When will it all end?

landofthetree

The EU has ****ed up.

Thus far, only the contract with the German company Curevac has been made public. It says that the producer will make "reasonable best efforts" to deliver the agreed upon number of doses within the negotiated time frame. Pascal Soriot, the head of AstraZeneca, is now claiming the same thing. The Curevac contract also says that the producer must inform purchasers as quickly as possible of possible delays, explain the causes for those delays and present a revised timeline for delivery. That, though, is all.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/europe-s-vaccine-disaster-commission-president-ursula-von-der-leyen-seeking-to-duck-responsibility-a-1197547d-6219-4438-9d69-b76e64701802-amp?__twitter_impression=true

It every contract is like that expect more and more delays.

There is no possibility that everyone in Ireland will have access to a vaccine by September.

Hellrazer

Deleted User wrote: »

utterly utterly depressing listening to Prof Philip Nolan on Newstalk right now. He's basically saying we will be severely restricted for months to come, going to almost Zero Covid (or Zero tolerance Covid) and we only open up REAL priorities over the next 6 months... i.e. education and healthcare.........right up to September. Looks like there will be no holidays in Ireland this Summer as well as none abroad (according to him). How on earth can people tolerate this ? No crowded events until over 70% of the population is vaccinated either.

(he has also said most of the infection is in the over 65's and this is not reducing as fast as the reduction in ALL other age groups. The rest of the population is doing really well. So we are all stopping our lives for this older age group...........indefinitely)

I feel utterly depressed.

This is exactly how I feel. These harbringers of doom are absolutely destroying the country and peoples mental health.

But you know what really gets me is despite reading how pissed off people are about lockdowns etc a lot of polls suggest that people want more restrictions. I don't understand why anyone would want more restrictions.

We`re a very weak minded nation swallowing everything we`re told without anyone questioning them - there is no balance in the media.

We don't protest yet we`ll moan about everything, We have NPhet who are headed by a person already shown to be incompetent in the past. Our leader is the weakest leader we`ve had in decades - hes like a wet paper bag.

The opposition are just as bad in every way - they aren't really an opposition if they want the exact same things. There is no other side of the coin.

I see people who are basically obsessed with the whole covid thing. Its running their lives..they sit online all day reading more depressing covid "news" yet will tell you they are sick of it.

Dutch style protests is what we need to show the leaders of the country that we wont sit back and take it anymore.

The death rate is .5%
The 1st lockdown was so we could prepare for further spikes - that didn't really happen. We had a living with covid strategy that lasted a day.

5 levels had infinite decimals between them .5.1 / 5.55555/ 4.222 etc.

Its bull****!!!

The_Brood

Hellrazer wrote: »

This is exactly how I feel. These harbringers of doom are absolutely destroying the country and peoples mental health.

But you know what really gets me is despite reading how pissed off people are about lockdowns etc a lot of polls suggest that people want more restrictions. I don't understand why anyone would want more restrictions.

We`re a very weak minded nation swallowing everything we`re told without anyone questioning them - there is no balance in the media.

We don't protest yet we`ll moan about everything, We have NPhet who are headed by a person already shown to be incompetent in the past. Our leader is the weakest leader we`ve had in decades - hes like a wet paper bag.

The opposition are just as bad in every way - they aren't really an opposition if they want the exact same things. There is no other side of the coin.

I see people who are basically obsessed with the whole covid thing. Its running their lives..they sit online all day reading more depressing covid "news" yet will tell you they are sick of it.

Dutch style protests is what we need to show the leaders of the country that we wont sit back and take it anymore.

The death rate is .5%
The 1st lockdown was so we could prepare for further spikes - that didn't really happen. We had a living with covid strategy that lasted a day.

5 levels had infinite decimals between them .5.1 / 5.55555/ 4.222 etc.

Its bull****!!!

Well I mean what else is there? The restrictions have killed all social life, travel, and the weather is so miserable nature walks arent on the plate. What are we to do but feel miserable at the complete and total lack of competency that has imprisoned us without any hope of improvement?

