When will it all end?

ArielAtom

Lundstram wrote: »

Ewan MacKenna just on Virgin media there. Spoke nothing but sense and cold hard facts but the presenter cut him off. He was on for 3 minutes but would have been shorter if she got her way.

I just cannot understand why we, Ireland have had to suffer the strictest and longest lockdown in all of Europe. Why? Why is no one in government asking this? Why are opposition parties and independents not asking these questions?

I just cannot get my head around it.

Missed it, but Ewan MacKenna seems to set himself up as an authority on the latest news worthy topic, looking for an angle to sell articles.

aido79

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

Does anyone else find whats going on extremely bizarre? We have government who dont want people to gather, and we have people who really want and do gather.

We have a housing crisis. We also have a government that shut down construction.

We have a nation that loves its drinks. We also have a government who wants us to drink water on paddys day.


Whats the common denominator?

The common denominator is a virus that passes from one person's mouth to another person's mouth who is in close proximity to them.

Lots of people gathering for a protest increases the chances of this happening.
Lots of people working on a construction site and in a lot of cases travelling to work together in vans increases the chances of this happening.
People packed into a pub for St Patrick's day increases the chances of this happening.

What do you think is really happening?

Ginger n Lemon

aido79 wrote: »

The common denominator is a virus that passes from one person's mouth to another person's mouth who is in close proximity to them.

Lots of people gathering for a protest increases the chances of this happening.
Lots of people working on a construction site and in a lot of cases travelling to work together in vans increases the chances of this happening.
People packed into a pub for St Patrick's day increases the chances of this happening.

What do you think is really happening?

I think majority of people have long accepted covid as this mild disease with 99.6% + recovery rate. Thankfully people realise now that mental health, physical health, children education, avoiding isolation and obesiety are far more important in the long run than catching such mild virus.

Few contributing factors along the way of course, golfgate, head of Irish tourism going on holiday in Italy, would be to name a few. Disease is truly deadly (laughable actually as average age of attendees at Galway golf club were well over 60 years old). :rolleyes:

As to your questions - I dont know if you noticed but lockdowns and constant interviews from spineless politicians are actually having the opposite effect. Our measures are NOT working. More and more people are gathering (2nd protest in Dublin today in like 3 weeks?) more and more people are gathering for house parties to drink cans etc.

Ginger n Lemon

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

Gardaí in Dublin are bracing themselves for a “difficult” St Patrick's Day as they grapple with up to eight separate protests and events due to take place in the city.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40245806.html

Thats just in Dublin. I have a feeling we will wake up a different nation tomorrow, I dont know why.

The only thing we will wake up tomorrow to is more videos and photos of people throwing abuse at gardai, public order offences and then the inevitable arguments about whether the gardai were heavy handed or did not do enough.

bucketybuck

bubblypop wrote: »

The only thing we will wake up tomorrow to is more videos and photos of people throwing abuse at gardai, public order offences and then the inevitable arguments about whether the gardai were heavy handed or did not do enough.

If that is the case, then at least it is something.

Our government are clearly disassociated from what is happening at ground level, they throw weeks and months onto lockdowns because they no longer spend any time concerned about how they affect normal people in Ireland.

Nothing is going to change while they are insulated in their cosy echo chambers, protests of any type are needed to get their attention and get them to recognise that people are suffering, that they cannot just sit on their hands for months on end.

aido79

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

I think majority of people have long accepted covid as this mild disease with 99.6% + recovery rate. Thankfully people realise now that mental health, physical health, children education, avoiding isolation and obesiety are far more important in the long run than catching such mild virus.

Few contributing factors along the way of course, golfgate, head of Irish tourism going on holiday in Italy, would be to name a few. Disease is truly deadly (laughable actually as average age of attendees at Galway golf club were well over 60 years old). :rolleyes:

As to your questions - I dont know if you noticed but lockdowns and constant interviews from spineless politicians are actually having the opposite effect. Our measures are NOT working. More and more people are gathering (2nd protest in Dublin today in like 3 weeks?) more and more people are gathering for house parties to drink cans etc.

Which measures are not working in your opinion? Any measure that can be ignored is being ignored by the majority of people from what I can see. The only measures that people are sticking to is staying out of pubs and non essential retail because they aren't given a choice.

papu

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

I think majority of people have long accepted covid as this mild disease with 99.6% + recovery rate. Thankfully people realise now that mental health, physical health, children education, avoiding isolation and obesiety are far more important in the long run than catching such mild virus.

