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IN THE GOVERNMENT’S 60-page document on the plan for us to live with Covid-19 for the next six-to-nine months, there’s a small section called “remembering our loss”.
Amid the importance of fighting the spread of the disease, the five levels that will indicate how the coronavirus is currently affecting the population and the restrictions we’ll all have to live through, there’s also details on how we’ll mark and reflect on everything we’ve gone through.
To date, 1,787 people have died from Covid-19 and over 30,000 have been confirmed to have the virus.
In the first few months of the pandemic, people were often not able to be with their loved ones as they passed away and family members were unable to attend the funeral. Harrowing stories emerged at this time and in subsequent months.
Events to mark these dark times are in the works and can be expected next year and into the future.
The government’s plan says: “Covid-19 has also brought grief and loss to our lives in ways that most of us have not experienced in our lifetime. They have raised our awareness of the importance of the processes and rituals related to bereavement, dying and death.
It is important as a people that we pause and reflect, take time to remember and pay tribute both to those who have lost their lives but also to everyone who has contributed to how we have faced and are facing the challenges together.
It proposes a programme of national and local events to commemorate those we have lost, celebrating those who’ve helped us survive and ensure there is support for those who feel alone or lost.
The government will collaborate with the media, civil society organisations and church groups on the approach and timing.
It says: “We all have very different experiences of memories of what happened in 2020.
There are have been a number of initiatives in different fields to catalogue our experience of Covid-19. In the future, it will be important to be able to look back and reflect on what we have learned about ourselves as a society.
Over the coming months, the Department of Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht will collaborate with the National Archives, Creative Ireland and the Arts Council to develop a programme of initiatives aimed at capturing the Covid-19 experience in Ireland.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for Minister Catherine Martin said: “The department is conscious of the need for a measured and reflective approach in this matter and will be engaging widely in development of an appropriate programme to capture the experience of Covid-19 in Ireland.”
The idea for the government to mark this in some way has been in the works for some time.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie in May, then-Minister for Health Simon Harris said: “Ireland needs a day where people can grieve for those who have died during this pandemic.”
While he wouldn’t necessarily call it a memorial day, he said there should be a day where people can grieve for those who have died of Covid-19 and those who passed away of non-Covid related illnesses and where a normal funeral could not be held.
“People haven’t been able to go to the house and give the family a hug and attend the wake and go to the funeral… we do funerals well in Ireland, I think we grieve quite publicly and openly as a community. Lots and lots of communities have been touched by this. And I think we need to recognise that,” he said.
Maybe it’s now time for ministers to begin resigning. Every measure taken has failed. They are destroying the economy.
@Colum Cusack: The virus is destroying the economy. The public is often complacent to outright f-o-o-l-h-a-r-d-y and the government have been less than stellar. It’s OUR problem to address collectively.
@Colum Cusack: Irish ministers resign? Ha! That would mean leaving the trough for someone else to nose in.
@Colum Cusack: Because these ministers should have cured the world of Covid? Annoying as it might be for you, this isn’t actually the fault of any Irish minister or TD. It’s a pandemic.
@Colum Cusack: Do you think what’s waiting in the wings to replace them are any less incompetent. Until politics and political parties as a whole in this country change completely we’ll go through the same scenarios over and over again as we have for decades now.
@Rostyballs78: We need to start by ending FFG’s monopoly on power. SF may not be any better, they may even be worse, but a SF government will signal a change to 100 years of poor governance by 2 parties who have become far too comfortable with sharing power. They managed to join forces and stop the change last time out but they can’t hold it back forever.
@Declan Doherty: yes comrade Doherty.
@David A. Murray: are you for real what planet are you on
@David A. Murray: The virus alone did not destroy the economy. The decisions made about how to handle it have done more damage. Decisions made by people who, both domestically and globally, have not suffered financially. People who are completely unaccountable and unsackable for their advice.
@GrumpyAulFella: And therein lies the problem…
@Declan Doherty: SF in….shutters down!!
@Verners Tess: I’m very keen to hear what you would have done different ????
@Colum Cusack: exactly
@Franny Ando: indeed. The opposition are MIA again.
@GrumpyAulFella: at least the shinners hide their balaclavas. You don’t even attempt to hide your FFG mask.
@xDemo17: I’m not a Blueshirt comrade Dermo. But you have to call it as you see it.
@GrumpyAulFella: your pulling my leg now Grumpy.
