Entire Cabinet to self-isolate as Dáil adjourned

mirrorwall14

This whole thing stinks. In a classroom the teacher may not even be told, never mind restrict their movements, even if they spend 40 minutes in a room with up to 30 students and an actual positive CONFIRMED case among the students

However this crowd of numptys, who are neither family members nor live with Stephen Donnelly all went into isolation over a SUSPECTED case in work. WTAF? I assumed they must have a quick test saying positive for this reaction.

It’s completely at odds with the rest of society and most particularly the schools

irishblessing

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

This whole thing stinks. In a classroom the teacher may not even be told, never mind restrict their movements, even if they spend 40 minutes in a room with up to 30 students and an actual positive CONFIRMED case among the students

However this crowd of numptys, who are neither family members nor live with Stephen Donnelly all went into isolation over a SUSPECTED case in work. WTAF? I assumed they must have a quick test saying positive for this reaction.

It’s completely at odds with the rest of society and most particularly the schools

It's more than a bit precious.

Sure Mary Lou could step in. I'm beginning to think she'd whip the place in to shape in no time at all.

BPKS

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

This whole thing stinks. In a classroom the teacher may not even be told, never mind restrict their movements, even if they spend 40 minutes in a room with up to 30 students and an actual positive CONFIRMED case among the students

However this crowd of numptys, who are neither family members nor live with Stephen Donnelly all went into isolation over a SUSPECTED case in work. WTAF? I assumed they must have a quick test saying positive for this reaction.

It’s completely at odds with the rest of society and most particularly the schools

But a nice handy excuse to go to ground until this latest clusterfcuk they have presided over dies down a bit.

is_that_so

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

This whole thing stinks. In a classroom the teacher may not even be told, never mind restrict their movements, even if they spend 40 minutes in a room with up to 30 students and an actual positive CONFIRMED case among the students

However this crowd of numptys, who are neither family members nor live with Stephen Donnelly all went into isolation over a SUSPECTED case in work. WTAF? I assumed they must have a quick test saying positive for this reaction.

It’s completely at odds with the rest of society and most particularly the schools

Well, they are supposedly running the country and rightly or wrongly of more importance than others. Overcautious sure but in the dark days Varadkar and Coveney were rarely if ever in the same room.

MOH

MerlinSouthDub wrote: »

It sets a good example. If in doubt, get tested, be open about it and ensure any colleagues are aware of it so that they can take precautions.

He talks to the CMO several times a day. Of course he's going to ask him for advice!

I don't think this HSE page has changed substantially since April:

HSE wrote:

"If you have any common symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19), you should self-isolate and phone your GP straight away to get a coronavirus test.

Common symptoms of coronavirus include:
- a cough - this can be any kind of cough, not just dry"

He was apparently displaying symptoms at the cabinet meeting:

Later yesterday afternoon, Mr Donnelly was advised to seek a test for the virus after he became unwell following the launch of the plan. Some ministers reported that their Fianna Fáil colleague appeared visibly unwell at the Cabinet meeting.

And other posters have said he was coughing on the radio earlier that morning.

*If* he had a cough before the cabinet meeting and failed to follow the basic advice of self-isolating and getting a test, then it's far from a good example. It's incredibly irresponsible.

This is at a time when schools have just gone back and parents are being told that if their child has a cough they should keep them out of school and the whole household should restrict their movements. How many people next week are going to think "Well the minister for health didn't miss a day of work, why should I?".

SB71

amadangomor wrote: »

You are scraping the barrel looking for any way to critisise.

I had the test result in 29 hours a few days ago so you are talking baloney about a week off for a nurse.

He runs the most important department in the country at present and the whole cabinet were out until he got his result. Of course they are going to get it done ASAP and not in line with the 10s of thousands they are completing every week now.

Welcome to the real world.

it took almost 5 days for my missus to get her test results (negative) recently, lets not be under any illusions here by stating all tests are coming back quickly as they claim as they most certainly are not, 5 days and this was recent enough too.

Donnelly is a car cash of epic proportions, you sound like an apologist for the government.

MerlinSouthDub

MOH wrote: »

I don't think this HSE page has changed substantially since April:


He was apparently displaying symptoms at the cabinet meeting:


And other posters have said he was coughing on the radio earlier that morning.

*If* he had a cough before the cabinet meeting and failed to follow the basic advice of self-isolating and getting a test, then it's far from a good example. It's incredibly irresponsible.

This is at a time when schools have just gone back and parents are being told that if their child has a cough they should keep them out of school and the whole household should restrict their movements. How many people next week are going to think "Well the minister for health didn't miss a day of work, why should I?".

