@Adam Conroy: change the law then

@John Peeters: change the government!

@Adam Conroy: very simple. Change the constitution.

@ruairi: but he get everything relating to covid wrong. Does that sound like an expert?

@Paul Lanigan: He didn’t get everything wrong. He said a few weeks ago we were at the outset of a second wave, which we are now. He said in August testing and tracing wouldn’t be enough, that distancing would be needed and that “we will end up having further county and local area based restrictions, maybe on private parties and gatherings in private areas like the home.” He predicted in January Ireland could have at least 20,000 cases of covid. His Journal article from march seems fairly on the ball, looking at it with hindsight. He hasn’t gotten it all correct by any means, but show me the expert who has. https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/covid-19-sam-mcconkey-5036559-Mar2020/

@Lad: well ‘Lad’ the point I’m making that every other day a ” Leading Expert” is saying something that contradicts the previous “Leading Expert”

@Jason Ebbs: surely level 5 should be to prevent the doomsday scenario, you don’t wait until hospitals are over flowing to go to level 5. And we already know the hospitals will be overflowing because it happens every year anyway.

@Lotta Rossler: if people had adhered to level 2 it would reduce transmission, we are now going into level 3 because people didn’t.

@Lad: And when we emerge from level 5 the virus will again surge. So what do we do then, go back to level 5? We need to be very realistic. I simply don’t believe Ireland can sustain another savage lockdown economically or socially, followed by another lockdown. We are already borrowing billions. We can’t sustain this.

The strategy appears to be to attempt to eliminate the virus. I’m not aware of any instance where a quarantine has been able to achieve this result. Once we come out of such a quarantine the virus will again surge.

Nor do I think that following the advice of of NPHET takes into account the devastating impact on non-Covid patients or the non-diagnosis of other illnesses. The mortality rate elsewhere arising from such a lockdown must be taken into account. It hasn’t been.

@Lad: agree I hope we don’t regret this in the coming months. This may be our only opportunity to go to level 5. We may have to go to complete lockdown if the numbers keep growing like they are. The numbers in hospitals and ICU will grow impacting on vital cardiac, cancer and other services and lead to more deaths. Keep in mind the healthcare workers are contracting the virus, leading to difficulties in managing patients in respiratory and ICUs. These are highly trained professionals who cannot be replaced easily. Lastly people are still requiring ICU management following surgery, accidents and medical deterioration, what will happen when healthcare professionals have to say we have no place available. Believe me their work is difficult enough without having to make such decisions

@Lad: I’m not saying don’t use level 5, I’m saying go through each level and use the restrictions step by step as they are intended to be used. So if things aren’t working out on 2, then move to 3, then onto 4 and then onto 5. Give each restriction level a chance to try and work instead of jumping from 2 straight to 5.

@Lotta Rossler: it would also cause serious mental stress and financial burden on ALOT of families.

@Lotta Rossler: and then what ?

@Jason Ebbs: you are going to tell us when Doomsday arrives are you? The idea of restrictions is to avoid Doomsday situation. When we get to Doomsday it is already too late for level 5.

@Jason Ebbs: of course it makes sense. At current rates our ICU beds will be full in 3 to 4 weeks what are you going to do then with new cases requiring ICU? A lottery system? Stop thinking about this geographically and start thinking about it in terms of support services. The amount of ICU beds we have applies to the whole country. That’s the reasoning behind the advice. Time and time again experts are saying it and time and time again the public arent listening. NPHET are having to make recommendations like this because the ONLY effective action they have available to them is isolating to stop a spread. The government have failed with a proper testing system which would give more choice to NPHET yet everybday people are on here blaming the scientists for making recommendations. Putting a level 5 in place STOPS the doomsday scenario. I mean are you really serious – your logic is “well if we do it where do we go from there?”. Todays numbers are already out of date we have to plan based on where we will be in 2 to 4 weeks. Its going to go pear shaped unless we go to level 5 or unless people start to cop on and socially distance properly. 6 people around me in the supermarket yesterday with no masks on. Stupidity.

@Jason Ebbs: the numbers are already past Level 3 and 4 Jason based on our available hospital capacities.

@Jason Ebbs: ‘people’ is bit general there , you mean ‘some people’ – there are plenty of people wearing masks washing hands keeping distance and its only not working because theres some people who have given up and will just live their lives regardless ( esp younger people but by no means not just them ) – the ;authorities’ have done a particularly bad job at bringing the people with them – especially that shitshow from NPHET yesterday – which was a pretty irresponsible way to do things – they left everyone on a knife edge by announcing 72 after they said thursday that they didnt think we needed to move counties up from 2 to 3 – this is the WORST possibly way to communicate such a serious message – how come at the start we had Leo being informed by Nphet and making announcements to the country about what needed to be done but yesterday they met and leaked their decisions – they need to be help to account for such irresponsible and unprofessional conduct for an emergency team – im sick of hearing excuses like they are only looking after health and only making recomendations – thats their bloody job and they are doing it in very very shabby way – there was a whole country anxiety ridden thinking about another lock down and the financial ramifications – i am glad the Govt finally started to govern and pushed back but they need to take them to task and make it clear in no uncertain terms that they need to do a much. much better job bringing the people along with them – because that was frankly unacceptable conduct for a body with such serious responsibility – and how come a lockdown which only ‘buys time’ was squandered last time when they have made no serious improvements to ICU / capacity / testing and tracing – the list is getting pretty long for things our well paid health administrators are suppose to be doing – but then again we have a trolley ‘crisis’ that happens year in and year out and the same muppets can’t get to grip with it so we probably shouldn’t be surprised