KrustyUCC

Deleted User wrote: »

utterly utterly depressing listening to Prof Philip Nolan on Newstalk right now. He's basically saying we will be severely restricted for months to come, going to almost Zero Covid (or Zero tolerance Covid) and we only open up REAL priorities over the next 6 months... i.e. education and healthcare.........right up to September. Looks like there will be no holidays in Ireland this Summer as well as none abroad (according to him). How on earth can people tolerate this ? No crowded events until over 70% of the population is vaccinated either.

(he has also said most of the infection is in the over 65's and this is not reducing as fast as the reduction in ALL other age groups. The rest of the population is doing really well. So we are all stopping our lives for this older age group...........indefinitely)

I feel utterly depressed.

Christ that's bleak prediction from Nolan

There's no way we won't have no easing of restrictions up to September as the government will need to get the economy up and running during the summer

Only so long they can keep paying the supports for hospitality and retail

Lockdowns are meant to be short term not nine months so if Nolan is right people will just start ignoring the advice

Mr. Karate

landofthetree wrote: »

The EU has ****ed up.


https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/europe-s-vaccine-disaster-commission-president-ursula-von-der-leyen-seeking-to-duck-responsibility-a-1197547d-6219-4438-9d69-b76e64701802-amp?__twitter_impression=true

It every contract is like that expect more and more delays.

There is no possibility that everyone in Ireland will have access to a vaccine by September.

No wonder they don't want us to go abroad. They're scared that we'll get vaccinated while we're there [I'm even looking into the possibility of getting it while I'm in NY] and thus force these lockdowns to end.

aido79

Tiredandcranky wrote: »

Agree this is the ideal scenario in the short term. I think realistically there isn’t a hope of herd immunity in the short term. We won’t be able to vaccinate enough (esp with new variant and u16s excl from vaccine), or fast enough. So the best we can hope for in the short term is vaccinate the vulnerable to allow health system to cope. As time passes you then attempt to vaccinate everyone.

The only trouble with this plan is the importation of new variants. It’s only a matter of time before a vaccine resistant one comes around. Then you have to revaccinate. The only solution to this is a combination of sealing your borders and fast mass test and trace when cases are detected. Some people call this zero COVID. Whatever you call it, it has to be done. And will be eventually when our politicians finally wake up. You’ll then have a world where countries are COVID free or not. Those that are COVID free will allow travel between them with vaccination certification.

That’s where we’re headed. How long it takes to get there depends on when our politicians pull their heads out of their ass. If you want to hurry it up, pressure them to adopt a zero COVID strategy now. Drive it down, vaccinate, keep it out. Then we can all get back to living our lives.

How do you suggest the politicians go about sealing the border? It's easy to make comments like "seal the border". It's a lot harder in practice on a shared island with hundreds of trucks coming in from abroad every day. Should all these drivers isolate for 14 days or is it just enough to test them? If that's the case why is it not enough to just test everyone coming in and just forget about isolating.
How long do you suggest these measures stay in place for?
These measures have only worked so far in Australia and New Zealand where there are no trucks coming in and they have mandatory isolation for every person coming in including citizens.

The only solution for Ireland is to get numbers down as low as possible and then vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Not everyone needs to be vaccinated for a return to some kind of normality. As long as the cases being admitted to hospital are low and the health service can cope then there shouldn't be any need for lockdowns.

agoodpunt

head abroad for a vac think that it would be considered essential travel because you can forget the rest of the year here with only schools and construction to open

aido79

Mr. Karate wrote: »

No wonder they don't want us to go abroad. They're scared that we'll get vaccinated while we're there [I'm even looking into the possibility of getting it while I'm in NY] and thus force these lockdowns to end.

What do you think the government has to gain from lockdowns? Do you somehow believe that a broken economy or reduced spending and less tax intake benefits a government whose main source of income is taxation?

agoodpunt

aido79 wrote: »

What do you think the government has to gain from lockdowns? Do you somehow believe that a broken economy or reduced spending and less tax intake benefits a government whose main source of income is taxation?