@Rostyballs78: Sometimes playing the wings gets a better result.
Following that through sometimes you have to use the hole bench, and sometimes what comes of the bench is far better. ????
@xDemo17: always amazes me how critics of SF policies are always labelled as Blueshirts by their supporters. There’s no room for criticism under the politburo. They can’t understand why anyone would ever object to their crackpot policies so they have to label them.
@David A. Murray: yeah accountability always seems to conveniently switch to become “our problem”. When will the management teams of professionals who we pay and task with the responsibility to manage going to be asked to explain WHY they did not follow the science when vaccines waned in July in Israel professed the solution was the 3rd shot booster – instead in ireland we faffed in July Aug Sept and only in oct started to get around to boosters – even NIAC took forever to approve – the people in hpspital NOW would not require ICU of the booster had been administered – in fact despite the hyperbole about Omicron Moderna etc are saying their booster stops severe illness – but its apparently our problem that we mismanaged this ???
@Colum Cusack: They closed the economy which had devastating effects on people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. When there was emergency authorization of the vaccines at the beginning of 2021, a high percentage of people got vaccinated believing that their lives would be back to normal. Instead of getting back to normal, the COVID cases are still high, people have to wear masks in certain places and the restrictions are not going away. Following this new variant, there are more demands being placed on everyone to get booster shots. Have we not learned anything yet?
@Colum Cusack: The ministers have nothing to do with the virus and according to economic experts the economy is doing really well when everything is taken into account.
@David A. Murray: People need to take responsibility for managing the virus themselves. We cannot continue to rely on the nanny state. You have just got to let go of the tit.
@Colum Cusack: Fair call.
@David A. Murray: Stop blaming the Public as The majority of the public are doing everything’s that is asked of us , if our Government had invested in our ICUs & other hospital services we would not be in this position.. The Government as a whole are useless ,
@Colum Cusack: what’s your solution … live with covid? you haven’t got a rasher.
@Colum Cusack: who would you like to replace them?
@Colum Cusack: no theyre Not.. The economy is booming amd set to boom even further.
@Colum Cusack: there destroying life
@GrumpyAulFella: Says the man addressing people as “comrade” oh the irony.
@Colum Cusack: maybe one of the dümb35t Journal comments ever.
@David A. Murray: well said. Still the mouth masks and chin masks. People just won’t be told. So frustrating.
@Mick Dunne: he’s on this planet. The planet on rules and regulations to contain this virus, that certain folks have consistently refused to obey. These folks are the whole entire reason we’re in this mess. And as long as they continue in this vein, this will just go on and on. Why can’t everyone see this?
@Colum Cusack: Ireland had one of the fastest vaccine rollouts in the world, currently second fastest for booster rollout in Europe, and has the third lowest excess deaths since start of pandemic amongst EU27. By any objective measure our Govt has performed very well during this pandemic, resulting in thousands of lives saved.
@Mick Dunne: go on Mick. Tell us what the government could be doing differently to beat the virus. Instead of whining which is all you ever do tell us what you’d do differently
@Dave Hammond: was it the government forcing people to queue for a couple of 100 yards to go into night clubs? Is it the government who are forcing people onto the streets shoulder to shoulder to do their Christmas shopping? Did the government make all the spectators and the recent full houses at Ireland games sit there with hardly a mask between them?. And I suppose it will be the government who will be responsible for all the lock ins in pubs up and down the country over the next month or so. We have been given advice and most of us take it but many don’t. 52% of people on icu are still not vaccinated. Is that the government’s fault too?
@Michael Graham: Benny Gilroy – He’s the only person who will ‘Make Ireland Great Again’ – Please donate any of your savings to his wonderful appy ‘ Give me all your change’
Not even the vaccinated and/or boosted can go socializing after 8… we’re all in curfew, sound like a another lockdown to anyone?
@Spartacus Ireland: Not really, it’s a pain in the hole but let’s face it, you can do everything you normally could but just have to leave the pub a few hours early – it’s hardly a curfew or a ‘lockdown’ really.
Go look at the Netherlands for a lockdown.
@Lee King Buckett: ye can’t do a restaurant, cinema or Christmas panto either lee. There’s more to socialising than a pub.
@Paul Gorry: You can Paul, you just have to leave them a few hours earlier. Yes it sucks but missing out on a Panto or only being able to eat out until 8pm is hardly a lockdown really.