@John R: 100% correct – they keep saying now NPHET are only going to give advice but they need to be doing much better job at that advice – last Thursday they said no evidence that we need to move any counties up from their level 2 and 72 hours later they are saying everything needs to be level 5 – thats incompetence – even the communication of the decisions leaked on a Sunday night – the whole country ( well except those hermatically sealed and protected from ant financial impact of course ) was left anxious and worried about what will happen – absolutely disgraceful carry on from a body that needs to bring public with them – need to be held to account – they are very well paid and even if their defenders are saying ‘well they might be right ‘ – completely missing the point – if they are right they are going the complete wrong way of getting the public to buy in by behaving in such a shambolic manner – the vicar of dibley committee meetings are more professional ffs.

@Gerard Smith: icu beds will not be full in 3-4 weeks and the health professionals are the ones who have been given additional hundreds of millions of taxpayer money to address capacity issues – and they have failed – all this finger wagging at the public and lockdown threats are pathetic way to manage this crisis – take a look at how other sensible countries are doing – they seem ot be able to manage with increased cases and no threats to capacity or surges in deaths – you are way off in your fear mongering – go take a look at each Eu country and explain why Ireland is so different – we are the slowest to rebuild our society and now they are all nervous about the winter – but thats not the publics responsibility – thats the responsibility of the people in charge – lockdowns only buy time they do not eradicate the virus – your logic is flawwed – every other country is talking about balancing the economic realities with restrictions – every other eu country have introduced 10pm closing for restaurants etc – every other country – especially the smart ones have spent 6 months improving testing tracing and chasing the outbreaks – we have failed to improve capacity , wasted hundreds of millions renting private capacity – THAT WE DIDNT NEED – and. hers you again saying in 3 weeks time we will be over run – you are just completely wrong with your doomsday fear mongering crap and have no practical solutions – finally the govt started to govern today and we are hearing some balance – common sense will tell you the country won’t be able to afford to run a health and welfare system if it keeps turning to the lockdown lovers BS strategy and decimating smes and livelihoods. Lockdowns only buy you time – if you cant use that time wisely to make proper plans then you cannot expect people to go along with them. These ‘professionals’ have presided over a trolley crisis for 20 years when our old sick and vulnerable do not get the care they deserve because of poor administration and health management – what makes you think they have the solution this year when they simply throw good money after bad into a leaky bucket without reforming the system. Interesting to see the lockdown lovers are almost always the ones whop are unaffected financially by these decisions – perhaps in the spirit of all in this together then all workers should be put on 3 day week with 40% pay cuts during lockdown – watch how that focuses the minds of how much lockdown we should have – 300 000 govt workers on full pay hermetically sealed from any impact is not ALL IN THIS TOGETHER – and the people are sick of it.

@Paul Cunningham: It is impossible to wipe out a virus. Impossible. If Ireland had followed your suggestion then post such a quarantine a single case of transmission from NI or from someone coming from overseas would lead us back to square 1. Elimination is a delusional pipe dream. The only consequence of following your suggestion would be national and individual bankruptcy. We need a more nuanced strategy. Sweden is looking more attractive by the day and I never thought I’d hear myself say that. If we continue like this we will destroy our economy for a decade and that will lead to far more deaths.

@John R: Impossible is nothing. I have been in Asia, and seen the virus eradicated from the face of the Earth, and yet you can’t seem to think beyond this Ireland bubble, that we just cannot do it and should just take it? I would much rather fight to clear this virus than accept defeat, killing all our elderly and continually closing and opening the shops, bars, clubs, restaurants, events and more. Health and the economy are intertwined with a virus like this and it requires willpower as a society. But if the Irish are not willing to do this, then we should punish them for not following the rules. Too much rulebreaking is happening to succeed at the moment, and this needs to stop.

@John R: australia did it , and did it by closing internal borders , same as our NI / ROI border

@CoraG: Colleges have a problem if the new student accommodation blocks are not occupied as either they or the international investors funding the new accommodation are going to be out of pocket. If its the international investors who have been deprived of their expected profits by government action then expect a demand that the taxpayer pick up the tab or the government is taken to one of the WTO arbitration courts for a secret hearing and unappealable decision – its probably signed up for all this anyway. What price the safety of students when international money is involved?

@Olivia Smith: covid or not people will die, that’s the circle of life.each and every person on this Island north and south are Not following the guidelines, some are but not all and it doesn’t matter what expert says what , it won’t change people’s attitudes. Weather it’s phases, stages, colours or shapes it won’t make a difference. This week it’s the Gaa supporters getting the blame, last week the students, next week it will be some one else being blamed

@Shakka1244: well I find Sheldon very funny and he’d probably do a better job in government then those up there at the moment.