Few contributing factors along the way of course, golfgate, head of Irish tourism going on holiday in Italy, would be to name a few. Disease is truly deadly (laughable actually as average age of attendees at Galway golf club were well over 60 years old). :rolleyes:

As to your questions - I dont know if you noticed but lockdowns and constant interviews from spineless politicians are actually having the opposite effect. Our measures are NOT working. More and more people are gathering (2nd protest in Dublin today in like 3 weeks?) more and more people are gathering for house parties to drink cans etc.

Quite depressing that some people want to drag us into a situation like Brazil is currently experiencing, they've no clue outside of their blinkered views. No appreciation for the sacrifice and loss we've all endured and experienced so far. They want everything open now, no masks no restrictions, have the health service completely collapse, but the chance is they'll be fine and they can enjoy their day out in the sun, or their pints in the pub so pish to everyone else.

Ginger n Lemon

bubblypop wrote: »

The only thing we will wake up tomorrow to is more videos and photos of people throwing abuse at gardai, public order offences and then the inevitable arguments about whether the gardai were heavy handed or did not do enough.

I fear for Gardai.

Not for the reasons you may think though.

Come October, the pay is gonna be cut, taxes will rise. Pension levy to go up? cant rule that out. Prospects of increase in pay will be as good as gone for the next 5 - 10 years. Pension age will increase. All while house prices are rising.

Akin to the sick twisted joke of clapping for HSE heroes in April 2020 and then couple of months later telling student nurses to continue to work for free, while politicians are showering themselves with another pay rise. I think morally, Gardai have something to think about. And rest of population too.

Anyways I am off. I have some things to do. But you do have my word that I will partly follow governments advice. I will drink a pint of water as suggested last night by the MINISTER. After I finish my 8th Heineken. Have work tomorrow like.

Ginger n Lemon

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

I fear for Gardai.

Not for the reasons you may think though.

Come October, the pay is gonna be cut, taxes will rise. Pension levy to go up? cant rule that out. Prospects of increase in pay will be as good as gone for the next 5 - 10 years. Pension age will increase. All while house prices are rising.

Akin to the sick twisted joke of clapping for HSE heroes in April 2020 and then couple of months later telling student nurses to continue to work for free, while politicians are showering themselves with another pay rise. I think morally, Gardai have something to think about. And rest of population too.

Anyways I am off. I have some things to do. But you do have my word that I will partly follow governments advice. I will drink a pint of water as suggested last night by the MINISTER. After I finish my 8th Heineken. Have work tomorrow like.

Sorry to disappoint you, a pay rise has already been agreed, few weeks ago actually.

Kunta Kinte

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

I fear for Gardai.

Not for the reasons you may think though.

Come October, the pay is gonna be cut, taxes will rise. Pension levy to go up? cant rule that out. Prospects of increase in pay will be as good as gone for the next 5 - 10 years. Pension age will increase. All while house prices are rising.

Akin to the sick twisted joke of clapping for HSE heroes in April 2020 and then couple of months later telling student nurses to continue to work for free, while politicians are showering themselves with another pay rise. I think morally, Gardai have something to think about. And rest of population too.

Anyways I am off. I have some things to do. But you do have my word that I will partly follow governments advice. I will drink a pint of water as suggested last night by the MINISTER. After I finish my 8th Heineken. Have work tomorrow like.

I just bet you do. The fireworks and paving slabs need to be gathered together by the scumbags and scrotes to throw at Gardai.

Mod: Forum banned for a week.

Owldshtok

Speakerboxx wrote: »

When will things go back to normal?

With vaccines now available will we be here In January 2022 with covid dominating the news headlines? I would love to know.

No one has the answer and Governments everywhere are damned if they open up society and damned if they keep it locked down.

It’s a constantly changing scenario with unforeseen twists and turns.

My best guess based on nothing concrete;
25% chance the situation could soon get dramatically worse.
25% chance the situation could soon get dramatically better.
50% chance of something in between, as in the most measured forecast currently available.

Plumbthedepths

bubblypop wrote: »

Sorry to disappoint you, a pay rise has already been agreed, few weeks ago actually.

I got a pay rise the same year B. Lenehen introduced the USC. We are getting a further payrise next January as we did this January but I know as sure as Christmas falls on the 25th of December tax rises are coming. Paschal has already stated he is favour of broadening the tax base. The payrise may mitigate some the clawback measures.

Rosita

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

Our measures are NOT working. More and more people are gathering (2nd protest in Dublin today in like 3 weeks?) more and more people are gathering for house parties to drink cans etc.

The measures are working. We had 6/7k cases per day about seven weeks ago. Now it's 5/6 hundred per day. Nobody can say the measures are not working. Not liking them is not the same as them not working.

