@Jim Smith: Look at it another way, kids are low risk if they get it but they are high risk for spreading the virus as they don’t wear masks or social distance. I personally know parents who’s jobs are impacted due to their kids bringing it home to the household from school and having to isolate. The stats show that school aged children are making up a lot of cases, you can argue with stats.

@Jim Smith: Wont someone please think of the kids.

@Jim Smith: why would you close the pubs again?

@Jason Walsh: Look at whatever way you want. The adults are the ones who should be protecting the kids, not the other way around

@Jim Smith: Easy for you to say close down hospitality, I take it you don’t work in that area then?? As regards children, what have they been through? Most kids these days do nothing anyway bar watching telly or sitting on their phones, so nothing has really changed for them!!

@Paul Doyle: Personally I wouldn’t close anything down. As I said, I don’t care. Just leave the kids out of it.

@The Firestarter: Easy for you to say nothing has changed for kids. I take it you’re not a parent of small children?

@Jim Smith: Kids are spreading it and bringing it home to infect their families. 19% of cases are 5 – 12 year olds. You want them to be left alone so this continues? The virus mightn’t effect them much but its what the spread in schools is doing to the rest of society is the problem. The more infection in society the more hospitalisations and deaths.

@Jim Smith: sounds like the anti vaxers anti maskers have hijacked the Journal.

https://www.thejournal.ie/5-12-year-olds-covid-incidence-5585444-Oct2021/

@Jim Smith:
I have a school going child and they like nothing more than a few weeks off…
It is the childcare that is the real problem… We would have nurses and doctors having to stay at home to mind there children…

I think until Christmas I would take the approach: All non essential Parents children to stay at home (this allows for a far less crowed situations in school) & all children over 6 to be told to mask.
Hopefully we drive the virus low enough in a month and vaccines for Primary can kick in…
Vaccines for Primary children should be done like TB shot initially… Consent form sent home, sign and sent back, shot given…

Any parent who is hesitant of their children getting the shot, please get properly educated on it… It is alright to be hesitant but this virus thrives on ignorance… Do not get your information from friend, what I heard, Facebook, Twitter, or even some of the commenters on the journal… They are dangerous and will put your children and family at risk. Listen to actual health professionals. If a friend tells you something, be polite but firm, ask them where they got their information from, ask them to show you the link on line.. Then read the underlying information, is it peer reviewed, etc…

@Michael Cunningham: kids do get covid.
Of the 61,659 Covid-19 cases notified in last 2 weeks, 4.9% were aged 0 to 4, 19% aged 5 to 12 and 5.7% aged 13 to 18

Of the 557 hospitalised 4% were aged 0 to 4, 3.3% aged 5 to 12 and 1.9% aged 13 to 18

@Paul Hedderman: Yes I think I said it a few times now. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough.

LEAVE THE CHILDREN ALONE

@Cowboy Paddy: Vaccines for Primary?? You are joking right?

@Cowboy Paddy: The virus does not thrive on ignorance the virus thrives in warm human bodies regardless of vaccination status and the fact that the vaccination does not stop infection or transmission it is most definitely not worth the risk giving it to children. The vaccine protects you and you only there is no ambiguity it only lessens severe symptoms and in a cohort where those symptoms are almost 100% very mild there is no need to vaccinate. The only selfish people on here re. Covid are the people looking to force vaccination onto young children who place their trust in us to do the right thing by them and I cannot in good conscience put that vaccine into my child’s body without at least 4 or 5 years data on the long term effects of it

@Jim Smith: oh fk off Jim

@James Bishop: they ARE thinking of the kids. Sooner or later this will mutate into something that attacks children and the idea would be to get rid of it before that happens. The more people try to buck the system, the longer this will be with us.

