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So basically less than 24hrs after he eviscerated the CMO on national tv fir saying the same thing he now suggests it! His attack has emboldened covidiots and 5Gemmas who are already ignoring public health advice. Leo is a danger to the elderly and unwell in this country and not just because of his beloved Tory policies
@Craic-Hommy: I have been critical of Government lack of urgent effective response to the ongoing National Health Emergency developing over the years way before this coronavirus pandemic hit us.
In the Exit Poll done after people voted in the General Election this year asking why they voted the way they did,the majority put Health as the No 1 Reason!
@Craic-Hommy: What a 24 carat plonker Varadkar really is, shooting his mouth off yesterday and today and now he tries to claw his way back as he knows a level 4 or 5 is on the way. Circuit Breaker, another new term to confuse the masses, does that have some film reference? He should consider getting out of politics, it’s not for him and he has little to offer us.
No. This is shock and awe to distract and nothing more.
If Dublin and Donegal were policed properly when they went in to LV 3.5 then they wouldn’t have had the chance to spread it so liberally everywhere they went. (Sorry to single out the people of Dublin and Donegal). Raves until 5am with hundreds, street parties en-masse in Dublin and we all suffer because the Gardai cannot police our streets?
They have the COVID numbers now by electoral area, we can do hyper localised lockdowns if required. Let each area police its own community. This madness has to stop. People need to be certain of their employment, of their lives of their plans and hopes.
We have had 6 months to add ICU beds, buy respirators, and increase testing capacity and all that is happened is FG have increased the spin machine. Rightly sick of listening to these “leaders” now.
@Suil Amhain: I couldn’t agree more. Way too many people from the country continued to go home over the past few weeks. Added to that the arrogant minority who still went on holiday. Strict enforcement of L3 is the answer.
@Suil Amhain: I was with you until you mentioned icu beds. We’ve plenty of beds. what we don’t have are the 6 ICU trained nurses we need with EACH bed… and that’s just the nurses. and while beds can stand by waiting for a surge in cases nurses etc don’t hang out unpaid in cupboards waiting to be taken out and dusted off when needed
After 6 months why doesn’t this government have the plans in place to cover every option. Wave 2 has been flagged since April/May. If a sudden circuit break/ another lock down. whatever it’s called, is required the plan should have been of the shelf ready at this stage.
@M Bowe: Plus where is the financial plan for each of the Government’s 5 Levels response to SARS-COV-2 emergency? Already, Varadkar mentioned we can’t afford Level 5 so can we afford Level 4,etc?
The so called ‘circuit breaker’ option advised by CMO,which Varadkar ridiculed on Clare Byrne Live might be the more effective and more economical in the long run!
Seriously TheJournal.ie give the Covid stuff a rest, I’m absolutely totally sick of it, I’m doing my bit but my head is wrecked listening to this 24/7, and I’m sure the vast majority of the population are, we know what to do after seven months, no matter how much you say it, there’s always those who won’t comply and you won’t charge that.
Not a fan of Varadkar, but he tops the list of leaders when it comes to communicating to a nation while he was leading the country.
Respect and calmness when nobody had a clue. Except Trump, he knew it, he’s even still questioning why Obama failed to have a vaccine ready.
@RJ: Talk is talk.
He went in front of the camera and talked, threw in a few movie quotes to be hip and cool, but just talked.
While he talked and stood for the camera opportunities, people died. We have one of the highest death rates in the world for people in nursing homes, all on his watch while he stood in front of the cameras.
They ignored what was going on in the nursing homes for 2 months and only started to do something about it in May.
Leo loves the camera more than the mirror and nothing else.
@RJ: It isNPHETS role to advise on the health implications of covid to the government, it is government role to have plans in place to implement that advice.
It wasn’t a case that NPHET hadn’t thought through their advice, its a case that this sham of a government hasn’t planned for the 2nd wave we were told back in April/May was sure to happen.