Most of our elected hard socialists want a zero covid policy it would do that
the people who want the opposite are blasted by the media

opinionated3

KrustyUCC wrote: »

Christ that's bleak prediction from Nolan

There's no way we won't have no easing of restrictions up to September as the government will need to get the economy up and running during the summer

Only so long they can keep paying the supports for hospitality and retail

Lockdowns are meant to be short term not nine months so if Nolan is right people will just start ignoring the advice

They'll also have to pay supports for the aviation sector too. If course there's rumours everywhere you look about how the government will handle everything after this latest level five lockdown. Philip Nolan is giving his opinion, but I find it very hard to believe public compliance will continue after march or April. Everyone I speak to is very weary now, to the point where I believe the government will be under extreme pressure to open at level two sometime prior to August or September. Now I know that's going to be mocked by those on here that believe lockdown is king, but I honestly believe people have had enough. It's catch 22, if the government start reducing supports to various businesses/sectors, I believe those business owners will demand to open as normal.

Dickie10

yea i wouldnt pass much heed on Nolan, government know they need economy opened.NYPHET would be happy stay locked up forever. most vulnerable vaxxed by may there will be opening then. They cant afford not too, money will run out and need tax in.

opinionated3

opinionated3 wrote: »

They'll also have to pay supports for the aviation sector too. If course there's rumours everywhere you look about how the government will handle everything after this latest level five lockdown. Philip Nolan is giving his opinion, but I find it very hard to believe public compliance will continue after march or April. Everyone I speak to is very weary now, to the point where I believe the government will be under extreme pressure to open at level two sometime prior to August or September. Now I know that's going to be mocked by those on here that believe lockdown is king, but I honestly believe people have had enough. It's catch 22, if the government start reducing supports to various businesses/sectors, I believe those business owners will demand to open as normal.

I think and I hope this is what will happen, business will have to kick up big time and sooner rather than later. Being on the PUP and other support measures has lulled us into a false sense of security, it has basically been "hush" money and has quietened everyone down. If they're removed it will be a much needed wake up call!

I say this as someone who is on the PUP myself. I need and I want to be working but I am far less inclined to apply for jobs now due to the fact I am on the PUP for the last 3 months, there is not the same urgency. These payments cannot continue surely until September when 70% of us are meant to be vaccinated and the economy can finally open (we hope!) ??

gozunda

agoodpunt wrote: »

head abroad for a vac think that it would be considered essential travel because you can forget the rest of the year here with only schools and construction to open

I will take it you mean vaccine & not vacation

Germany might be your best bet ...

Germany, a country of 83 million people, said it’s getting 94 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, 64 million from the EU and 30 million from a separate bilateral deal. On top of that, Berlin will buy doses that other countries don’t buy, securing 50 million of 160 million Moderna doses — far more than its pro-rata allocation.

https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-buys-extra-coronavirus-vaccine-doses-from-eu-countries/

Parachutes

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I think and I hope this is what will happen, business will have to kick up big time and sooner rather than later. Being on the PUP and other support measures has lulled us into a false sense of security, it has basically been "hush" money and has quietened everyone down. If they're removed it will be a much needed wake up call!

I say this as someone who is on the PUP myself. I need and I want to be working but I am far less inclined to apply for jobs now due to the fact I am on the PUP for the last 3 months, there is not the same urgency. These payments cannot continue surely until September when 70% of us are meant to be vaccinated and the economy can finally open (we hope!) ??

Government handouts are the only thing which have kept people compliant to this. If they were to stop in the morning it’d be some shock. It’s grand for the civil servant types who are sitting pretty with full wages going in every month, but for the little person who works in a shop or pulls a pint. We are getting crushed. Not to mention the small business owners who create those jobs. A local cafe can’t open but Costa can what a joke. The corporate billionaires have done well out of this pandemic. People don’t realise the extent of the damage to the economy these lockdowns have had due to the covid payments. Of course we’ll be saps who will be paying it back through taxation. Bubble will burst very soon.

aido79

agoodpunt wrote: »

Most of our elected hard socialists want a zero covid policy it would do that
the people who want the opposite are blasted by the media

We only have 5 elected hard socialists who have no say in what happens and the majority of people take no notice of what they say as it can't be taken seriously.

