@Linda Daly: me too. Can’t wait to spend it.

@Carla R: also health insurance?

@Goldie Locks: we got a reasonable refund on the health insurance.

@Goldie Locks: likewise, got a decent return from VHI.

@Goldie Locks: we were able to halt our laya entirely without penalty for 3 months

@Carla R: Got an email from AXA saying that they are working on a refund system a couple of weeks ago. Nothing since. No mention of amount.

@Linda Daly: the car insurers wanted the good news publicity of being able to say they were giving money back. When it came to the amount then they made it as low as possible.

@Carla R: all I got was an email asking me to pay a renewal on holiday insurance… even though no ones going anywhere anytime soon. The whole industry are leeches.

The thing about insurance refunds is that telling us how much you’re getting back means nothing as we don’t know your premium. A €30 refund on something most people are still using isn’t bad

@Carla R: I have heard nothing about insurance refund of any description from ZURICH

@Eddie O’Neill: My mistake, I went searching, ZURICH are doing a refund of E40 as a One for All voucher, but I have yet to receive it.

Aviva and Liberty, apparently, are not offering refund.

@Carla R: never heard of any refund from mine. Going through a broker.

@Carla R: Or the Vhi

@Carla R: Refunds my ass. Mine was up for renewal lately and it went up. When I got on to them saying that due to lock down and only travelling in it to and from work at the moment (4 miles each way) could they not do any better, They told me it was already the best price they could give me. They have me over a barrel though because no other insurance company will take on a new policy for a car over 10 years old. For the record, I’ve never had a claim and a full clean licence in 28 years driving.

@Joe_X: absolute disgrace. Once you have a valid NCT it shouldn’t matter what age the car is

@Joe_X: This is a disgrace. If your car passes,NCT you should be entitled to a quote. Can’t believe this is happening,but still remember Michael”We Cannot Interfere With the Market” Noonan…

@Proinsias Ó Fearghail @Patman: When many others beside me have probably pointed out to the insurance companies about the NCT disks, they are told that it is only a moment in time and something could happen to the car as you drive out of the centre, invalidating the cert. The NCT is not worth the paper it is printed on.

@JedBartlett: the problem is many people will not follow the rules.

@Chin Feeyin: Well if they don’t that is what firing squads are for.

@JedBartlett: stop talking sense, will ya.

@roberto Mankini: of course it isn’t over Bill wants to get as many fools as possible to accept his death jab.

@JedBartlett: Good man, Jed. Very balanced views.

@JedBartlett: absolutely right

@Macca Attack: not sure where you got these figures?

@EvieXVI: any stat will tell you that. But I guess it doesn’t suit your narrative

@Macca Attack: so people should be able to determine their own level of risk and self-isolate if they wish, while the rest of us go about our business. That’s called freedom.

@EvieXVI: His figures are close to correct but not quite. 88% of people will not feel much. 2% of people will be admitted to ICU. Death rate for 55-65 year olds is 1% (roughly the same as the standard flu). Death rate for 40 years and younger is 0.27%. The problem category is 65 years +. Death rate for that age category is 20%. The lockdown was obviously needed to limit the spread and flatten the curve, but the curve has been flattened now. Workplaces should introduce social distancing measures and those 40 years and younger should be allowed back to work, those aged younger than 60yrs should be allowed make their own choice. Those aged above 60 should continue to isolate like the whole country is doing right now.

@Chin Feeyin: Thank you for the promotion. Reading data is only for Doctors.

@Macca Attack: That hypothesis assumes the 15% return to the community? Why would you return to the community if you are vulnerable? Nursing homes, over 70s, at risk groups stay isolated until they can get a vax. My point was they are withholding capacity to test until we mix again which will give us vastly skewed community infection rates relative to now.

In that event they are setting things up for another lockdown regardless.

@Macca Attack: Based on current testing your figures are correct but we all know that a lot more people had the virus and were asymptomatic, which would bring that 5% figure way down.

@Squarepeg01: how can you determine your own level of risk when there is no way of knowing how bad your symptoms will be. Also, you can carry and spread the virus with little or no symptoms yourself and pass it onto someone more vulnerable. That is the whole point of lockdown. To protect those who might be seriously or fatally infected by this. But you go about your business and don’t worry about anyone elses welfare, health or life. Who knows, it probably will be somebody close to you that you infect.

@Barry Sorensen: people with compromised immune systems will stay away from the rest of the community by choice until the virus burns itself out. Meanwhile, the rest of us will mingle as humans are supposed to mingle. We’ll get infected and most of us will be OK and build up herd immunity. Others won’t fare so well and will be ill – that is the negative effect of risk assessment. But it’s no different from the way we get in a car and bet that we won’t have an accident that day. Some people will lose that bet – and hey that person could be me! But you can’t eliminate risk from life completely.