The Journal is a dramatic place
@Spartacus Ireland: Did you expect it to end with those who are free of the jab? The Taoiseach even said they plan to update the passport so that if you don’t get your booster you will be counted as unvaccinated. You were warned this would happen, you people will have to learn things the hard way.
@Lee King Buckett: I reckon the main event will happen in January. Looking at what’s happening in other EU countries and also on the east coast of the US, I believe we will be put into a full scale, watertight lockdown next month.
@David Corrigan: I wouldn’t rule that out to be honest – if the case numbers spike further then we could easily find ourselves in something much stricter in the new year.
The only hope is that, in the meantime we get a better picture as to the hospitalisation stats of omicron in a boosted population. With a bit of luck, if it’s low enough, we might escape anything too harsh.
@Lee King Buckett: Hopefully. We are all sick to the back teeth of this virus.
@Sean Murphy: Yeah, I read that tweet. It sounds like someone’s opinion, not Martin’s actual response.
@Sean O’Doherty: how much more proof do you need? Here is a comment from the Tánaiste stating the exact same. https://mobile.twitter.com/gavreilly/status/1471927705784528907
@Spartacus Ireland: no, it doesn’t, we can do whatever we want except spend an extra 4 hrs in the boozer getting hammered. If that’s your idea of a curfew then you need to find a number for AA.
@David Corrigan: in Florida at the minute and I don’t see what you are talking about. There’s no restrictions, no lockdown, no vaccine cert and life is pretty much normal. If you are unvaccinated you are asked to wear a mask indoors but there’s no checking on this. Its all left to personal risk assessment and responsibility. It’s maybe the sixth item on the news. Whatever about what went before itn the US, now they truly are living with the virus. Also, their rates of infection in Florida are much less than ours.
@Roland Tarrant: Check out NY please. ‘We are in for a world of trouble’ is in the headline below.
@Roland Tarrant: cases in Florida have gone from about 2.5k a day to 8k a day in the past week. Luckily some places in Florida are taking it seriously and do require covid certs. I booked tickets for a gig there in March and it said you either need to be fully vaccinated or have a negative test to attend and masks have to be worn at all times.
@Sam Harms: positice cases are out of a population of 21million so most certainly not the same. We have been to the main theme and waterparks and dined out and there is no cert system, at least not for those. The theme parks have tens of thousands of visitors a day. My point is the US isn’t living in fear of this.
@David Corrigan: Well we all got vaccinated and yet we are back to a semi lockdown (let’s call it what it is). Florida doesnt in any shape or form have any major restrictions . After seeing both approaches (US and Ireland) I feel that in Ireland our approach is dictated by a v poorly managed health service and not the disease. Also in Florida there isn’t antigen testing to any great extent. Perhaps the optimum solution is somewhere in the middle but to be honest I think in Ireland we have got it majorly wrong at this stage of the game.
@Roland Tarrant: I don’t think it’s the best comparison. Over 60,000 people have died of Covid in Florida, the third highest f any state. Florida state only counts cases of full time residents so anyone with a holiday home there, tourists,, seasonal residents are not counted in the Florida case numbers. Imagine the numbers f they were! They have also had a massively high rate of infection historically, especially last Aug. . I thought I read at some point that 68% of residents have had Covid, so a lot of natural immunity there, which will wane of course, to go with their 70% vaccination rate.
@GrumpyAulFella: Fair enough, maybe not historically the best comparison (I did say that in a way in my comment). However at this point in time, in my opinion, they living with covid better than we are. At what economic and mental cost will we compare with them…I wonder will we all end up at the same final deaths per population by the time this disease wanes to a mild flu.
@Roland Tarrant: maybe so but 60,000 deaths and a high percentage sick population is a huge price to pay. That would be like having 15,000 deaths here. So in-effect our approach has saved 9,000 lives over the Florida approach and that’s without the benefit of their climate. That’s a massive human price to pay, especially seeing as though we are effectively fully open anyway and have been for months. Cash is king in the Sunshine State though. They will never lockdown fully.
@Spartacus Ireland: you can go to weddings. You can party away to midnight, the virus doesn’t like weddings
@Roland Tarrant: You have the Delta virus and Omicron is beginning to spread. You also have over double the death rate. So it is not great when you look at all the numbers.
@Lee King Buckett: It is a further erosion of our liberties. The vulnerable and the elderly have received their boosters. It’s now time to get back to living with the virus, instead of running for cover every time a new varient appears.