GazzaL

Hellrazer wrote: »

This is exactly how I feel. These harbringers of doom are absolutely destroying the country and peoples mental health.

But you know what really gets me is despite reading how pissed off people are about lockdowns etc a lot of polls suggest that people want more restrictions. I don't understand why anyone would want more restrictions.

We`re a very weak minded nation swallowing everything we`re told without anyone questioning them - there is no balance in the media.

We don't protest yet we`ll moan about everything, We have NPhet who are headed by a person already shown to be incompetent in the past. Our leader is the weakest leader we`ve had in decades - hes like a wet paper bag.

The opposition are just as bad in every way - they aren't really an opposition if they want the exact same things. There is no other side of the coin.

I see people who are basically obsessed with the whole covid thing. Its running their lives..they sit online all day reading more depressing covid "news" yet will tell you they are sick of it.

Dutch style protests is what we need to show the leaders of the country that we wont sit back and take it anymore.

The death rate is .5%
The 1st lockdown was so we could prepare for further spikes - that didn't really happen. We had a living with covid strategy that lasted a day.

5 levels had infinite decimals between them .5.1 / 5.55555/ 4.222 etc.

Its bull****!!!

Sinn Féin are the weakest opposition in the history of the country. They fully support the Government and NPHET, their only criticism is that they want them to do even more of the same.

Parachutes

GazzaL wrote: »

Sinn Féin are the weakest opposition in the history of the country. They fully support the Government and NPHET, their only criticism is that they want them to do even more of the same.

They’re all singing off the same song sheet. None of them have the stones to stand up against our globalist overlords for ordinary people.

When will it end? Never if some people get their way. Look at Australia, one case = new lockdown. There’s going to be new strains Ad Infinitum, and unfortunately even with the vaccine rollout some people will die. Zero Covid is dreamland stuff. It only ends when we stop complying.

bb1234567

gozunda wrote: »

On the Spanish flu in Ireland. It was most certainly not a minor inconvenience by any stretch of the imagination.

In Ireland alone It is estimated that some 23,000 people died and 800,000 were infected.

The Spanish Flu in Ireland was responsible for many more deaths than the Easter Rising, War of Independence and Civil War combined

Those with the highest mortality rate were young people between the ages of 25-35. My own great grandfather is listed on his older brother death certificate as being present at the time of his death. He died of Spanish Flu aged just 23 years of age.

There was no national health service, no antibiotics to treat secondary infections.
Meetings of large groups of people risked spreading the disease and from reports many markets, fairs, sports events and election rallies were called off. Cinemas and theatre were closed in many different places. People stayed at home to try and avoid catching it from others.

From the ports the disease swept across Ireland in three waves: mild in spring 1918; lethal in autumn 1918; and moderate in early 1919.

In October 1918 The Cork Examiner recorded it spreading at an “alarming” rate: “Scarcely a household” in Clonakilty did not have at least one person in bed with flu. At Carrigaline no letters were delivered “owing to the local postman being confined to his room with the disease”. Many policemen were laid up in Tipperary; and all over Ireland the number of prison warders off sick was thought to make escapes more likely. Doctors were “on foot night and day”, reported the Tipperary Star, but were baffled how to cope with the “mysterious malady”.

The impact of the disease on the younger generation was huge especially and added to the already horrendous death toll of young men who had died during the war.

That the aftermath of disease was not spoken about by many families is perhaps not surprising and much in the way we rarely hear of the entire households who were wiped out by TB in the following decades

It is because of these previous pandemics that we now know what has to be done to save lives and more importantly stop our health care system from being overrun.

But as you say its likely nothing more than an 'inconvenience' and we're all a bunch of scaredy-cats

Perhaps a good name for the Pandaemic would be " The Great Inconvenience"? Would that suit?