@Jim Smith: Grow up. Whether you like it or not they’re part of the problem and something needs to be done to stop it. Crying on here isnt going to do anything to change what govt decide. Its actually shocking that they havent acted before now. Shouldn’t have let them back to the classroom after the summer to keep cases on that downward trajectory in August. Its a shame that theres many like you that dont understand/dont want to know the effects kids and schools are having on keeping the virus spreading at such high rates.

@Jim Smith: I’m just looking at the facts, it’s faily obvious that schools are having a big impact on cases so do we just ignore that so little Tommy and little Mary don’t feel upset about wearing a mask. I know many kids who refused to wear seatbelts over the years, car didn’t move until they did. Wearing masks won’t fn hurt them, plámásing kids will do a lot more damage.

@Jim Smith: Low risk of getting very, but they can easily pass the virus on to others

@Declan O’Farrell: very sick

@Jim Smith: not true certain primary school have loads of cases where is the stats and information for you to make an assumption that children are low risk

@Michael Cunningham: But they can still spread it to people who can get sick from Covid, my god when will ye start to realize this…

@Stephen Kearon: Stop pointing out facts now Stephen because soon enough our Chief Scientific Expert Tracy from Facebook will be along to provide an update that Kids cannot get sick or spread it or anything of the sort…

@Declan O’Farrell: They are not at low risk of getting it, they are now the highest age groups with it ffs.

@Jim Smith: You make absolutely no sense, if the majority of cases were between 18 – 25 year olds, would be saying juts leave them out of it…. There is no leaving anybody out of it regardless of age.. It does not work like that if a virus is spreading.

@Dave: and the people who get sick and are in the ICU are… (cue drumroll)

Anti vaxxers!! For the zillionth time. Nobody. Nobody cares if eejits get sick. I mean NOBODY. We are better off without them. (See books written by Charles Darwin). We must move on with our lives and let people have the ability to make their own health decisions and live (or die) by them.

Without the anti vaxxers in the hospital/ICU this is influenza numbers. Of course it will kill some of the older/vulnerable vaccinated but so will any of a million other infections, and we have to figure a way to live with it. COVID is going nowhere!

Now when will you get this in your head??

@Paul Hedderman: 19% are young but under 1% make the ICU.

So who the eff cares is 50% of cases are young and the vast majority are fine. I never heard this outcry when we had 50 kids a year dead from asthma attacks. Why didn’t we mask them all up and stop socializing??

We need to learn to live with it. If it means we thin the herd and lose a few selfish møronic anti-vaxxers, I mean aren’t we are better off??

@Mr_Bumkee: perspective might be recognising the absurdity of recommending kids avoid parties and playdates at Christmas while adults are free to mix socially and without masks in pubs and nightclubs..

@Mr_Bumkee: true, and there might be a bit of truth in it there somewhere, but then what’s perspective only to the individual really

@Mrumkee: 9

@This time its personable!: nah shur they’ll be grand freezing in their classrooms & told if they wear a scarf or gloves to take them off as they are not school issue!

@Lorcan Barron: can the govt also provide for any lost mental health that kids may suffer if kept at home every time there is an uptick in case numbers?

@Lorcan Barron: or at the very least bring Christmas holidats forward by a few weeks. Schoolwork can be done at home if need be.

@Squarepeg01: who will provide for them when and if their parents contact covid cause their children became “carriers ” from mixing with a classroom full of other children from various different backrounds and obviously many different households as well ?

@Squarepeg01: who will provide for them when and if their parents contact covid cause their children became “carriers ” because of mixing in classrooms full of other children from other backrounds and obviously many different households as well ?

@Lorcan Barron: we will probably all end up catching covid at some point in our lives. Covid is NEVER going away – or at least we have to live with the prospect it will never go away. If parents are worried about catching covid from their kids, well isn’t that what the vaccines are for?