You are citing some people's ignoring of restrictions as evidence that they are not working. But it's just evidence that there are people who think they are beyond the law. You'll get people who'll drink-drive and speed, causing havoc in doing so but we never measure the efficacy of the laws in those areas by the fact that some ignore them.

finalfurlong

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

Does anyone else find whats going on extremely bizarre? We have government who dont want people to gather, and we have people who really want and do gather.

We have a housing crisis. We also have a government that shut down construction.

We have a nation that loves its drinks. We also have a government who wants us to drink water on paddys day.


Whats the common denominator?

Yes it is ironic but at the heart of it seems to be a total lack of awareness of real world effects of forever lockdown.That pete lunn guy seems to be occasionly quoted regarding social/psychological effects /links but nphet and gov in general seem deluded that this ongoing lockdown and restrictions doesnt suffer from law of diminishing returns.Maybe all they read is those famous surveys by Amarach which rte often quote-Claire Byrne show etc.Those figures seem to always be higher pro ultra caution -likely due to fact that they are telephone polls done to landlines which are going to be weighted towards elderly who have been most susceptible to fear mongering.Most people under a certain age probably think a landline is a bomb planted underground

drunkmonkey

Newstalk was very good there, they had Ewan on, it went from I'm disappointed there's no Guards on dame street to Micheal Martin is a self confessed Fascist and the media are acting like Georgie Burgess asking are you ok Sharon.

Tazz T

papu wrote: »

Quite depressing that some people want to drag us into a situation like Brazil is currently experiencing, they've no clue outside of their blinkered views. No appreciation for the sacrifice and loss we've all endured and experienced so far. They want everything open now, no masks no restrictions, have the health service completely collapse, but the chance is they'll be fine and they can enjoy their day out in the sun, or their pints in the pub so pish to everyone else.

...while most just want a balanced proportional approach to the pandemic like the rest of Europe.

GazzaL

finalfurlong wrote: »

Yes it is ironic but at the heart of it seems to be a total lack of awareness of real world effects of forever lockdown.That pete lunn guy seems to be occasionly quoted regarding social/psychological effects /links but nphet and gov in general seem deluded that this ongoing lockdown and restrictions doesnt suffer from law of diminishing returns.Maybe all they read is those famous surveys by Amarach which rte often quote-Claire Byrne show etc.Those figures seem to always be higher pro ultra caution -likely due to fact that they are telephone polls done to landlines which are going to be weighted towards elderly who have been most susceptible to fear mongering.Most people under a certain age probably think a landline is a bomb planted underground

Not to mention that all the people who decided to carry on with non-essential work are too busy to do phone surveys.

Kunta Kinte

Lundstram wrote: »

No, I won't let the likes of you spew your nonsense unhindered.

Can you firstly provide a link proving we are in "lockdown in name only". Thanks.

So once again you do your standard response of refusing or could it be unable to back up your nonsense claims about Ireland having the strictest lockdown in the world and then engage in more of your usual whataboutery BS..

papu

Tazz T wrote: »

...while most just want a balanced proportional approach to the pandemic like the rest of Europe.

That's not what you'll hear shouted on the streets today. Which countries specifically? As you probably know there are quite a few EU countries set to impose new lockdowns as cases rise exponentially, whose footsteps should we have followed? Our proximity and early of the Kent mutation wouldn't have helped in any case.

El_Duderino 09

Owldshtok wrote: »

No one has the answer and Governments everywhere are damned if they open up society and damned if they keep it locked down.

It’s a constantly changing scenario with unforeseen twists and turns.

My best guess based on nothing concrete;
25% chance the situation could soon get dramatically worse.
25% chance the situation could soon get dramatically better.
50% chance of something in between, as in the most measured forecast currently available.

This is it. Unfortunately we can't be certain about the situation. I wouldn't go as far as to put numbers on probabilities but your numbers describe the uncertainty.

The UK is planning for a fourth wave in July when restrictions are planned to be dropped. They're not certain whether that will be sustainable or not but they're taking a punt on it working out ok. The warm weather will certainly help.

Whether we will be able to drop all restrictions before winter is unknown at this point. And If we do drop them, whether we'll be able to maintain no restrictions all through winter is also unknown at this point.

We can only hope for now but the UK will provide a good example as they're head of us in vaccinations. If things go great for them then we'll most likely follow suit when we catch up in vaccinations.

GazzaL

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

This is it. Unfortunately we can't be certain about the situation. I wouldn't go as far as to put numbers on probabilities but your numbers describe the uncertainty.