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/an-asian-flu-pandemic-closed-17-dublin-schools-in-1957-1.4211894?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fheritage%2Fan-asian-flu-pandemic-closed-17-dublin-schools-in-1957-1.4211894#:~:text=This%20epidemic%20was%20thought%20to,were%20closed%20due%20to%20flu.&text=The%20flu%20pandemic%20lasted%20from,have%20originated%20in%20wild%20ducks.

A little bit more recently..the mid century pandemic , ones most people forgot about. Just because people forget doesn't meanit wasn't serious or wasn't a big inconvenice for people at the time. Many people will forget what the COVID pandemic was like to live through too as time goes on, especially in decades to come as people who were children or very young during this period won't have such strong memories of the events as they were less directly affected or conscious of the societal impacts.

mcsean2163

aido79 wrote: »

How do you suggest the politicians go about sealing the border? It's easy to make comments like "seal the border". It's a lot harder in practice on a shared island with hundreds of trucks coming in from abroad every day. Should all these drivers isolate for 14 days or is it just enough to test them? If that's the case why is it not enough to just test everyone coming in and just forget about isolating.
How long do you suggest these measures stay in place for?
These measures have only worked so far in Australia and New Zealand where there are no trucks coming in and they have mandatory isolation for every person coming in including citizens.

The only solution for Ireland is to get numbers down as low as possible and then vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Not everyone needs to be vaccinated for a return to some kind of normality. As long as the cases being admitted to hospital are low and the health service can cope then there shouldn't be any need for lockdowns.

Yes, exactly that. If we're going to do it, do it. If not, then open up and accept mass deaths.

In fact, refuse to take covid19 people into hospitals and let them die at home. That'll mean a lot more younger people will die but sure who cares if it's not you. I know of a health professional who's worked 30 days straight due to the Pandemic, they deserve a break so just stop all covid19 admissions and chuck out anyone who picks it up in hospital onto the street to die.


Or, all lorries should transfer their container to the ship in country of origin and an Irish driver picks it up from the docks. That's pretty common anyway so no big deal.

I am much more worried about my kids than covid19, so if 14 day quarantine is what it takes to open, let's do it. The north want to go their own way, let them off but jail any that have not quarantined for 14 days. Seriously, f##k them, if their stupid politics is more important than people's lives then they can go f##k themselves.

That's the answer.

Parachutes

mcsean2163 wrote: »

Yes, exactly that. If we're going to do it, do it. If not, then open up and accept mass deaths.

In fact, refuse to take covid19 people into hospitals and let them die at home. That'll mean a lot more younger people will die but sure who cares if it's not you. I know of a health professional who's worked 30 days straight due to the Pandemic, they deserve a break so just stop all covid19 admissions and chuck out anyone who picks it up in hospital onto the street to die.


Or, all lorries should transfer their container to the ship in country of origin and an Irish driver picks it up from the docks. That's pretty common anyway so no big deal.

I am much more worried about my kids than covid19, so if 14 day quarantine is what it takes to open, let's do it. The north want to go their own way, let them off but jail any that have not quarantined for 14 days. Seriously, f##k them, if their stupid politics is more important than people's lives then they can go f##k themselves.

That's the answer.

.5% mortality rate for people under 50 and no underlying issues. All the really vulnerable groups have been shielding since April anyway and didn’t even get to see their families at Christmas. Some way to spend the last few precious years of your life.

Would you be up for covid concentration camps as well for people who aren’t buying into the fear? Then you wonder why some people are going on about Covid nutters.

Tiredandcranky

aido79 wrote: »

How do you suggest the politicians go about sealing the border? It's easy to make comments like "seal the border". It's a lot harder in practice on a shared island with hundreds of trucks coming in from abroad every day. Should all these drivers isolate for 14 days or is it just enough to test them? If that's the case why is it not enough to just test everyone coming in and just forget about isolating.
How long do you suggest these measures stay in place for?
These measures have only worked so far in Australia and New Zealand where there are no trucks coming in and they have mandatory isolation for every person coming in including citizens.

