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PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS confirmed a further 35 people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died and there are 613 new cases of the disease in Ireland.
The death toll from Covid-19 in Ireland is 4,271, and the total number of confirmed cases is now at 217,478.
Here’s what was discussed at this evening’s briefing:
Dr Cillian De Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory confirmed one case of the B.1.525 variant of the virus has now been identified in Ireland. The UK has recently reported a number of cases of this new variant and there have been cases identified in five other European countries.
De Gascun said the variant has been associated with travel from sub-saharan Africa. He said the reason officials are “particularly concerned” about it is because it contains the E414K amino acid change which has been associated with a reduced response to neutralising antibodies. This could mean a potential impact on vaccine effectiveness.
“And it also possesses a deletion in the spike protein which has been associated with increased transmissibility. That’s an amino acid change also shared by B117, the variant first reported in the UK,” he explained.
“It doesn’t appear to have become the dominant variant in its country of origin but as of yet we haven’t finalised definitely what that country of origin is. Nigeria has been suggested but we don’t have a lot of data out of there at this point.”
De Gascun also revealed there are a further four cases of the South African variant, bringing the total now to 15. The number of reported cases of the Brazilian variant remains at three.
Professor Philip Nolan echoed the positive news today from the HSE’s Dr Colm Henry on signs of vaccine efficacy. Earlier, Dr Henry said there has been a “very severe drop” in infection rates among frontline staff and that it’s “very difficult” to attributed that to the drop in community transmission alone.
Henry said that at the peak a number of weeks ago there was upwards of 1,000 hospital staff being infected in a given week but that this has dropped in the past couple of weeks to 95 and then 50. He said that a similar drop has been observed in care settings, where there were 482 cases confirmed in the week to 14 February with just 91 the following week.
This evening Professor Nolan also pointed to a “very sudden and sharp decrease” in the number of cases in longterm residential care.
He said it is a “much sharper decrease than would be explained by the decline in the level of disease in the wider community”.
For us [this is] evidence of a protective impact of the vaccine in those settings. even though the vaccination regimen is not complete, you’ll begin to see some protection as you run up to three weeks from the first dose.
He said the reduction in the number of deaths in longterm residential care is decreasing more rapidly than deaths in the community, which is further evidence in terms of the protective effect of the vaccine.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Glynn said he is optimistic that the majority of people in the country who can be vaccinated will be by September.
However he said the percentage of the population required for herd immunity is still “a matter for consideration” and there are uncertainties around new variants and vaccine supplies.
“There are a number of long term scenarios that could play out in relation to this virus and as I said previously, anyone who tries to give you certainty about what situation will be in Ireland or globally next winter is making it up frankly,” he said.
In advice to the government last week, published this afternoon, NPHET, said ‘normal’ life was still “some way off”. This evening Dr Glynn said people have good reason to be hopeful with the success of the vaccine so far, but a return to ‘normal’ will depend on a number of factors.
If we get really high levels of uptake of vaccine, if the vaccine has a very significant and positive effect on transmission, if we manage to get vaccine into countries all across the world, if a variant doesn’t emerge which has an impact on vaccine effectiveness and become dominant, if all of those things play out, we will be in a very good position in the last quarter of this year, but there’s a lot of ifs there.
Dr Glynn said NPHET has made recommendations to government about which vaccines to use for the 65-69 age group, and for those in high risk groups who are immuno-compromised.
He said the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has made it clear that all three of the vaccines approved for use in Ireland can be used in people aged 18-69. This means those aged 65-69 will be able to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“NIAC did identify a very small group of people within that with immuno-supporession and a number of other conditions where, on the basis of their condition, it’s more likely they would have a blunted immune response,” he said.
“And since we have more information about the strength of the response that we get from mRNA vaccines NIAC recommended that those people would be given an mRNA vaccine, and the HSE is looking at the implementation of that as we speak.”
He said the advice only applies if the preference for an mRNA vaccine does not delay their vaccination by more than three weeks.
“The HSE is looking at that at the moment, if we have enough supply we can give it to that group and I think we would be optimistic that that group will get the mRNA vaccine in that timeframe.”
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Smart move….think before you speak
@Pateen Johncruck: more like wait for the man in your ear piece to think before feeding you the new script off the top of his head. You never notice these pauses until now? All these politicians are told exactly what to say
@Minamino: then someone needs to get Miller out of Trump’s ear
@Minamino: when your country is bolted to the north of a country being run by a megalomaniac, you have to be very, very, very careful what you say in public.
