@LaoisWeather: Masks make plenty of difference if worn correctly.

@Sean O’Doherty: I think he’s one of those people who thinks that COVID spreads by gas.

@Neil Neart: ‘Literally killing people…’ Maybe you might consider calling in the ‘Thought Police’ before those wild thoughts of yours escape into the real world…

@Sean O’Doherty: goes something like this, I googled face mask effectiveness and found loads of info on how poor they were……
A€€ho4€S will always be just that

@LaoisWeather: why do surgeons wear them then?

@Vincent Bickerstaffe: tesco have a specific recorded message telling shoppers ‘your mask needs to cover both your nose and mouth and fit snugly’. Dunnes have a similar message but in sign format I think but this is what ads on the tele are for.

@LaoisWeather: well, I’m delighted to continue wearing the masks.. No cold, flu or tummy bug in the last 18 months.

@Cat Reid: Surgeons wear medical grade masks not pices of cloth

@alan hickey: studies have shown that when worn properly a piece of cloth can do almost as good of a job and depending on what type of cloth can exceed medical grade masks as you call them.

@alan hickey: unless you’ve been living under a rock since the pandemic started I think most people with any cop on wear medical-grade masks.

@LaoisWeather: that’s correct, Dr Google told us that.

@LaoisWeather: Silly you, you forgot to inform us which medical or virology high level degree courses you graduated from allow you to confidently make the statement that masks do not work. You must be tired this evening with all that hospital work saving lives but please tell us about your expertise in these matters…..

@LaoisWeather: I am sure it was just a mistake that you did not tell us what your expert qualifications are that allow you to make such a statement, or was it?

@Paul Mcnevin: Not really. The surgical masks worn by surgeons are probably effective but the hse says that cloth masks are only 10% effective and the american heart and lung confederation says they’re only 3% effective.

@LaoisWeather: Gloating about something so serious, and not even being vaguely correct. Very sad.

@Neil Neart: exactly, proper enforcement like we have in Spain and I went for my first restaurant meal 20.5 2020. I’ve been able to go out ever since with varying restrictions as things progress.

@Vincent Bickerstaffe: pretty self explanatory…. It’s a mask.!

@Ann Neylan: “well, I’m delighted to continue wearing the masks” I m with you in this, not sick since almost 2 years, but … I m getting older … hmmm . weird isn’t it ? ;-)

@Vincent Bickerstaffe: It is all over the place, on buses in shops.

@Seán Ó Briain: Makes zero sense to run and hide from the virus. It’s not going away anytime soon. Time to start living with it

@Seán Ó Briain: Makes Zero sense to open a very small sector to the fully vaccinated only, which hasn’t opened since the virus started and had no contribution to cases thus far??

I think lockdown advocates like you are worse than anti vaxers.

ICU units are overrun here every Christmas; shows how much you know about the health service in Ireland

@Tony Gordon: two months or so of online learning isnt a monumental sacrifice compared to reducing covid in the community, saving lives and reducing the current growing burden on the health system….. Too late now anyway, missed the boat on that one. Another govt howler imo. What happened to we’re all in this together attitude Tony? Couple of months of online school not worth it to have reduced alot of the recent illness and deaths? Could have been in the low hundreds daily by now.

@Paul Hedderman: what about the gathering at weddings, confirmation and communion parties

@Roy Dowling: or dying with it or getting potentially career ending long covid disability from it…libertarian clap trap from the “business as usual” crowd.

@David Lee: In fairness you are correct to say ICU units are usually overrun anyway. Most of us know enough about our health service to know this. So the question becomes…. why pile on more to it if it can be avoided?

@Paul Hedderman: so close schools but leave pubs and restaurants,retail,border with the north,airports and everything else open but schools are the problem

@Gavin Conran: It can’t be avoided, unless there’s mass closures & unemployment among hospitality & entertainment sectors. Which also isn’t feasible for people mentally, Socially, financially, etc

And then my question becomes, If people aren’t happy with them open now with such a high vaccination coverage, when will they ever be happy

@Margaret Deacon: weddings are grand, the vast majority are vaccinated….. Never been to a confirmation or communion party. I’d imagine they’re safer than loads of kids in a small classroom 5 days a week but should be postponed until covid in the community is low.