The only solution for Ireland is to get numbers down as low as possible and then vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Not everyone needs to be vaccinated for a return to some kind of normality. As long as the cases being admitted to hospital are low and the health service can cope then there shouldn't be any need for lockdowns.

I’m not an expert on this by any stretch of the imagination, but I see several potential solutions. First, I imagine you don’t need to seal the border, you simply need to make it sufficiently non porous such that you can handle the cases that come across it via test and trace.

Specifically for truck drivers, you could either stop them crossing the border I.e. only the truck, not the driver crosses. Or you could allow them to cross and deploy rapid and frequent testing (e.g. antigen testing) to contain that threat.

You’re correct to say vaccinating the elderly will relive the problem in the short term with regard to hospitals, but what happens when we import a new vaccine resistant strain? We have to wait (maybe 6/8 weeks at best) for a new vaccine and then produce it and roll it out again to the vulnerable. All in all maybe 4/5 months. And while we wait we lockdown.... again.

agoodpunt

if there are other options people will move lockdown sucks

Parachutes

Parachutes wrote: »

They’re all singing off the same song sheet. None of them have the stones to stand up against our globalist overlords for ordinary people.

Someone has been listening to too much of David Icke.

Samsonsmasher

Tiredandcranky wrote: »

I’m not an expert on this by any stretch of the imagination, but I see several potential solutions. First, I imagine you don’t need to seal the border, you simply need to make it sufficiently non porous such that you can handle the cases that come across it via test and trace.

Specifically for truck drivers, you could either stop them crossing the border I.e. only the truck, not the driver crosses. Or you could allow them to cross and deploy rapid and frequent testing (e.g. antigen testing) to contain that threat.

You’re correct to say vaccinating the elderly will relive the problem in the short term with regard to hospitals, but what happens when we import a new vaccine resistant strain? We have to wait (maybe 6/8 weeks at best) for a new vaccine and then produce it and roll it out again to the vulnerable. All in all maybe 4/5 months. And while we wait we lockdown.... again.

We have hundreds of miles of border.
We have less than 10,000 Gardaí less than 10,000 PDF and less than 10,000 RDF.
We do not have drones enough helicopters and vehicles to move them to the border we do not have the facilities to base them or to maintain patrols for months on end.
We face economic collapse mass unemployment and mass poverty with the threat of civil strife and violence.
Activiating what amounts to military occupation on the border would require troops on the streets in Dublin.
Young people with no jobs or freedom are growing impatient restless and angry and they may soon riot. Riots could result in deadly force being used and who knows what might follow?
We need to stop this insanity NOW!

douglashyde

The narrative and our objective has shifted time and time again.

The collateral damage from lockdowns will outweigh the benefits in all areas (health, happiness, liberty, economy) and it's clear politics is driving the response.

What strikes me is the vast majority of people are supportive of indefinite lockdowns - Why? --Fear: our first ever social media virus. --Financial Support: people are being supported financially in the short term thanks to zero interest rates from ECB. --Working from home: there is a sizeable amount of people that lockdown benefit in the short term.

Nothing lasts forever - Fear will subside. Financial support will stop and higher taxes will follow.

The narrative now is, "we won't fully reopen until everyone is vaccinated". This is despite that we can reduce deaths by 90% by vaccinating the first 3 priority groups....I wonder will there be a shift in people's view when this happens.

Van.Bosch

douglashyde wrote: »

The narrative and our objective has shifted time and time again.

The collateral damage from lockdowns will outweigh the benefits in all areas (health, happiness, liberty, economy) and it's clear politics is driving the response.

What strikes me is the vast majority of people are supportive of indefinite lockdowns - Why? --Fear: our first ever social media virus. --Financial Support: people are being supported financially in the short term thanks to zero interest rates from ECB. --Working from home: there is a sizeable amount of people that lockdown benefit in the short term.

Nothing lasts forever - Fear will subside. Financial support will stop and higher taxes will follow.

The narrative now is, "we won't fully reopen until everyone is vaccinated". This is despite that we can reduce deaths by 90% by vaccinating the first 3 priority groups....I wonder will there be a shift in people's view when this happens.