@Roland Tarrant: the rate of testing in Florida is a lot lower than ours. Also the lady responsible for tracking numbers infections/hospitalisations/deaths was sacked last year by their Trump loving governor because they wanted to fudge their numbers. As with previous waves in the USA red states like Florida will get hit the worst.
@Lee King Buckett: But lee two sides to every story. The restaurant owners, the people involved with the panto ect ect might beg to differ.Its as close to a lockdown in their eyes isn’t it?
@David Corrigan: I reckon they’re only waiting for snow to user that in.
* usher, I mean.
Could they not just have agreed to open the doors and windows in the pubs? According to Tony it works great in the schools
The single limitation that is resulting in the reintroduction of restrictions in Ireland, is the inadequate number of ICU beds and staff, in December of 2020 that was an operational reality that had to be worked around.
However in December 2021 that inadequate number of ICU beds, is a complete failure of not only HSE management, but the three parties in government too. They bet on mass vaccinations containing or stopping covid, essentially putting all their and our eggs in one basket and the entire country is now paying the price.
@David Van-Standen: Agree regarding a lack of improvement to the HSE. However I’d argue that vaccinations clearly have worked in drastically curtailing deaths and hospitalisation from Covid. In the last week, there’ve been 32,977 confirmed cases with 47 deaths – 0.14%. The weekly average for hospitalisations is 518 – 1.57%.
In the first week of January this year, prior to the vaccination campaign really getting momentum, the corresponding figures were 30,996 cases, 84 deaths – 0.27% of cases – and 5,908 hospitalisations – a skyhigh 19.06%. This all with Delta reported as a far more serious variant than the original strain/Alpha variant.
Seems that vaccinations have clearly done their share of the lifting to avoid the need for societal and economic restrictions. Draw your own conclusions on NPHET’s new mantra…
@Sam Kendlin Hobbs: Argh hospitalisation figure for first week of Jan 2021 is weekly average of 844 – 2.72%. A far lesser number than my original 19% but still approx half of the current rate of hospitalisation.
Oh for an edit button!
@David Van-Standen: you can’t have ICU beds without ICU staff to safely look after the people in those beds.
@David Van-Standen: thats not accurate more ICU beds just means more beds to put the sick people into them.vaccinations and a mix of following health advice will prevent more people needing these beds in the first place.
@Sean Mccabe: This is a popular misconception that has only gained traction due to being often repeated and it comes from the very same people that are responsible for not increasing ICU beds, the HSE and government parties.
Because in reality it’s not actually an either or situation, but the polarised rhetoric about covid19 appears to make everything so, because everything is being viewed through a prism that turns any criticism of the policy and response to covid19 into anti vaxxer propaganda by design.
Even while continuing the mass vaccination programme, ICU beds and staffing could have been simultaneously increased to give increased capacity, which would mean that even with a higher levels of cases from society not being shut down, it would not be overwhelming our health service.
@David Van-Standen: and this is the same every winter
@David Van-Standen: I don’t agree, staff for ICU are like hens teeth can’t be got.in my eyes having more beds is a part of the problem but limiting the spread of covid socially amongst us is a bigger issue stop people needing hospital
@Sean Mccabe: I am sorry but you are literally regurgitating the government’s past and present policy, while simultaneously claiming that the solution I am putting forward can’t work, because you can’t see a way to implement it.
You are correct ICU nurses have critical care training and experience which makes them much more capable to identify and respond to the needs of critical patients, the problem is how to you double the number of physical ICU beds and adequately staff them?
Obviously the best way is by employing more ICU nurses, by training or overseas recruitment, but we could also have each qualified critical care nurse partnered with two other nurses, to whom non critical treatment duties could be delegated, meaning more beds and patients could be given ICU care.
@Sam Kendlin Hobbs: So with a survival rate of 99.9% why the unnecessary restrictions?
@David Van-Standen: It is not the case of opening a ward, it takes time to open up new intensive care beds. They have managed to do so but they admit nowhere near the amount they want.
You cant wish the staff the equipment into place.
As well as that, the stall sick levels are off the scale.
Our numbers show that vaccination is the only way to deal with it. Running in conjunction with social distancing and lockdowns.
That lowers the amount of infections and that was the plan.
@David Van-Standen: Germany has tonnes of beds and is in a terrible position.
@Sean Mccabe: I agree with you both – no one wants to end up on a trolley in a corridor from any cause, let alone on the floor in the same hospital. Far better not to catch a virus at all.
