As Lockdown restrictions are eased across the UK, Professors Koch & Jackson begin to  wind down the Living thru Lockdown podcast. In this episode they think about some of the positive aspects of the lockdown, and try to see what we got right as citizens when responding to the advice we received. Despite the 127,000 deaths in the UK associated with Covid-19 and one of the highest mortality rates in the world, some aspects of the campaign against Covid-19 worked well, and that is due to people doing the right thing.

We showed ourselves to be resilient and good at coping with the restrictions and changes to our daily life - perhaps more so than we thought we would be. Things were not as doom-laden as some experts told us they would be. We have become better at coping with our mental health concerns as well as being more sympathetic to others' concerns and difficult situations. Deaths of despair, and the UK suicide rate was significantly reduced in 2020 relative to 2019 (although the ONS point out that there may be a severe administrative delay behind such a drop in suicidal deaths and this remains to be seen). More of us have become aware of health inequality issues and have become determined to address it. We have also seen a growth of interest among young people wanting to develop careers in medicine, healthcare, and the safety industries. 

When restrictions are lifted completely, we will see which positive aspects of human behaviour may continue to exist beyond the lockdown. Adaptability to circumstance seems to be a key component among those people who coped best during lockdown.