There will I think. When deaths go back to last summer levels of an average of 0-1 a day, I think the calls for normality will increase.

aido79

mcsean2163 wrote: »

Yes, exactly that. If we're going to do it, do it. If not, then open up and accept mass deaths.

In fact, refuse to take covid19 people into hospitals and let them die at home. That'll mean a lot more younger people will die but sure who cares if it's not you. I know of a health professional who's worked 30 days straight due to the Pandemic, they deserve a break so just stop all covid19 admissions and chuck out anyone who picks it up in hospital onto the street to die.


Or, all lorries should transfer their container to the ship in country of origin and an Irish driver picks it up from the docks. That's pretty common anyway so no big deal.

I am much more worried about my kids than covid19, so if 14 day quarantine is what it takes to open, let's do it. The north want to go their own way, let them off but jail any that have not quarantined for 14 days. Seriously, f##k them, if their stupid politics is more important than people's lives then they can go f##k themselves.

That's the answer.

Can you give an estimate of what you would call mass deaths? It's a fairly heartless attitude and I'm actually worried that you have kids to be honest. You obviously have no family members who may be at risk of dying of covid.

Transferring containers should be looked into but it's not always possible.

I'm worried about your kids too but for different reasons than yours.
What exactly do you mean by stupid politics?

aido79

Tiredandcranky wrote: »

I’m not an expert on this by any stretch of the imagination, but I see several potential solutions. First, I imagine you don’t need to seal the border, you simply need to make it sufficiently non porous such that you can handle the cases that come across it via test and trace.

Specifically for truck drivers, you could either stop them crossing the border I.e. only the truck, not the driver crosses. Or you could allow them to cross and deploy rapid and frequent testing (e.g. antigen testing) to contain that threat.

You’re correct to say vaccinating the elderly will relive the problem in the short term with regard to hospitals, but what happens when we import a new vaccine resistant strain? We have to wait (maybe 6/8 weeks at best) for a new vaccine and then produce it and roll it out again to the vulnerable. All in all maybe 4/5 months. And while we wait we lockdown.... again.

There's only a certain amount that the porous nature of the border can be reduced. There are too many roads to be patrolled and it would be very hard to set up a changeover system for lorries at all or even the most used crossing points.

Rapid testing and vaccination is the solution to all of this.
New strains have to be dealt with as they arise. There's always a chance that it may get in with even the strictest measures in place. Look at Perth today. Western Australia went 10 months without a community transmissions with closed borders and mandatory quarantine and they now have a case. It's forced them into lockdown but it shows how even with all the measures in place it still possible for the virus to get in.

The_Brood

Samsonsmasher wrote: »

We have hundreds of miles of border.
We have less than 10,000 Gardaí less than 10,000 PDF and less than 10,000 RDF.
We do not have drones enough helicopters and vehicles to move them to the border we do not have the facilities to base them or to maintain patrols for months on end. /quote]

Well unfortunately we have been living in a fantasy land for a century. This fantasy that we don't need border guards, police, and military. I'm first in line to condemn the corruption and abuse that goes into these instituions around the world, but the solution is not to get rid of them pretty much entirely and pretend that everyone else will take care of us when there is need.

This has been a failure of each and every government to date and needs to be remedied immediately.

xhomelezz

Samsonsmasher wrote: »

We have hundreds of miles of border.
We have less than 10,000 Gardaí less than 10,000 PDF and less than 10,000 RDF.
We do not have drones enough helicopters and vehicles to move them to the border we do not have the facilities to base them or to maintain patrols for months on end.
We face economic collapse mass unemployment and mass poverty with the threat of civil strife and violence.
Activiating what amounts to military occupation on the border would require troops on the streets in Dublin.
Young people with no jobs or freedom are growing impatient restless and angry and they may soon riot. Riots could result in deadly force being used and who knows what might follow?
We need to stop this insanity NOW!

Is Ireland, or ROI, independent country? I believe it is. We should be able to control our own borders. Simple.