@Mr_Bumkee: they’re being sarcastic pal

@Squarepeg01: some very valid points you make there, I feel the very same way myself , we will have to learn to live with covid , we cant be restricted for the rest of our lives ! but is it a case of live and let die ? we will all need to take precautions including our school children

@Andy Dunn: what is the issue with masks? In most other countries kids are wearing masks in schools and it’s no big deal

@Elaine Phelan: What happens in a classroom where some kids are 8 and some are 9? Or in small rural schools where rooms can include children from 3rd, 4th and 5th class? Have 3 or four children masked and the rest not? Science yeah?

@Andy Dunn: I agree. HATE the constant use of ‘far right’ in the journalism here.

@JedBartlett: they should all wear masks. Simple

@JedBartlett: or would you rather they shut schools all together?

@Elaine Phelan: Oh, so you think this is about preventing the schools from being shut? That’s certainly onepossibility. However, I think it’s more about offering a comfort blanket to already vaccinated adults who will shortly be receiving a booster.
They’ve pulled another number from nowhere, this time it’s 9. 9 years and up should now wear masks. When did we stop being ‘led by the science’ as we were told we would be at the beginning. Seems we’ve moved on to knee-jerk reactions based on completely arbitrary numbers which only add to the contradictory nature of the restrictions.

Masks for 9 year olds but not 8 year olds in the same room. Pubs and full stadiums for adults but no playing with peers for children. I give up.

@Andy Dunn: The way they refer to these so called far right bogeymen hassling the NPC. ‘Anti-Covid groups yada, yada, yada’? Which begs the question, who the hell is pro-covid?
When this pandemic ends what will the lazy, click bait media hyperventilate about?

@JedBartlett: i’ve seen loads of comments on here the last month, saying schools are the problem and what is the government doing about it? They’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Masks are a very small inconvenience. My primary aged niece in New Zealand has been wearing masks to school the whole way through and it’s been zero issue. Kids accept whatever their parents tell them is normal. It’s the people filling their kids heads with the idea that masks are awful to wear that is the problem

@Elaine Phelan: “ Kids accept whatever their parents tell them is normal.” If parents are telling their children that wearing masks is normal then they’re quite simply wrong. Wearing masks is not normal for either adults or children.
It’s a measure we’re using to combat this virus but it’s certainly not normal.

@JedBartlett: it has been normal for the past 2 years, a high percentage of a young child’s life. It will be normal next year and if we insist upon not protecting people, it will be normal after that. Washing your hands in alcohol isn’t normal either. Should we teach our kids not to do that too?

@GrumpyAulFella: You keep thinking it’s normal if it makes you feel comfortable or safe.

I don’t think it’s normal to wear a mask. I do it as it’s currently a regulation but I will never be of the opinion that it’s normal.

@JedBartlett: you’re entitled to what is your opinion. You have the benefit of history and have formed your opinion of what’s normal based on that. Kids, now, are more likely to adhere to common sense health precautions like mask wearing if they are told that it is normal, for now at least. It’s just common sense isn’t it. You tell them that it’s not normal then they’re less likely to protect themselves and others.

@JedBartlett: go to Japan if you think its not normal. They consider it a courtesy to others as do their children

@Elaine Phelan: You obviously don’t have your own children so please keep your parenting tips to yourself. You have no idea what you’re talking about

@GrumpyAulFella: during the spate of Islamist bombings a few years ago, we were all talking about how Muslim women who wear the veil in public were violating the Western tradition where the full face is exposed in social situations. How things have changed! Covering the face is not ‘normal’ and we will have lost something very important when it comes to interacting with other people if it ever becomes ‘normal’.

@Lee King Buckett: the article said there was ‘evidence’ that far-right anti-covid groups were involved, but didn’t bother to give any details. Assertions made without evidence can be denied without evidence.

@Squarepeg01: first world problem though. We’re in the midst of a global health emergency. If kids have to be told that wearing masks is normal in order to protect the health of others then they should be told that it’s normal. As soon as this thing is under control then they can lift the mask. We’re not talking about gas masks here, it’s just a light material covering the mouth and nose.

