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Art Culture Health Listicle Music

Top 5 Best Parts of Lockdown

Despite Covid-19 best efforts to attack us all, the various lockdowns did come with some benefits for those optimistic enough to look past the bad. These benefits range from culture, economics, pollution and even music.

  1. Musicians releasing music

A range of different artists, from many different genres have released albums and singles that made the lockdown more bearable.

Elton John released the ‘Lockdown sessions’, musical comedian Bo Burnham released the concept album Inside, and even rock stars like Liam Gallagher released a single called all your dreaming of. The latter also played a gig that was free for NHS workers. 

Photo by Jurre Houtkamp

2) NHS

Lockdown also showed the country how reliant we truly are on the NHS. The delays and longer waiting times for appointments throughout the pandemic foregrounded what some have been saying for years about the NHS’s lack of funding.

Despite the negative repercussions this had, this may have been a necessary evil to put pressure on the government to increase funding, all the while reminding the average person of their importance. 

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Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona

3) Pollution has decreased

Another surprising benefit of lockdown was the worldwide decrease in pollution levels, caused by lack of travel due to people working from home. 

Statistics suggest that up to 100,000 premature deaths could have been avoided in 2021, if the country’s economic slowdown continued at the rate it was at in 2020 current rate. 

Additionally, it is said that in Venice, the city’s famous canals were never as clean as they were during the lockdown.

Both these examples show how rapidly we could stabilize the climate and will hopefully be used as precedent in the future. 

St. Peter's basilica during sunset
Photo by @cristina_gottardi

4) Creativity

Many creatives activates also flourished during lockdown, such as art, crafts, photography and even cooking. This was due to people being trapped at home, sometimes unable to work from home, who desperately needed distraction. 

This was a benefit as many people discovered a skill and/or passion for something they previously would not have ever imagined trying. 

person holding blue and red paper
Photo by @sigmund

5) New businesses

Many people also made the brave decision to start their own businesses, due to lack of employment or an excess of time. Regardless of the reasoning, small businesses serve as the life of our economy so the more plentiful they are in number, the better. 

gray and blue Open signage
Photo by @mikepetrucci

Overall, despite the bad, there have been some positive aspects of the pandemic – not nearly enough to make up for the negatives mind you, but sometimes it helpful to be optimistic in trying times to help maintain your sanity. 

By Alfie Smith 




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