At the same time, winter patients waiting in corridors is a national disgrace. Year after year they’re left to wait for hours. It’s as though they have some vested interests in frightening senior citizens into buying private insurance. This time we don’t even have the safety valve of sending patients abroad for treatment, do we? So it’s going to be even busier.
There’s a little rumour floating around that the 8pm closing is only a recommendation, not law. A number of pubs seem to be taking a stand against it and sticking to the 11pm closing. How long this lasts, or how valid it is, I’m not sure.
@The Bolt: a rumour is the key word here.the 8 pm closing only comes into effect tonight so what are you talking about when you say pubs are taking a stand and sticking to 11pm closing how do you know that it hasn’t happened yet
@Sean Mccabe: I think it’s in Cork that pub owners have sought legal advice, and they’ve been informed that the 8pm closing are only recommendations and have no legal standing. What repercussions there are for pubs that stay open later, that I don’t know.
@The Bolt: the language used by the government was that pubs must close there’s no way on earth its a recommendation sure no pub would close then.the repercussions would be huge fines and possibly lose there license so I couldn’t see many going against closing maybe in small rural towns maybe but not bigger cities.
@The Bolt: They’ve always just been recommendations and guidelines. The problem with that is, premises that flout these guidelines are likely to have their licence renewal rejected to. This is why many premises are following the guidelines.
@The Bolt: They should be taking a stand and protecting their businesses. The government doesn’t care about their livelihoods.
@The Bolt: licence renewal objections etc. (eg: Berlin Bar, Dublin)
It’s time for nephet and this government to step down they are out of touch
@Mick Dunne: I don’t want Health advisors or a government that makes decisions based on the “feelings” of the electorate when it comes to a pandemic. Look at who has been voted into the Dail down thru the years and tell me that the public are the best at making decisions, not to mind about a situation that as a whole they are grossly under skilled at.
My guess is if you were in charge the health service would be on it’s knees, and the economy sh@fted, so let’s not pretend we have the expertise to guide this ship any better.
@Pablo: The health service has been on its knees for decades. As for the economy our children’s children will still be paying the debts bestowed upon us by this and previous government. Not to mention what it will cost every person when we eventually have to pay back for, hopefully, only the last two years if covid. So maybe Mick might be the better option I doubt anyone could do much worse.
@Mick Dunne: good lad… Out of touch with what?
It’s a pandemic, not a new brand of clothing. They’re not supposed to decisions based on popularity of the day. They make th based on potential disease transmission.
Do try to get a grip on what’s going on around you.. Or you could try to stay in touch…
Everyone missing the point here. Why have we not heard one person address a simple question!. What can we do to stop hospitalisation?. How can we treat covid early at home?. Are there medicines, healthy lifestyle choices we can make to help people in their house and ease the pressure on health system?. All we hear is vaccine, mask, hands. We have done that. Next????
@John Sadlier: It’s a valid question. Are you talking about medical people visiting people at home or just giving people advice on what they can do while isolating, as surely the later is happening.
As regards a hospital in the home situation, with an infectious disease that will certainly cause logistic issues. After visiting where does the PPE get disposed, are there increased risks to the health professional in that situation etc. It’s certainly a valid question, but just because it may not be happening, doesn’t mean it hasn’t been explored.
@John Sadlier: it’s a virus. There are no magic cures. You can only ease symptoms, just like the Flu or a cold.
Why oh why are we not starting to treat people the very day that they get a positive test. Its negligence at the highest level that we have obese people who get a positive test. We know for a fact that these people are high risk.
But what are we doing to mitigate this risk. NOTHING. We tell them to stay at home and then they arrive in ICU a few days later not being able to breath. The doctors then proceed to throw the kitchen sick at them in terms of medication but for many its too late. Early treatment is proving to work all over the world. I’m not against vaccines but the reality is that a vaccine is not a treatment for someone sick with Covid. We know vaccinated people can get it, we know they can end up in ICU and we know that they can die from it. Many many deaths could have been prevented.
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: What early treatments are you referring to? One thing that has kinda stumped me is how few people know about the importance of having an oximeter. A 25quid device that allows you to monitor your blood oxygen levels, an important indicator for covid severity.
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: you copy and paste this on every Covid article. What exactly are you proposing, oral steroids, vit D and Zinc tablets for anyone isolating? You might as well be rubbing Vick on your chest at that point.