@Minamino: They are probably just reminding themselves of what they decided to say earlier. Off the cuff comments about the big, and recently a bit unhinged, neighbour right beside you are unwise.
Maybe Trump should consider pausing for 21 seconds every time before he speaks.
@Ken: He did pause for 13 seconds, while a rally crowd chanted “Send her back!”.
@David A. Murray: The numnuts would have to count to 5 four times and add 1 to get his 21 seconds.
@Ken: he should pause for a week before sneaking
@Ken: he prefers his pauses to be scattered throughout the sentence instead
@John Jones: comment of the day….tip ur cap sir.
The king of virtue signalling.
@JackSimpson: Yawn. You guys are so boring.
@JackSimpson: it’s not his fault his mind can think bigger.
@JackSimpson: ‘virtue signaling ‘ is a term that’s been doing the rounds lately with these right wing cranks. It’s an obvious retaliation to their guff been labeled hate speech and I guess they needed to come up with something to use as they attack by nature. The fact that you’re attacking somebody because they are displaying virtue shows your base intent. Stop watching FOX, you’ve been had
@Wayne Connor: Good morning Wayne/ Bmul /other trollish accounts. I hope you slept well. Youve a long day of trolling ahead of you.
The fact that he paused at all was probably enough to trigger the orange man-baby
I think that is a perfectly normal response to the insanity of Trump.
Another Virtue signaling liberal with double standards. He still remembers his blackface pictures. Snowflake guy
@The Equalizer: Congratulations for using all the inflammatory buzzwords you know. Next time see how many you can get in one sentence!
@The Equalizer: You ok hun?
@The Equalizer: Awww, did somebody say something mean about trump? Put your dummy back in and stop throwing your toys out of the pram!!
@The Equalizer: you left out ‘triggered’ and ‘woke’.
@Brendan Heery: didn’t he give powers to his own police force to arrest and prosecute natives that were protesting against their land being forcibly taken from them so for an oil company. No you probably didn’t get feed in your social media platforms as some celebrity didn’t comment on it.
@The Equalizer: how is this “virtue signalling”? He paused before he spoke so he could collect his thoughts.
A lot of internal dialogue going on there!
“Don’t say it” X 21
He didn’t answer the question. He’s a coward
@Jesus Christ:
Disagree. The abomination in the White House is causing many to choose their words carefully because he’s so thin skinned and liable to make really stupid policy decisions that effect millions.
I.e. Paris Agreement, WHO, Trade deals etc etc
Thin skinned and demonstrably stupid.
@Jesus Christ: he did answer the question by saying it was time to listen, that racism is everywhere and enough is enough. If he had answered the question on trump like the media wanted him to, then he would have totally missed the point.
@Jesus Christ: i think he made his point very tactfully.
@Jesus Christ: Because they rely on them for 75% of exports, that’s why he didn’t answer and not because he’s a coward.
@biggybald: In other words… using his loaf.
@Jesus Christ: you mean he didn’t give the answer some people wanted him to. Why should he be drawn into it that way. He was dead right to turn it on themselves and basically say ( in the words of jesus the christ) “first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
” You say it best, when you say nothing at all “
He would have known that question was coming. His response sounded well-rehersed from a prepared script.
I wonder if the pause was intentional to make it seem like he’s a deeper thinker and that he was just coming up with the words that followed in the moment but he messed up the ‘lengthy pause for the gravity of the situation’ by carrying it on a bit too much.
@RogerRamjet: Canadian man bad. Orange man good.
@RogerRamjet: his pause was completely staged. He knew he was going to be asked and he had an answer prepared.
Not a good actor.
@Shazam37: what is wrong with you? Who “stages” a pause? The mental gymnastics your brain performs are incredible. 12 points.
@Drunk in Dublin: who stages a pause? This chap.
FAKE NEWS us park police have already issued a statement saying they didnt fire tear gas they were smoke grenades and they also had no knowledge trump was going to the church for said photo op. A lie can travel half way round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/uspp/6_2_20_statement_from_acting_chief_monahan.htm
@paul starrs: concussion grenades too – don’t forget them unless you think the bishop of St. John’s church is lying
@paul starrs: Bill Barr personally ordered the use of force to disperse a peaceful protest according to some sources
@paul starrs: just because the police didn’t know it was for a photo op doesn’t mean it wasn’t for a photo op. See what the leader of the church he went to had to say.