The mention that he was visibly unwell at the cabinet meeting doesn't have any actual quotes from a cabinet minister.

In relation to the cough on his radio interview, have you listened to it? It was one or two coughs, sounding like he was clearing his throat.

seamus

amadangomor wrote: »

You are scraping the barrel looking for any way to critisise.

I had the test result in 29 hours a few days ago so you are talking baloney about a week off for a nurse.

The issue here is that for everyone else, they contact the GP today, get an appointment for tomorrow, get a result on Friday afternoon.
They are, by default, in self-isolation for the best part of 3 days. Donnelly had to isolate for 4 hours. I wonder did he even go home?

He runs the most important department in the country at present and the whole cabinet were out until he got his result. Of course they are going to get it done ASAP and not in line with the 10s of thousands they are completing every week now.

Why though? He can do his job almost entirely remotely, he doesn't need to physically be at the DoH.
Same for "the whole cabinet", tbh.

Since Donnelly currenly has symptoms, he is still required under HSE guidelines to not return to work until he has been symptom-free for 48 hours.

So this guff about fast-tracking him because he needs to get back to work, is nonsense.

I absolutely understand how and why the test came about so quickly, and I'm not making a big deal about it. But it's another, "one rule for the elites" example that is grating on people's nerves.

We've done well to bring our testing regime up to scratch, but we've stopped. Other countries are moving forward, they have fast tests at airports or for key workers. We seem to have set a goal for 100,000 tests with a 1-day turnaround and then decided, "Ah that'll be grand, don't need to get any better at this".

Sardonicat

SB71 wrote: »

it took almost 5 days for my missus to get her test results (negative) recently, lets not be under any illusions here by stating all tests are coming back quickly as they claim as they most certainly are not, 5 days and this was recent enough too.

Donnelly is a car cash of epic proportions, you sound like an apologist for the government.

Over 5 days for me. Last week.

average_runner

SB71 wrote: »

it took almost 5 days for my missus to get her test results (negative) recently, lets not be under any illusions here by stating all tests are coming back quickly as they claim as they most certainly are not, 5 days and this was recent enough too.

Donnelly is a car cash of epic proportions, you sound like an apologist for the government.

Took my Dad 24 hours to get his results and the same for our neighbour.
Both got tested on Monday and results by Tuesday Evening

MOH

MerlinSouthDub wrote: »

The mention that he was visibly unwell at the cabinet meeting doesn't have any actual quotes from a cabinet minister.

I linked to the source, I didn't write the article.

In relation to the cough on his radio interview, have you listened to it? It was one or two coughs, sounding like he was clearing his throat.

No, I didn't listen to it. Which is why I clearly stated "other posters have said".

SB71

average_runner wrote: »

Took my Dad 24 hours to get his results and the same for our neighbour.
Both got tested on Monday and results by Tuesday Evening

well arent you the lucky one, i can safely say anyone i know who has been tested has had to wait a few days for the results.

Sardonicat

average_runner wrote: »

Took my Dad 24 hours to get his results and the same for our neighbour.
Both got tested on Monday and results by Tuesday Evening

What's your point? The fact remains that some people are waiting 5-6 days for results. According to my GP's receptionist, they are seeing this more frequwntly in recent weeks. No one should be waiting that long. To see Donnelly get his test and results turned around in the space of hours when people are being left waiting like this is bound to cause anger.

SB71

Sardonicat wrote: »

Over 5 days for me. Last week.

yep id well believe it as well, this is probably the standard timeframe of course they wont admit this, yet you've government apologists are on here in force saying otherwise:rolleyes:

Poor_old_gill

Poor_old_gill wrote: »

Falling support, age of the party’s voters, general inadequacy as they don’t fir anywhere in the political scene, crap performance & general unimpressive current team of candidates.

Been around 100 years and in government a lot. What's changed this time as opposed to the 80s? Or 2008/2009?

amadangomor

seamus wrote: »

The issue here is that for everyone else, they contact the GP today, get an appointment for tomorrow, get a result on Friday afternoon.
They are, by default, in self-isolation for the best part of 3 days. Donnelly had to isolate for 4 hours. I wonder did he even go home?
Why though? He can do his job almost entirely remotely, he doesn't need to physically be at the DoH.
Same for "the whole cabinet", tbh.

Since Donnelly currenly has symptoms, he is still required under HSE guidelines to not return to work until he has been symptom-free for 48 hours.

So this guff about fast-tracking him because he needs to get back to work, is nonsense.

I absolutely understand how and why the test came about so quickly, and I'm not making a big deal about it. But it's another, "one rule for the elites" example that is grating on people's nerves.