@Dearbhla O Reilly: the whole far right thing is a moral panic. When historically have the far right opposed authoritarianism? Opposition to masks, restrictions and lockdowns is petty individualism, sometimes anti corporatism, sometimes it’s just loss of income. By and large I supported all measures, although the vaccines are a disappointment, but the people who protest don’t really strike me as very radical. Just fed up.

@GrumpyAulFella: the problem is that covid isn’t going away. It’s endemic now and subject to a lot of variants. There will never be a time where it’s not killing people though (unless we get a miracle anti viral) as that’s what endemic viruses do. So if we normalise mask wearing then it’s never going away.

@GrumpyAulFella: as soon as this thing is under control… Haven’t you been paying attention? The vaccines were supposed to mark the end of the global health crisis, but they don’t work anywhere near as effectively as hoped – and neither do the masks unless they’re the N95 models. So we currently have NO official policy that will see us through to the end of the pandemic. It’s just ‘try this, try that, let’s see if this works’. But these ad hoc measures have only worked temporarily in the past. Can we not just deal with the fact that covid is going to be with us permanently and will ebb and flow and mutate like other established respiratory diseases. There is no point continuing a cure that at this point is likely worse than the disease.

@Michael Bodycoach: They also consider bowing to be a courtesy when greeting somebody. Should we adopt that too just because they do it in Japan?

@JedBartlett: Easy. They all should wear masks.

@sean o’dhubhghaill: Nah, no need.

@JedBartlett: as usual your arguments are hilariously off the mark, jumping from one sound bite to another. Primary school children are the cohort with the highest percentage of unvaccinated. They have also had the highest amount of cases recently. To reduce the risk of them spreading it amongst themselves some action needs to be taken to limit their interactions. On a priority basis school and education was left alone except for some mask wearing.
On a short term basis pantomimes and playdates are seen as a lesser priority. There really is no drama.
Unless you doing nothing is better…of course you do.

@Damo: Who said anything about drama? Oh yeah, you did.

@Damo: doing nothing IS better. So what if kids pass it among themselves? They don’t get ill from it. They might pass it on to Granny later, but then Granny should be vaccinated if she’s that worried.

@JedBartlett: great come back. Anything substantive to add to the tripe you’re going on with?

@Squarepeg01: “Granny” and all her age are all vaccinated and they are still dying along with people with underlying conditions… dying daily.
But hey a panto is way more important…
….you have a fairly compelling argument there alright… genius level stuff.

@Elaine Phelan: Really, what about kids with asthma, sensory issues, hearing issues, ocd, or many of the various issues that could preclude them from wearing masks, what are you going to do make them stay at home because if they don’t wear a mask all the other kids won’t want to wear a mask. Will you want exclude them from an education all because of a virus that doesn’t really affect them just to protect yourself. They have given up enough of their childhood already particularly children who are an only child separated from their friends for months because of this for some it’s their only form of social interaction with people their own age

@Damo: I tend not to engage with people who claim there is no such thing a rhinovirus, which you proved you had never heard of in a previous back and forth we had. I gave up on you then.

From reading your comments since it seems you haven’t increased your knowledge store so there’s no point in entering a debate with you.

@JedBartlett: poor Jed… still thinking (and lying) about something that happened months ago? Did it really hurt that much to be schooled? :)
Care to add anything to your latest stellar argument?
Just so you can remember this one too…

@JedBartlett: I was actually thinking that lol. We ARE all anti covid. What dum.bass thought that one up lol.

@Jim Smith: how do you have the audacity to say that to Elaine. She’s entitled to her opinion. It’s of no relevance whether she has children or not. There are no qualified scientists /virologists/doctors/immunologists here but it doesn’t stop everyone spouting out THEIR opinion. Some people should engage their brains before they start typing.