@GrumpyAulFella: I am asking the question no one is asking and talking about early treatment. Why because proactive health care is better than reactive health care. Would we tell someone just diagnosed with cancer to go home and come back if you get worse. Course not. We detect early and treat early.
All we hear regarding Covid is the ICU numbers and the number of people testing positive yet doctors in the west refuse to discuss treating covid early. WHY? My work colleagues from Asia told how her elderly parents were sent a pack from the govt to be used if they got covid. They both got it and all the medication required they had. Nether needed hospitalization, the father got quiet sick. Early intervention saved his life rather than letting the disease progress further untreated. The way the west are handling this is not correct and is causing much suffering and death.
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: What was in the pack that saved his life after he got Covid? Would he have lived without the pack. From what I’ve read, like all other virus’, you can only treat the symptoms but it still has to run its course. Oral steroids may reduce lung inflammation but have nasty side-effects and would have to be prescribed by a doctor. Oxygen, inhalers may help to open airways to relieve breathing difficulties but if you are in that position then you should be in hospital. It sounds like poor treatment to me. Perhaps these people should be in hospital but this pack is a ploy to keep them away?
@GrumpyAulFella: “From what I’ve read, like all other virus’, you can only treat the symptoms but it still has to run its course”. Are you really putting Covid 19 is the same category as other viruses? The virus that has shaken the world and has had hospitals over run? Countries coming to a complete halt. Seriously!!!
There are knowns and unknown. What we know is that we cannot keep going the way we are with rolling lockdowns to save the HSE. We need new thinking and we need to be more proactive than reactive.
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: What early treatment, do you mean the meds just finishing testing that we will have when they are ready,
Thats already in place.
Will all those people have to go on the dole then? It could be weeks before they are all processed.
@David Corrigan: No, the PUP was restored a few weeks back.
@Lee King Buckett: will surely still take a while to process people’s applications. On xmas week, nice one government.
@Brian Dunne: I don’t think so in fairness – you register online and get paid on the next pay date. To be fair, it’s about the only thing that has worked well in the past 18 months or so.
We are not being told the truth
“You can’t handle the truth.”
After all the house parties over Christmas and New Year Eve we will be in another lockdown
@John Quinn: Then no one to blame but ourselves! We will still be blaming the Govt though, it’s what we do. We don’t really like looking in the mirror, do we?
@Tony Harris: I won’t be attending any house parties but unfortunately there will be many other young people that will which will lead to another lockdown that’s life
No matter what the Government do they will be wrong. Open up the place and spread the virus or lockdown the country and minimise the sickness ? It’s an impossible situation and there is no perfect answer.
@: yeah , well perhaps maybe taking learnings from last year and seeing that our worst period was in the winter months, maybe just maybe open up more and earlier in the summer months as opposed to doing the exact same thing as last year and being surprised of the results.
@: 100% correct
Queensland – bugger all cases. People are screaming for the boarders to open. At a macro level keeping them shut was probably a good idea, but when talking about actual people it was tough. Borders open a few days ago, cases start rising – a student nurse in one of the main hospitals in Brisbane tests positive today and that knocks out a whole surgery department who now have to isolate.
There are no right answers, someone will always be impacted.
Its really not an impossible position, its a political position, because they adopted a single solution, mass vaccinations to fix everything and stop covid19, in a frontal assault meeting covid head on, but the problem is that covid19 is a virus, not a sentient adversary, so it just continues to, spread to new hosts, mutate and adapt.
And now the government finds themselves essentially baxk to square one, but admitting that is political suicide, so instead they double down on the same measures, to prevent themselves being accused of initially making an error of judgement, or now making a u-turn, indecisiveness or incompetence.
Everything politicians do between getting elected and the next election, is about optics to get reelected.
I wont be getting another. Triple vaxed thats enough.
That they’ll follow the advice of sage in the UK? The UK, where Omicron is much more rampant, yet they haven’t imposed such draconian curfews.
@Toon Army: the UK are heading towards a full lockdown
@Toon Army: Why do you think the UK has the highest rates of infection in the world daily at present. BECAUSE THEY ARE DOING NOTHING.
@Gary Kearney: uk has 15th highest rate per 1million population. you need to look up your numbers. and that’s after been open since june. there daily case numbers per 100000 population arent much higher that ours with all our restrictions
@Gary Kearney: Dramatic drop in U.K numbers today.
schools are safe. . . . . . . . . . . .