We've done well to bring our testing regime up to scratch, but we've stopped. Other countries are moving forward, they have fast tests at airports or for key workers. We seem to have set a goal for 100,000 tests with a 1-day turnaround and then decided, "Ah that'll be grand, don't need to get any better at this".

As an ordinary Joe Soap it took me 29 hours to get my test result. Very happy with that.

Even happier arguably the person most important to our way out of the Covid/economic crisis gets his even quicker.

Even if it took five days for my result so be it, I'm not a vital cog making decisions that will affect the future of this country.

I don't have any strong opinion on SD either way but as a minister he needs priority not because he is privileged but his job is one the most important in the country right now.

plodder

Yesterday was an absolute disaster, but in fairness if Donnelly's test had to wait in line with everyone else, government would be paralysed for the duration and the "only in Ireland" calls would be far worse. His negative result allows the rest of them to carry on, even if he still has to isolate.

Though I have to say if I spent the day in a cave yesterday and someone related the whole story to me today without saying which minister, I think I would have guessed who it was.

seamus

I don't have any strong opinion on SD either way but as a minister he needs priority not because he is privileged but his job is one the most important in the country right now.

But his ability to do that job isn't affected by the speed of his test.

He does not need to be physically present to do his job. There are medium-term legal reasons why he eventually needs to be present at the Dail. But there is absolutely no reason why he (and the rest of the cabinet) cannot do their jobs remotely for two weeks, if necessary.

Why does he need to get a faster result than someone working in supermarket? What does his role require that cannot be done remotely?

Of course, the funny thing here is that his department probably paid for him to be tested privately. You or I can do that. €200, few hours, result. I'd have no issue if that's what they did.

Everyone has assumed that he used public testing facilities and got jumped to the top of the queue because of his job. That's the issue.

StackSteevens

SB71 wrote: »

yep id well believe it as well, this is probably the standard timeframe of course they wont admit this, yet you've government apologists are on here in force saying otherwise:rolleyes:

Don't be so one-eyed.

Someone who had a test and obtained a result within a 24 hour turnaround (which was my experience in May) is merely enhancing the quality of the thread by providing some factual evidence.

Many of us regard facts as being infinitely more valuable and informative than mere opinion.

SB71

StackSteevens wrote: »

Don't be so one-eyed.

Someone who had a test and obtained a result within a 24 hour turnaround (which was my experience in May) is merely enhancing the quality of the thread by providing some factual evidence.

Many of us regard facts as being infinitely more valuable and informative than mere opinion.

quite clearly i am stating the facts , 5 days it took for my missus to get results last month when cases werent anywhere near where they are now, she said the testing centre was almost empty as well so whats going on here, someone else was we know was waiting close on 5 days as well, so this person claims to have got results back in a whopping 24 hours was either very lucky or downright lies.

khalessi

SB71 wrote: »

quite clearly i am stating the facts , 5 days it took for my missus to get results last month when cases werent anywhere near where they are now, she said the testing centre was almost empty as well so whats going on here, someone else was we know was waiting close on 5 days as well, so this person claims to have got results back in a whopping 24 hours was either very lucky or downright lies.

I think it depends where you are in country. I got kiddo tested last week at 3pm Tuesday and had results at 3:15 Wednesday

Beasty

So what if he did have it? Do people not appreciate the sooner the government knows the sooner they can make any contingency plans if required? What if we then had 50% of the government going down with it. Maybe not a great example but look at the state of the UK when Boris had it and it seriously escalated with Dominic Raab like a rabbit caught in the headlights

If course the minister for the most relevant government department has to be treated as a priority when we are in the middle of a pandemic. Maybe won't satisfy those who think everyone must be treated equal but give me practicality and common sense ahead of that any day in the current situation

MadYaker

Beasty wrote: »

So what if he did have it? Do people not appreciate the sooner the government knows the sooner they can make any contingency plans if required? What if we then had 50% of the government going down with it. Maybe not a great example but look at the state of the UK when Boris had it and it seriously escalated with Dominic Raab like a rabbit caught in the headlights

If course the minister for the most relevant government department has to be treated as a priority when we are in the middle of a pandemic. Maybe won't satisfy those who think everyone must be treated equal but give me practicality and common sense ahead of that any day in the current situation

Id agree. I don't have a problem with cabinet members being fast tracked for testing.

SB71

khalessi wrote: »

I think it depends where you are in country. I got kiddo tested last week at 3pm Tuesday and had results at 3:15 Wednesday

it shouldnt matter though, and this is another epic fail from the government.

They probably have more testing facilities in citys but they need to ensure that there are testing centes everywhere especially now.

stockshares

https://twitter.com/oconnellhugh/status/1306325903740416005?s=19