@Seán Ó Briain: you either live with it or u don’t. at this stage it’s as simple as that and I mean live with it properly. covid was never and will never disappear.

@Warren Mcdermott: No Warren, past tense! Not close them now. they shouldnt have let schools back to the classroom until covid in the community was low. Missed opportunity now….. Most kids arent vaxd! There was loads of school outbreaks since they opened which has had a knock on and kept covid high in the community. There was so many kids out of school and so many were disrupted anyway. There was so much confusion for parents and teachers as to the procedures and what to do instead of kids being at home and learning for a few months online….. Every adult in pubs and restaurants are vaxd unless hotels. Retail the vast majority is vaxd. Cant do anything with north, around 1%-2% of cases are travel related. We would be in a better place now if they had delayed returning to the classroom.

@Paul Hedderman: Paul we hav already had the schools closed for to long,you had them closed march till June when convid first hit then closed again and if they had of kept them closed when you suggested then you would talking a year off school and the online hasn’t worked for alot of parents and kids and alot of kids are already behind and will struggle to catch up and that’s if they don’t close them again

@mmz: So what do you suppose we do. Shut down everything again? Hasn’t worked yet has it but might as well keep trying shall we. Definition of madenss is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Lockdowns don’t work.

@Warren Mcdermott: Think you’re missing the point. Funny, covid doesn’t really care about kids education, just that they aren’t vaxd and it can spread through them, even easier with delta in a classroom they spend 5 days a week in, poor teachers. More outbreaks in schools leads to more cases in homes and community transmission. Instead of continuing that downward trend in August we’ve gone upward. Opening up with a few hundred daily cases is alot different than opening up with around 2000 daily cases. Increased cases lead to deaths. Great winter ahead which could have possibly avoided or atleast largely lessened by delaying back to classroom.

@Seán Ó Briain: You could say same about pubs restaurants where you also must show a vaccination cert so no point in scapegoating nightclubs. Sure shut the lotta down all again, it’ll be graaand.

@Paul Hedderman: from 5 years of age in Spain children wear their masks all day and no outb,no teachers of sick. Enough said

@Seán Ó Briain: no sense nor reason it’s a disastrous decision,more deaths and lockdowns on the way.

@Seán Ó Briain: Both Professor Jack Lambert and Luke O’Neill said yesterday and today on several news outlets that all restrictions should be removed ( bar masks). That Oct. 22nd should continue as planned. Do we pick and choose the “experts” we want to listen too. These people are highly qualified and were being held up to us, by NPHET and Government, all through covid as the ones we should listen too. Too much inconsistency from government with them all trying to cover their own backs for fear of a public backlash.

@Tony Gordon: They did not mean close schools forever. A couple of months of online schooling would not destroy any child’s education.
It has been done for years in other countries.

@Roy Dowling: Actually they do, its the reopening and people going wild is what is the problem.

@Conor Brady: enjoying your comments more by the day. Quite clearly you know what you’re talking about and is saddening (as well as being outright sceptical/morally wrong) that many other people with science/epidemiology/immunology expertise who have an opposing view to the staust quo of let’s vax the hell outa people are being suppressed and villified.

@John Egan: knows what he’s talking about? He just referred to the flu as a coronavirus! He’s also *literally* trying to sell you vitamins! Quick – somebody tell the doctors treating the Covid patients in the ICU that all they need is vitamins!

@Christopher Conlan: What do you believe is pumped into COVID-19 patients when they are put on IVs after arriving in A+E….. It’s a “Hartmans solution” which contains loads of nutrition/ vitamins. Ask consultants who are treating patients who end up in ICU…..are they are depleted in Vitamin D.?…. Answer = YES.

@C_O’S: Hi, a doctor who spend the last year in Covid HDU…Literally nothing you just said is true.
Get vaccinated people.