@Dave O’Keeffe: he didnt order them to use tear gas on ” peaceful protesters” the caches of projectiles and weapons they found and the injured officers might be a giveaway
@Thomas Harrington: no such thing as a “concussion” grenade. Concussion is a medical diagnosis not a military ordinance term. Unless you are suggesting that the good bishop is a military ordinance expert…….
Ps, it’s a percussion grenade. Basically a loud banger, one of the safest methods to clear s croud.
@Dave O’Keeffe: yeah that one mentions the weapons cache too lol. Does it mention that this was less than half an hour before the 7pm curfew
@paul starrs: it was still before the curfew. If you were queuing for last orders and were told the bar had closed thirty minutes early I’m sure you would be more than a little surprised.
These were federal police and agents, not DC police and not under the control of the DC police chief. So who issued the orders?
@paul starrs: it mentions police saying there were weapons, it also mentions reporters saying that’s bs. At least I provided a source showing both sides.
Completely staged.
@Shazam37: do you really thinks so? You only mentioned it 3 times already… Are you paid by the quantity of posts?
@Shazam37: I don’t really think it matters, even if it was staged to be honest. Nothing would change if it were not. Same question, same pause, same answer. Trump is a budding dictator and many people are looking on in horror at what the US has become in 4 short years.
@A2 Poster: depends on the point you’re making.
Plenty here are suggesting this shows he “thinks before he speaks” because he paused for 21 seconds before answering. Some have suggested oh he’s better than Trump – he thought about his answer.
The reality is that’s all optics. And the people who think that have been hoodwinked through their own sheer nativity.
The reality is that staged, spun responses like this damage democracy. You can’t get a straight answer from a leader. Lies. Spin. Misleading the public.
As the article says the HONEST answer is “I don’t like him or how he does business but we rely on the States as major trading partners”
The public need to be better informed and realise the actual choices rather than be infantilised by things like this.
Canadians should be aware – sure we can criticise Trump, justifiably, but that might mean you all lose jobs and income.
Same goes here. Let’s make adult choices – and that begins by knowing the actions and the consequences.
@Shazam37: First off, thanks for spending the time to write out a good reply.
“The reality is that staged, spun responses like this damage democracy. You can’t get a straight answer from a leader. Lies. Spin. Misleading the public.”
- This is related to the point I was trying to make above when I said it didn’t matter that it was staged because I don’t think that the answer would change. So I would disagree that what he said was a lie or misleading.
“As the article says the HONEST answer is ‘I don’t like him or how he does business but we rely on the States as major trading partners’”
- It would certainly be more blunt, but the real world doesn’t work this way, and what you have said is a little idealistic. Truth is he needs Trump and the giant economy on his doorstep. Trump has pulled out of climate deals, global health organizations, peace treaties, all to the detriment of his own country. He may well do something drastic if his nearest neighbour were so forward is his condemnation.
Excellent answer, that carefully constructed answer required thought. Trudeau only needed 21seconds. I don’t think Trump could have managed an answer like that in 21 seconds
@Paddy Doherty: what planet are you living on? That carefully constructed answer required hours and a team of people.
How are people THIS naive?
He a man who knows which side of his maple leaf needs to be kept buttered
Forget about anything he said eventually, the 21 seconds said it all.
I understand diplomacy and the importance of trade but just once I’d like to see a politician on the same level as him lay into him. Preferably face to horrible orange face.
@Keniby, Just before the apocalypse.: The 21 seconds doesn’t say anything except – “this is what my spin doctors came up with”
It’s completely staged. To go from that to a pre prepared answer? What you think he was struggling to remember his lines?
Now one can debate the tactics effectiveness – silence as an implied criticism – and that’s fine. But let’s not pretend it wasn’t pre planned.
@Shazam37: who said it wasn’t pre-planned? Your entire comment sounds like a rebuff to a comment that doesn’t exist.
Maybe he also needs to take a short drive across the US border and back again to see if his eyesight is OK!
Man who painted his face black pauses before answer I not sure which is worse the painting face black or using tear gas to quell violence.
@Martin Smith: using tear gas to quell peaceful protest just about takes the win.
The guy was just waiting for the autocue to load his prepared speech, I think people are reading to much into this!
@Ian: yes, like making up the ludicrous idea that he had a prepared speech. Not everyone is out to get you, Ian.
Pathetic hyp0crite and c0ward.
@Seriousnojoke: I usually call Trump a tangerine turd or orange abomination but everyone has their personal favourites I suppose?
I didn’t see any paws of any length. Fake news.
@MrMichaelSpicer – The room next door man should do a take on this!
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