The UK is planning for a fourth wave in July when restrictions are planned to be dropped. They're not certain whether that will be sustainable or not but they're taking a punt on it working out ok. The warm weather will certainly help.

Whether we will be able to drop all restrictions before winter is unknown at this point. And If we do drop them, whether we'll be able to maintain no restrictions all through winter is also unknown at this point.

We can only hope for now but the UK will provide a good example as they're head of us in vaccinations. If things go great for them then we'll most likely follow suit when we catch up in vaccinations.

The UK will reach level 0 and be partying in nightclubs while Ireland is still in level 5.

El_Duderino 09

GazzaL wrote: »

The UK will reach level 0 and be partying in nightclubs while Ireland is still in level 5.

That's a very pessimistic standpoint. It's not likely to happen either.

We're likely to drop from level 5 in May.

Micky 32

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

The UK is planning for a fourth wave in July when restrictions are planned to be dropped. .

If the vaccination program keeps at the pace it’s going over there( and could speed up further) i think it’s highly unlikely a fourth wave will be much issue in the UK.

El_Duderino 09

Micky 32 wrote: »

If the vaccination program keeps at the pace it’s going over there( and could speed up further) i think it’s highly unlikely a fourth wave will be much issue in the UK.

That's certainly the hope. They're planning for it nonetheless, which is a sensible strategy.

Micky 32

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

They're planning for it nonetheless, which is a sensible strategy.

Of course, i don’t disagree on that part at all.

the kelt

Rosita wrote: »

The measures are working. We had 6/7k cases per day about seven weeks ago. Now it's 5/6 hundred per day. Nobody can say the measures are not working. Not liking them is not the same as them not working.

You are citing some people's ignoring of restrictions as evidence that they are not working. But it's just evidence that there are people who think they are beyond the law. You'll get people who'll drink-drive and speed, causing havoc in doing so but we never measure the efficacy of the laws in those areas by the fact that some ignore them.

We have people who drink drive and speed and apply the law as appropriate by punishing those people.

We don’t ban the entire country from driving!

However we have a situation where doctors go on live tv and publicly shame an old woman for showing a bit of humanity and making a mistake yet ignore vast gatherings around the country at traveller funerals and weddings cos they won’t dare broach that but will pile on Mary down the road for showing a bit of weakness in a moment of grief.

And the we have people on here who clap them for doing so!

Ease some restrictions and give the ordinary person a bit of respite and come down like a ton of bricks on those that blatantly cause issues in terms of their actions. But of course far easier to fine the family going to the beach for a walk outside their 5k than to touch those other issues really yet then other issues cause the most problems.

Funny isn’t it!

Tazz T

papu wrote: »

That's not what you'll hear shouted on the streets today. Which countries specifically? As you probably know there are quite a few EU countries set to impose new lockdowns as cases rise exponentially, whose footsteps should we have followed? Our proximity and early of the Kent mutation wouldn't have helped in any case.

Perhaps so, but we have had the harshest restrictions in Europe in multiple reports. We were the only ones told not to travel last summer and looks that we'll be the only ones this summer again. Arguably, the UK (non-EU) is slightly worse than us but they have plans to open fully this summer while we have nothing to hope for except 'maybe' staycations.

noserider

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

Gardaí in Dublin are bracing themselves for a “difficult” St Patrick's Day as they grapple with up to eight separate protests and events due to take place in the city.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40245806.html

Thats just in Dublin. I have a feeling we will wake up a different nation tomorrow, I dont know why.

Hopefully

Mr. Karate

Owldshtok wrote: »

No one has the answer and Governments everywhere are damned if they open up society and damned if they keep it locked down.

It’s a constantly changing scenario with unforeseen twists and turns.

My best guess based on nothing concrete;
25% chance the situation could soon get dramatically worse.
25% chance the situation could soon get dramatically better.
50% chance of something in between, as in the most measured forecast currently available.

Florida has been open with no masks and lockdowns since August of last year. And guess what. Everybody there is fine. People didn't start dropping like flies. Bodies aren't piling up in the middle of the street and whatever scare tactics we've been flooded with to keep this nonsense going.

Masks and lockdowns are clearly not necessary to control this virus. Its time people accepted this.

namloc1980

Mr. Karate wrote: »

Florida has been open with no masks and lockdowns since August of last year. And guess what. Everybody there is fine. People didn't start dropping like flies. Bodies aren't piling up in the middle of the street and whatever scare tactics we've been flooded with to keep this nonsense going.

Masks and lockdowns are clearly not necessary to control this virus. Its time people accepted this.

Florida has double the case numbers per 100k that we have and almost double the death rate. At least be accurate when trying to present a position.