@Maalouf: probably not seeing as the death rate is so low…id rather take my chances because this is no life for anyone, cannot understand why people are still going along with this…its nuts

@Full Circle: ya exactly, where are the numbers of job losses? Suicides? How much more the country is in debt every day??????

@Shnack: The hysteria is actually getting worse if anything. The appetite for restrictions seems neverending

@Shnack: your probably right. It’s all too late. There is no point doing now what australia abs New Zealand has been doing for 12 months. You missed the boat and are swimming.
Home quarantine is a joke abs so is hotel quarantine unless you have a solider on each floor of the hotel. Melbourne learned this the hard way. And was locked down for two months due to and outbreak. Luckily it was contained and they are back to business as usual. Same as NSW who only locked down for about a week.

@Newto2016: yes the hysteria is worse now than it ever ever was, people cannot mentally take any more of this. People are turning against each other in droves. Fighting with everyone over absolutely everything, martyrs shaming people for wanting to open things up calling people murderers etc. This all has to stop. People’s mental health will not recover anymore, they will have nowhere to live anymore either when the money runs out.

@Shnack: That’s just the bl*e balls talking

@Kaya: that too lololol

@Shnack: stop making sense, there’s no place on here for that sort of talk. I would hope that the penny starts dropping for a lot of people soon. My boss only recently had an epiphany about how insane it is that there are zero supports for people where both parents are working and expected to homeschool as well. It’s just simply, suck it up and get on with it. Use your holiday time (since you’ve no right to look for time off anyway, sure where would you go?) or quit. Those are the two options that many people have been facing from the beginning.

The vitriol aimed towards anyone who dares have a dissenting opinion or questions the efficacy of the lockdown-reopen cycle is insane.

@Shnack: People are going along with it as the vaccine is just around the corner. We’d be opening up otherwise

@InvaderSkoodge: and I’m completely confident that any replies to this will be along the lines of “you’re lucky to have a job, you dont care if people die, you are just sick of looking at your kids, the vaccine is coming and everything will be sunshine and roses and NZ has zero covid” ad nauseam

@Shnack: how do you protect the vunerable? Leave them locked up in complete isolation?
If not then the risk still remains of someone who isnt classed as vunerable catching the virus in the community and giving it to the vunerable person. Obviously with everything opened up the virus will grow again, hospitals and ICU’s will fill up again and then f.a. has been achieved.
The economy will recover, people will gain employment and we’ll all be able to return to a proper way of living but now is not the time.
The UK tried to ignore the seriousness of the virus and hoped that deaths would not climb above 20k, they passed 100k deaths a few days ago. We are not equiped to have an open society while trying to control a pandemic at the same time, christmas just proved that.

@Steven Powell: We have open borders and are not allowed close them unless Unelected bureaucrats in Brussels give us permission.

@InvaderSkoodge: your boss is 100% right on that issue, my brother and his wife have 4 choosing kids. His wife is an essential worker and he is working from home on a hugely reduced wage and cam barely afford the mortgage anymore. All their savings is gone. They have 2 laptops between the whole family. He cannot homeschool them during the day, they are taking turns using the laptop. And when he ir his wife open their mouths about opening the schools they are accused of wanting to kill peoples grannies. Andolutely horrendous.

@Shnack: *schoolgoing kids

@Derek Lyster: sorry but they are already in complete isolation….along with the vast majority of the country in order to protect them

@Shnack: our hospitals are being overrun from what was a 2 week loosening of restrictions. What you are suggesting could literally take us to a societal collapse. I know two people in the past two weeks who have died after being taken to hospital for non covid related treatment – that in itself is a collapse of the system.

@Shnack: 90 dead yesterday. 54 dead today. All those families bereaved. And this is all you can say. Do you actually know tge meaning of community transmission?

@Derek Lyster: they are already in isolation, same as everyone else, how has that gone so far?

@Shnack: your are clearly panicking which is not a good way to make decisions.

@Lad: no I’m not actually, I’m one of the lucky ones who still has my job. I’m worried about everyone else.

@InvaderSkoodge: you called it! Here they all are lol

@Joe Griffin: yes I do, do you?

@Lad: i am sorry for your loss. Also, society has already collapsed incase you haven’t noticed.

@InvaderSkoodge: everyone else arent in isolation, we’re all restricting our movements and social contacts but we’re not in isolation.

@Shnack: Couldn’t agree more if I tried.

@Joe Griffin: How many deaths for other reasons? All deaths matter, well to most people anyway.

@Shnack: Thank you for writing this post it’s exactly as I see it now. So tired and fed up enough is enough wheres the plan after a year protect the vulnerable. Let the rest of us live roll out the vaccines. Today alone I went to the Dr to discuss how I was feeling and that I needed help i too am working full time and blessed for that.But others round me not so lucky and will only get worse…

@Shnack: I work in Covid HDU – you know who my patients are?
Old people, young people, pregnant women, people from nursing homes or with pre-existing conditions, people who ran marathons and were never sick a day in their life. People who had nothing in common except for the fact that they’re all now in very bad shape, struggling to breathe on ventilators, supplemental oxygen, steroids and antibiotics…basically I’m saying you literally don’t know what you’re talking about so STFU

@Lisa O Connor: I wish this reply was at the top. Youre not alone Lisa, myself and so many other I love are on emotional roller coasters. Ita just too much for so many people. Like you I’m lucky to have work too so I hate complaining at all because others are in worse situations but its knocking the soul out of me. I hope you have someone to turn to to relay how you feel. One person is all you need. But this country needs to have a complete change. There seems to be no plan in place, nobody has anything to look forward to and the ones who are lucky enough to work feel like whats the point? There is no let up. Life needs to go on. This is not life.