@SJF: I’m a secret service agent myself…. oh sorry, I thought we were playing “things I wanted to be when I grew up”

@John Black: No, he’s spot on. You’ve been tricked. The HSE has been presenting conflated data on this to make things sounds worse for the unvaccinated than they actually are in this regard. Stay with me now:

From the 1st of April 2021 to the 9th of October, there have been 369 deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland (that’s around 1-2 deaths per 1000 positive “cases”). The vaccination status of these deaths were 169/369 (46%) not vaccinated versus 155/369 (42%) fully vaccinated.
http://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/surveillance/vaccinationstatusweeklyreports/Death%20and%20Vaccination%20Report.pdf

Sounds like a vote for vaccination, doesn’t it? But when you consider less than 10% of the country was vaccinated coming into April, it’s sort of obvious the unvaccinated would dominate the stats like that, isn’t it?

Instead, let’s look at the vaccination status of deaths BY MONTH. This is trickier as this sort of data they do not like to provide as it sells less vaccines.

Covid death figures tweeted out by the HSE on the 17th September 2021 (check it out, still there) tell us there were was 251 Covid deaths from 1st April to 11th September. The vaccine status of these deaths were 149/251 (59%) not vaccinated versus 61/2511 (24%) fully vaccinated.

This means, since the 11th of September (251 deaths) and the 9th of October (369 deaths), there have been 118 deaths from Covid but only 20/118 were unvaccinated (17%) while 94/118 (80%) were fully vaccinated.

That’s 80% of people who have died of Covid in Ireland in the last four weeks have been FULLY VACCINATED, just like Mike says.

@Mike Dunne: Let’s examine a large data sample (eg ALL deaths in UK during first six months of 2021). When looking at percent of deaths caused by Covid (which compensates for differences in age & vulnerability by vaccine status) we see much larger implied vaccine protection as 37% of all unvaccinated deaths were due to Covid vs only 0.8% of Dose 2 + 21 days. Suggest you look at credible sources and not narcissists on Facebook or FoolTube.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/deathsinvolvingcovid19byvaccinationstatusengland/deathsoccurringbetween2januaryand2july2021#deaths-involving-covid-19-by-vaccination-status

@Mike Dunne: Let’s examine a large data sample (eg ALL deaths in UK during first six months of 2021). When looking at percent of deaths caused by Covid (which compensates for differences in age & vulnerability by vaccine status) we see much larger implied vaccine protection as 37% of all unvaccinated deaths were due to Covid vs only 0.8% of Dose 2 + 21 days. Suggest you look at credible sources and not narcissists on Facebook or FoolTube.

https://tinyurl.com/4hwmzmmk

@Stephen Kearon: Ahh Facebook & Fooltube. Let he who is without sin!

For the first two months of this year Steve, nobody was vaccinated in the UK. By the end of June less than 50% of the UK was done. So yes, the unvaccinated will dominate the figures. Does your data allow for that very obvious conflation? What does it say for last month in the UK as I’ve shown above, a month by month analysis is far more telling…

Make sure you share the results for the second half of the year though and we’ll see where the 10% fit in then.

You know, I’m starting to suspect that the reason they want everyone vaccinated is purely to eliminate the test group. That’s what I would do if I was Pfeizer and pulling the strings via cash donations (not saying Pharma pull the strings in the HSE or anything…https://www.businesspost.ie/analysis-opinion/how-doctors-and-hospitals-cash-in-from-big-pharma-edb1b5a0)

@Conor Brady: Well that’s exactly what Pfizer & Moderna done with the placebo group from the trials, so nothing should surprise us. https://principia-scientific.com/moderna-and-pfizer-intentionally-lost-their-clinical-trial-control-groups/

@Mike Dunne: that’s a lie. Fake news.

@Mike Dunne: Never ceases to amaze when this statistic is bandied about “X percentage of deaths are fully-vaxxed people”. Anti-vax people don’t seem to have any concept of ‘per capita’ understanding.
If I told you that Nigeria must be wealthier than Ireland because their GDP is higher.. Would you not challenge that on a per capita basis?
If 75% of deaths are vaxxed people, then 25% of deaths are not. Those 25% of deaths are drawn from an absolutely miniscule proportion of the population that are unvaccinated. Therefore, obviously you are at much much higher risk by being unvaccinated. And conversely, if there were no vaccines at all, there would obviously be much much more deaths in that proportion that are currently vaccinated.. (which includes virtually all elderly/vulnerable people).

@Paul Tao: 20% of the population unvaccinated is not “absolutely minuscule “ though really is it?

