in to see her. 22 more residents in her nursing home died in a two week period in April. We had to wait an extra day to bury her because we couldn't get a priest due to the number of funerals going on.

AyeGer

Definitely the northern Italy situation.

Apothic_Red

Yep, Bergamo here again. Even the most hardened Covid deniers couldn't counter that scene.

Then driving in to work one morning & finding the gates closed

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119000043#Comment_119000043

Very hard on you ,so sorry x