@Macca Attack: I don’t have a narrative- I’m just asking where you got the figures. The fatality and morbidity rate is lower than you quoted, according to research, such as that conducted by the John Hopkins University.
And we have to bear in mind that many, many more have had the virus than have tested positive. So overall, both the severity of and fatality rate for covid19 are lower again. And that’s not even factoring in age.

@Séadna O’Grádaigh: same question, though, where did you get those figures? I’m looking at established sources, like John Hopkins, the Lancet, WHO, and your figures are much higher. But they still show a fatality rate approximately 10 times higher than seasonal flu.

@EvieXVI: Sorry, I should have included that. Information can be taken from https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/casesinireland/epidemiologyofcovid-19inireland/ or from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland#Statistics

@EvieXVI: Fatality rate is much higher than the flu, when you include broad stats. When you break it down by age, there is many comparisons you can make between between Covid19 and the standard flu. As far as I’m concerned, healthy people under the age of 40 are safe (healthy people), the death rate for a healthy person under 40yrs old is effectively 0%. Those above 40yrs up to 65yrs, it seems to have a very similar fatality rate as the flu. And those above 65yrs old are at risk. This virus is about 5 times as contagious as the flu (not 100% on the figure 5 but I’ve read it many a time), which calls for social distancing. But I think these stats surely call for allowing the economy to open again with strict social distancing. Anyone at risk should continue to isolate themselves from it

@Séadna O’Grádaigh: And by opening the economy, I mean at a much faster rate than the current roadmap allows for. We are definitely trailing behind most countries. We’re already seeing businesses move out of the country. The roadmap needs to be accelerated

@Séadna O’Grádaigh: yes, same source as me, but, again, that’s based on positive tests. So, until we have 100% testing, that 5% will keep getting lower, it’s estimated (same source, JHU) that it will be closer to 0.5%.

@EvieXVI: basically, though, I agree with you on opening up the country

@EvieXVI: You’re actually spot on with only positive tests. I’ll be called a conspiracy theorist for this, but I believe this virus has been in Ireland since as early as December. There is already massive evidence that it has been here as early as January, but I believe December is even more realistic. I was working on a large construction site in early February and 5 men took a full week off sick one week (unheard of normally). Doctor told them all it was a viral infection, said no more than that and prescribed the normal medicines. I came down with a dose few days later that had similar symptoms to that of Covid19, it lasted 7 days, heavy chest, shivers at night, cough, fever. Didn’t go the doctor, just let it pass. But looking back I think a lot more people have already had this thing.

@EvieXVI: But you are 100% spot on with what you are saying. We do not know and we will never know the true figure for who has already had this virus. It is likely to be multiple times higher than the government’s figure. The only way we could ever find that figure out is with a reliable antibody test rolled out to every individual in the country. And if we ever achieved that, you would see the true percentage of deaths drop dramatically.

@Séadna O’Grádaigh: It all sounds like wishful thinking to me. I’ve heard similar reasons that amount to urging others through the hatch – on the imaginary grounds that it’ll give the last few out a softer landing, later on. I still say it’s sensible to wait until there’s a parachute each.

@Vladimir Macro: Ireland is testing (some of) the living by swabbing, which seems a better approach & one more likely to improve treatment and contain the spread of the virus. Naturally antibody testing appears to show different results – it’s testing the living blood of living people, after all. Surely there’s a small flaw in a plan that involves testing only the survivors who lived through it?

@Fiona Fitzgerald: The parachute you speak of is a vaccine, and that isn’t coming for a minimum of 24 months at best case scenario. What should we do until then? Continue the lockdown? We are doing more harm than good as a result of the lockdown as of last week. Suicides are on the rise, we have over 50’000 people unable to get checked for cancer, we have many 1000′s with health conditions requiring medical attention that are afraid to go to hospital, we have businesses preparing to run out of the country (most recently National Pen in Dundalk, 170 jobs lost and 60 of those transferred to Japan), we have endless small businesses that will never open again if a U-turn isn’t done rapidly on the economy

@Séadna O’Grádaigh: And by the way I fully agreed with the lockdown in the first place. I think every person in the country did. Nobody knew for a fact who this virus was going to affect. But Ireland is in the very top tier for recording data regarding this virus. It’s one of the few things I will applaud the government’s handling of. We have very accurate data, we know who this affects and who is safe. We should be putting that data to use as early as possible. Very few other countries recorded data as accurately and never put themselves in any position to take advantage of such data

@Helen Sheehan: No