Also his conclusion stating 80% of the deaths are from the vaccinated, which in turn is 80% of the population so (assuming his analysis is correct): adjusted to take account of 8:1 vaxxed means the same proportion of covid deaths are from vaccinated as unvaccinated.
Weird

@Paul Tao: That’s true Paul, but that doesn’t take away from the fact Mike’s point is absolutely spot on – the fully vaccinated make up the majority of Covid deaths. It’s true a disproportionately large amount of non-vaxxed are dying (needlessly, as much hospitalisation could be avoided if they treated positive cases) but that figure is shrinking monthly once Covid sadly runs through the at-risk in that subgroup. Once the unvaccinated have built innate immunity (which we know is 13 times more robust to subsequent infection compared to the double vaccinated) the figures next year will look significantly worse for the vaccinated, a fact I hope the unvaccinated have the class not to bandy round the comments section daily.

@Conor Brady: if you had bothered to read the report that figure has been taken from you would read where it says you’re significantly more likely to die if you are not vaccinated…
If you’re going to quote figures, at least look at them all…
I swear all anti-vaxxers have such confirmation bias it’s ridiculous.
So in fact, he’s not spot on.

@John Black: Aaaaaand we’re back to square one with John.

JC, I can’t believe that got 10 likes.

I know that’s what the report says John. Last time now, Mike said “75% cases ARE occurring in the vaccinated”. So you’d have to accept that means the majority, yes?

I showed, using actual maths that this is almost exactly the same as the figures here. Once again, as it seems you skipped over, you are basing your figures on HSE data that incorporates people all the way back to April 1st, when less than 10% of us were vaccinated, so yes, unvaccinated people would dominate. The more accurate way, and to tie in with what the original poster said, would be what is happening NOW, or over the last month. Mike is talking about NOW John. NOW. We don’t use today’s vaccination rates and population data from April 1st to work that out (unless you want to skew the data). So, as above:

Since the 11th of September (251 deaths) and the 9th of October (369 deaths), there have been 118 deaths from Covid but only 20/118 were unvaccinated (17%) while 94/118 (80%) were fully vaccinated.

Right now, the fully vaccinated ARE making up the majority of deaths, just like Mike says.

I’d say “now, apologise to Mike” but I doubt you’re even still there, but your damage is done, that’s for sure. Nearly as many likes as the original poster. It’s sad.

In summary – your / HSE data spans back to April 1st when nobody was vaccinated but in your head you’re applying today’s vaccination rates to the whole kit and kaboodle.

To work out what’s happening NOW (what Mike is talking about) we look back over the last month (and use today’s vaccination rates).

You’re wrong buddy you just can’t bring yourself to wonder why the HSE do not provide monthly data.

If the questions was – OVERALL, including months when nobody was vaccinated up to today when most are, how does it look? – you would see it’s 169 unvaccinated, 155 fully vaccinated and yes you’d be right. But that figure means nothing and with the fully vaccinated now dominating proceedings one even the HSE won’t be able to trot out in a couple of months when hopefully they begin shifting blame to yet another sub group.

@Conor Brady: no I didn’t use HSE data, I referenced the exact same report that the original poster did, showing how when you cherry pick one figure from an entire report, it’s confirmation bias, especially given that the conclusion of the report is totally at odds with the conclusion drawn by him

@Conor Brady: if 100% of people were vaccinated it would be only vaccinated people dying
Like do you not understand how statistics work?
I am posting fact based information that comes from studies, you are cherry picking a figure and then drawing totally the wrong conclusion
The fact is, vaccinated people are much less likely to die, to get infected and to transmit it to another person.

@Conor Brady: the HSE do provide monthly data but I’ve not once referenced it at all…
If you used credible sources and knew how to read and interpret data, we wouldn’t be having this conversation because you’d be on my side.

@Mike Dunne: Nobody said they were. The numbers you quote are incorrect. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/19/facebook-posts/claim-covid-19-uk-ignores-data-showing-death-more-/

@C_O’S: Haliborange that brought back memories. I seriously don’t know what people’s aversion to vitamins are. I’m 68 thankfully fit and healthy never had flu ( even though I was told here yesterday by one of the “experts” that I had:) and only the odd head cold. From as long as I can remember I always took vit C the older I got I added Zinc, Vit D and a B supplement. I have added Omega 3 oil supplement for the old bones and so far it has kept me in good stead. I don’t know if that’s why I’m in good health, fingers crossed, but it didn’t do any harm. Got my yearly bloods done everything 100% blood pressure of a teenager. These things can only help to me they are an added bonus. Others obviously thought so too because since covid the cost has risen about 300%!!