@Anna Carr: i agree. As a parent, (i cringe when people prefix a sentence with that, but it seems apt here) it annoys me when people weaponise being a parent as if it automatically invalidates the opinion of those who may not. It does’nt, and makes us all seem insufferable.

@thesaltyurchin: not a mention of the 40000 at the match the other night.

@John brett: or the Autumn rugby internationals.

@thesaltyurchin: Maybe go check HSE website out breaks in hospitality are way down the list. All are vaccinated or have covid free tests. So why use them as a scapegoat.

@Franny Ando: Thats we’re out here doing no? Scapegoating, begrudging, its the national pass-time.

@thesaltyurchin: Maybe for you:)

@Elaine Phelan: Are you a parent of a child that age?

@Elaine Phelan: Kids accept whatever their parents tell them is normal…put them in cages and be done with it..problem solved..it will be their NEW NORMAL

@Dave Barrett: FAR RIGHT EXTREMISTS , cages the right place for them !!

@SquintEastwood: are you honestly agreeing that asking kids to wear masks indoors is the same as putting kids in cages?

@Elaine Phelan: so where would you draw the line? Mandatory vaccinations for kids before they can attend school? I never want it to get to that point.

@Squarepeg01: your hyperbole does you no favours. We are only talking about wearing masks indoors, not cages or mandatory vaccines

@Squarepeg01: that’s already happening with children receiving 6 in 1 vaccines between the ages of 2 months to 12 months. MMR similarly at 1 year. We can’t rule out a similar vaccine being required for Covid in the future.

@GrumpyAulFella: kids need those other vaccines because they are for diseases they are actually at risk from. Covid poses no threat to them, but the vaccines may and has, so it is immoral to even consider vaccinating them just to protect others. Let those others protect themselves by taking the vaccine themselves

@Elaine Phelan: GrumpyAulfella doesn’t seem to think it’s hyperbole and he’s on your side!

@Lorcan Barron: Haha!

@Elaine Phelan: how many kids have you got? I bet F A

@Dave Barrett: lol I’ve been saying that for years hahaha!!!

@Squarepeg01: didn’t see him mention cages

@JedBartlett: how many do you think there are Jed? We know that 10% of adults are not taking the vaccine. Scary and all as that is, I wonder how many of them fall into the denier bracket?

@GrumpyAulFella: Believe it or not, the vast majority of people who are “anti covid” believe it is a real virus but just think that the governments response is way over the top. There is only a very, very small minority (of the minority) that don’t think it’s actually a real virus.

@GrumpyAulFella: Why must we presume? Decent journalism or decent use of English wouldn’t require us to presume.

@Andy Dunn: would reword it as “the vast majority of people who are “anti covid” believe it is a real virus but don’t believe that it will affect them and are selfish in not been willing to do anything to protect the people who are vulnerable “

@Andy Dunn: where are you getting those numbers from? If about 300,000 adults are still not vaccinated, so essentially don’t believe that Covid is harmful, then how many of these are not taking the vaccine because of the govt’s response? The reality is that we don’t know how many are in the Nutty Professor club but based on previous marches, social media activity etc. it seems like a sizeable enough number.

@EnKy: totally agree. Bad choice of words so just pointing out the obvious.

@Colm O’ Shea: Once more for the slow kid… The injection does not prevent transmission of the virus. You protect nobody else by getting injected.

@The Interloper (what/why): and for the trolls: no doesn’t prevent (never claimed it did) but does reduce the time that you are effectively able to transmit the virus by 66%, which slows the spread and hopefully stops the health system been overwhelmed.

@Colm O’ Shea: Not to rain on your parade here but the health service has been overrun here for decades at this time of the year and if 120 people in ICU out of a population of 5 million is going to overrun the health service then the problem isn’t peoples behaviour or beliefs it’s the health service or more pointedly the people running the health service

@GrumpyAulFella:
To abbreviate – you mean M@rons!

@GrumpyAulFella: Well said.