Leo came across as the spoilt brat shouting ‘ mammy our Tony won’t tie my shoe laces and I have a date”!!!
@RJ: I was a fan of his but his interview last night was a disgrace. If I were Taoiseach I would have asked for him to publicly apologize. Separate to that they need to close the leak at NPHET and make sure it doesn’t happen next time.
@RJ: Jacinda Adern. Whoever is in charge of Iceland, Finland, Denmark. Leo has some nice speeches written for him and hoodwinked a few people. He’s now running around like a brat trying to put others in their place while spending the rest of his energy attacking Sinn Féin on Twitter
@Gareth Murran: It’s highly unlikely that NPHET chair CMO leaked his email to Minister for Health cc to Department of the Taoiseach because those letters are published anyway!! There’s a long list of : Latest letters from CMO to Minister for Health that the public can see!
I queried today where are Government’s financial plans for these 5 Levels.
It would be reasonable for the public and CMO to assume that the Government 5 Level plan would be underpinned by a financial plan.
Tanaiste said to Clare Byrne that we can’t afford Level 5.
So I was wondering was the email leaked,(not by CMO)knowing it was to be published the next day or two and knowing that we can’t afford Level 5 like Tanaiste said…to undermine the CMO,frighten the public on Sunday and publicly personally critisize and disagree with the CMO yesterday and by saying Government would increase to Level 3 instead!
@RJ:
And he’s not wrong about having to plan things either.
A relative of mine, who had a pub/restaurant leased in a midlands town, closed his business for the last time this evening. Spent a lot of money making the premises Covid ready last time, but couldn’t afford a second lockdown.
And that’s the reality for a lot of people tonight
I feel like I am in an abusive relationship with the state – we wont hit you hard ’5′ if you’re good just a slap ’3′ phew the releaf it’s my fault but then comes the fear of ’5′ again, I dream of a separation a move to Sweden where democracy prevails where the state police don’t threaten me with law’s that don’t exist in a state of fear.
The mindset of some people in their responses to the government and NPHET advise have a ring of “Lord of the flies” to it. The whole Bo!!ox to the rules and the childish nature to in understanding where the responsibility lies in this. It’s not the responsibility of the government or NPHET to control anyone or their movements in reducing the spread of the virus. It is everyone’s individual responsibility to do what the can to protect themselves and others. It’s not as though people don’t know what they must do but it appears obvious that guidelines they seem not to know where to draw the line. We would be disgusted with out children if they acted as irresponsibly as we are about this as adults.
@Pat Ryan: Well I am taking a leaf out of Leos book and will chose wheter to accept advise or not .. Leo leads by example and sure we can all follow his disregard for advice.
@Pat Ryan: he was in charge for years while the health service crumbled. He was in charge from March to June when we never set up a contact tracing system and we fired 100s of millions at private hospitals for nothing. People have to take responsibility but so do the Government. Lots of people have to work places where social distancing is impossible. Meat factories were allowed bully their staff to work in unsafe conditions. The Government stood by and did nothing.
Leo is look to be popular with everyone one day he against lockdowns as it bad for half million citizens next he can lock us down when he see fit, let him and all his part take the pup payment during lockdown or let’s reduce the number of TD’s as some other countries half
Circuit break is not new. It was the original plan in March. Remember the graphics with the matches? They said 2 weeks. We never fully reopened. Why do they think it will work now?
Really concerning . Minister of health Stephen Donnelly on prime time saying we can increase capacity for ICU . I want to hear plan for stopping people get to icu . Where is the strategy . Icu is last chance saloon .Are we just hoping all the rule breakers now obey . They won’t . I want to stay at level three but five is the only way to stop overrunning the hospitals . Deaths and surges were in nursing homes last time this time the surge will be in the community and then Hospitals this time From seeing what is happening . It’s impossible to get many people to just cop on and act better .These infection numbers are from at least a week ago so the numbers can only go the one way in the next weeks unfortunately . Icu is not the place to be focusing on building efforts . Scary
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