@Bala mc blaha: nowhere is safe.
It’s all about limiting social interactions at the population level.
And in a choice between keeping children in education, and allowing parents of said children to work, they are kept open while hospitality is limited by a few hours.
There are no right choices, just less bad ones.
Try stop thinking in black and white, or that there are any magic bullets here, there are tough calls and any call will bey derided by some.
@Fozz: Majority of cases are in primary schools extending Xmas holidays by about 2 weeks is not going to have any serious impact on their education. As for working parents surely, especially two years into covid, they should have measures in place if they need to care for their children. Even without covid there should be fall back measures in place should children get ill. You can only curtail the spread of covid by focusing on where cases are arising this is not happening. Unfortunately schools/teachers are not babysitters.
Work in a pub four full time staff we are down approximately 56 hours a week , so with 25:26 hours a week how do you pay your bills, if it’s for the greater good you say ok and accept it, but the situation is that now it looks like we all get covid it’s just a question of when , if you are barely surviving on 40 hours 25 hours mean you can’t survive and still suppose to go into work with a smile on your face and be pleasant
Do they really think people will go home to bed at 8pm on Stephen’s day? Atleast in a pub it would be regulated.. are they really that clueless?
Not about a virus
Right now lads finish up yere ice creams
when will Philip nolan’s figures be independently audited
Genuine question, what is the purpose or long term benefit of being vaccinated if restrictions etc are instigated when numbers rise or a new variant emerges? I’m grateful to be vaccinated but I am evaluating the overall benefit V’s those that are not vaccinated. The context around hospital numbers is vague recently and I think that’s a pity as reporting numbers in isolation or comparing Ireland to other Countries where that Country may have different vaccine uptake is ridiculous. Maybe the whole fatigue of this pandemic is just hitting me now!! I feel the general population are abiding by guidelines, there will never be 100% compliance even so that cohort is small. I thought the whole point of being vaccinated and abiding by guidelines was to creat a new way of LIVING alongside this virus.
@Trisha Durkan: Check out the figures of the people vaccinated against the non vaccinated in hospital and that will answer your question.
You are very lucky to see people abiding by the guidelines as up until the lat[st week, the rules had been forgotten.
hilarious to see people now wiping things clean and having spare masks with them again.
Japan is now labeling the “vaccines” to warn of dangerous and potentially deadly side effects such as myocarditis. They are also reaffirming its commitment to adverse event reporting requirements to ensure all possible side effects are documented.
They raised concerns about the risks of myocarditis in young men injected with Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines. The country is enforcing a strict legal reporting requirement of side effects that must take place within 28 days of the injections.
Japan is emphasizing informed consent and bodily autonomy. Until the coronavirus pandemic, the concept of “informed consent” was always considered sacred to healthcare professionals.
The habit of heading off to the pub at the drop of a hat is gone forever. Since the pandemic started people have got used to having a drink at Home and paying about 25% of the cost of going out to the local. €5 for a bottle of lager in a pub – forget it. And that’s at the cheap end of the price range.
The only reason so many over 18s are getting vaccinations is because there’s nowhere else to go!
Pity it’s all pointless. All the vaccinations in world and still locked down.
@Lisa Jones: except we aren’t locked down.
What’s amazing is that there are different quarantine rules for health Care workers. Surely they are more at risk of catching and spreading it.
@Ciara O’Regan: Of course they are but there is such a shortage of staff they have no option. Its to keep as many working as possible to keep hospitals going. If staffing levels had been increased on a regular basis over the last decade or two instead of being reduced this would never need to happen. The welfare of our health care/front line workers was never top of government or HSE’S agenda.
@Franny Ando: If and buts, we are in the situation we are in, We manage it with what we have.
We need to fix the issues with whets available not agonise over the mistakes made by governments. As that won’t change anything.
@Gary Kearney: Stop being a government apologist its embarrassing.
Groundhog day,simple.
Lock all down for January, if there’s any month to do it January is the month.
Let it run it’s course
Closed at 8pm sure. But there was no instruction that I’ve heard unlike last year.. that everybody has to be off the premises at 8..or did I miss something? So..if I’m still in the pub at 8..can I stay?
Let it rip
COVID is a munch of garbage the risk of death is no existant. Live life on life’s terms this thing is a pain in the belly vaccine situation what’s the ☝️
Listen to you!
Things like taking a ‘booster’ jab into my body!?
have your say