@Rory: If that’s what helps you…..better then an igno-ant sneer.

@Niall Ó Cofaigh: Underneath a comment with a huge study stating very specifically transmission is nothing to do with vaccine status you say vaccine certs will stop transmission from the unvaccinated!

And not to belittle the 3-4 figure but the flu does those figures every year in Ireland (more than 1200 in 2018).
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-vsar/vitalstatisticsannualreport2018/deaths2018/

No masks. No certs. No restrictions.

But at least we treat flu patients and try prevent them from going to hospital. Imagine what the figures would look like if we just sent them home to see how bad it might get…

@Conor Brady: actually the studies that have been released show that transmission is significantly lower among vaccinated people, so you’re totally incorrect…

@Teresa O’Halloran: A lot, ,like myself, use our own.

@John Black: How you can say “the unvaccinated are much more likely to get infected” with cases clearly spiralling in highly vaxxed countries is beyond me but here’s an absolutely colossal study from 3 weeks ago literally entitled “Increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8481107/#!po=2.77778

The vaccines were never designed to stop spread. They live in the blood. Covid lives in the mucous layers of your nose (hence nasal swabs and not blood tests). The vaccinated have the same viral load as the unvaccinated and are shown to spread it equally well for the first 7 days after which they do reduce symptoms (by which point any sick unvaxxed will likely be tested by then and in bed but sadly, as still today offered nothing by way of actual treatment, will fill hospital beds).

The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.
The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.
The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.
The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.
The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.
The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.
The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.
The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.
The. Rise. In. Cases. Is. Nothing. To. Do. With. Vaccination.

@Michael Fleming: what i want to know is how many people are catching it in hospitals. UHL is chronically overcrowded so im truly struggling to believe they could be managing covid infection and spread efficiently. With 90 odd people toe to toe on trollies how is it possible to prevent infection

@Conor Brady: I’m afraid Conor you and others can repeat this and all of your previous points till the cows come home but a large swath of the people either don’t get it or refuse to consider other explanations.
It has been the same at every peak in infections since the arrival of Covid, in that a scramble is made to find a target to point the finger at. When that particular spike drops all is forgotten until the next and a new target of blame.
I suspect unfortunately we are facing a difficult winter in which the next great hope will be pinned on emerging therapeutics of which many are on trial presently. Yet as you say there is absolutely no official guidance on very basic but effective measures people can be adopting themselves to boost and enhance their own defence systems alongside vaccines.

@Conor Brady: I can say it because all evidence supports it.
Vaccines lower transmission.
Please please start doing some proper reading, for your own sake.

@John Black: But “all” the evidence doesn’t point that way John, does it? This isn’t even for you, I know you’re not reading anything, it’s for the 3 people that liked your comment. If the study I link to above that is literally labelled vaccines have NOTHING to do with transmission and you’re going to ignore the spiralling cases in highly vaxxed countries then let’s just focus on this one point – Gibraltar. 100% vaxxed since May 5th. Check out those cases. Look good? No, they look worse than last year. Ask the HSE to explain that one to you

@Conor Brady: yes all the evidence does…
I’ve read every one of your comments and they’re just a mix of misinformation and misinterpreted data.
That study has been widely criticised for not accounting for a plethora of things.
Any studies that just measure transmission, show that vaccinated people are much much less likely to transmit the virus.
Gibraltars 100% is misleading, because many of those live in Spain but got jabbed in Gibraltar which dragged up their percentage even hough there are people there that aren’t vaccinated, and it being a tourist spot too wouldn’t help, but again, your inability to interpret data hurts you again.

@Cat Reid: relax there Karen.

@Gavin Linden: pull your mask over your nose Gavin

@Hear me now: I also noticed that no one is mentioning the people who recovered from Covid. They are considered “unvaccinated” despite having built up immunity after only six months.