@SJF: just because I don’t work where you work does not mean a single thing! You are clearly out of touch with the majority of everyone else in the country suffering from the lockdowns. Have heard this story a million times from people like you and its a way to shut people up and accuse us of not caring about sick people in hospital. You might work there but you must not have any clue of economics, accounting, politics or even mental health training to dictate what opinions are valid and which are not. How dare you tell me to stfu, your opinion is no stronger or better than anyone else on this. If you’re looking for a medal for doing your job im sorry, I ran out very quickly last March.

@Shnack: the death rate is lower because of restrictions, it we opened up everything the death rate would be sky high. You only need to see how rampant the infection rate got after Christmas and it would keep getting worse and worse if left unchecked.

@Shnack: honestly this sounds like the opinion of a clown. I’m nearly in tears as is my father faceting last night as he hasn’t seen his newborn granddaughter in 6 weeks but lockdown and restrictions currently in place are keeping numbers low.

Countries like Norway daily talking about their numbers and how they can’t get as bad as Ireland is.

@Shnack: Are u for real ,so let everyone die is that your logic Do u think the Government & NPHET are doing this just to keep us all locked up ,

@Shnack:
“You might work there but you must not have any clue of economics, accounting, politics or even mental health training to dictate what opinions are valid and which are not”

Oh, so you’re an economist, mental health professional, politician and account now are you? You must be, or by your own logic you’re not sufficiently qualified to weigh in on those topics and thus decide whether or not I have any knowledge regarding them – bit of a catch-22 eh?

“Have heard this story a million times from people like you and its a way to shut people up and accuse us of not caring about sick people in hospital”

Nope, personally couldn’t give a damn whether or not you care about anything but if it will shut you up advocating “herd immunity” (which has been emphatically proven to be an abysmal failure) then hey, I’m all for it.
Whether or not you care about sick people in hospital is irrelevant – you obviously have no interest in preventing people from getting sick and ending in hospital in the first place because you’re happy to roll the dice with other people’s lives.

Something about your wording suggests to me that you consider yourself one of those “perfectly healthy” people you mention and my point was (because clearly you didn’t get it) that this virus is unpredictable and unlike a flu or cold those who end up having no symptoms or those who end up going off a cliff with it is no sure thing.

And yes, I have watched people die almost EVERY DAMN DAY since Christmas, I’ve had to call families and tell them their “perfectly healthy” relatives are now palliative and they better come in quick to say their goodbyes…and then I come home after working 13 hours in a row without a break – not even for lunch- and read this sh!t from someone who judging by their comments just doesn’t get it, who CANNOT apparently grasp just how bad this is getting, just how bad things are, and accuses me of wanting a medal? How dare YOU.

And yes, if your opinion is to open up EVERYTHING then yes, my opinion is subjectively more valid.
You want me to play devils advocate? Debate you? Agree to disagree or accept your opinion as “equally valid” sorry, ran out of effs to give very quickly in March.

@SJF: hear hear. Thank your for everything you are doing

@SJF: Well said and thank you for all you and your colleagues are doing. this @scnack person is a plonker. him and his like are the reason you are so busy and the system is collapsing. What an absolute prizeClown he or she is.

@Shnack: you’re worried about yourself end of. And your selfishness is blatant. Thank christ I am not a friend or family of yours, you wouldn’t be one to rely on. I agree with SJF, you haven’t a clue and echo his sentiment, STFU!! 1D1OT

@SJF: I think I read to line 6 on this…zzzzzz

@Shnack: Suicides rate is down by 6%, presumably you will be against reversing the lock down as it will increase the suicide rate and you are an active campaigner for better mental health facilities.

I doubt it.

@ChronicAnxiety: get a life

@Shnack: totally ignorant reply She is telling you the truth but u dont want to hear it pity u can’t see it first hand by visiting ICU or talk to the many families who have lost loved ones U don’t seem to care once u can get back to your full life & to hell with the conquences Yes people are having a very hard time money wise Being restricted & mental Health l issues but they still would not want to lose a loved one Do u think its only in this country this is happening & rhe Governments are closing up everything for fun

@SJF: Have a couple of (genuine) questions: When you say you want to shut up people arguing “herd immunity”, I presume you mean the strategy and not the concept, right? Of those people you mention above (Old people, young people, pregnant women, people from nursing homes or with pre-existing conditions, people who ran marathons and were never sick a day in their life), what’s the percentage of each? Are you seeing more of one group than others, or a pretty even mix?

@Manni: the people voted them in it will never change

@Carol Cunningham: Will you grow the f up?? The EU front ended billions to AZ, invested much more than the UK on this very vaccine the Brits love boasting about, half of the breakthrough at Oxford came from Irish scientists and AZ is half swedish yet the arrogant English think it is them who are solely responsible for this vaccine

FYI AZ signed a contract with the EU, committed to quarterly deliveries which needs to be honoured by AZ, you probably dont understand contract law very well but others do and it doesnt work on a first come first served basis as most simpletons would believe with contracts.

The EU isnt behaving like a spoiled child but is rightfully demanding a contract is upheld and a return on it’s up front investment.

@Marcin Goralski: see full circles answer

@Kevin50: thanks for the tip!