Relaxation of Restrictions, Part VIII *Read OP For Mod Warnings*

SushiLover31

Silentcorner wrote: »

The people most effected are obviously not being heard, I would advise anyone to ring, call into their elected officials office tomorrow and bombard them with emails.

I think people need to do something more personal. I honestly think we should get some centralised document that people can write how lockdown has negatively affected them. Then, have that hand delivered to them. Politicians don't care about people who ring or email them. They care about protest. Since we can't do it in person, why not get a physical document of people's stories together?

Parachutes

We'll live in a third world banana republic, but at least we'll have a low Covid number.

Father Hernandez

hamburgham wrote: »

MEhole Martin - Ireland’s greatest ever COWARD.

Whatever your thoughts about COVID/lockdowns, etc - announcing 9 more weeks of lockdown via the Mirror on a Thursday night is utterly disgraceful and spineless.

I feel this will be the straw that breaks the camels back. Vast majority of public is sick of abiding by rules only to see no reward.

Weak, horrible people ‘leading’ our country.

SnuggyBear

St.Spodo wrote: »

Hard to think of another policy that has failed so spectacularly on its own terms as 'living with covid'. 6 months of house arrest with a 3 week reprieve at Christmas. I don't want to think about the long term effects this will have on us.

Living with your 4 walls

greensausage

RobitTV wrote: »

This government has now completely failed. We will not be living with covid despite the 'plan' they claim to have. They have failed to deliver again. Nine weeks of Level 5 restrictions are a total failure of leadership.

A motion of no confidence should be called and a snap general election. Michael Martin is a disgrace and a political zombie.

Time for a new political movement to protect our future. Don't bother supporting any of the current political parties.

Unfortunately no political party are in favour of easing restrictions, fg ff and sinn fein are all in favour of keeping us locked up for another 3 months at least, so an election would not do much good.

copeyhagen

folks are in Spain and the rumour is their part of Andalucia will have lockdowns lifted tomorrow.

meanwhile in Ireland, we find out about another 9 weeks of level 5 lockdowns from a fooking article in the mirror at 9pm on a Thursday..

Silentcorner

Silentcorner wrote: »

Stop thinking of the virus as seasonal for one second...it's clear you have consumed media that can't make you think straight.

What is seasonal is the collective immune system, which is much weaker in winter months....if you actually still believe that level 5 lockdowns for another 9 weeks is proportional then I'm not sure you can be reasoned with...it is utter madness, we are already in one of the strictest lockdowns in the world...it will become the longest by the time we are let out.

Again I never said 9 weeks. Based on current trends it’s too much. It’s also probably down to a desire not to commit too much too soon.

And novel virus - immune system cannot respond adequately
Seasonal virus - weakened immune system fails to respond quickly enough.

And don’t you once again try to insinuate that I or others are brainwashed or incapable of thinking straight because the view of the thread brains trust. The views I express are based on a wide variety of sources, only using the Irish media to keep up with announcements. The only lack of critical thought in evidence is the bizarre echo chamber that a few of the more irrational on this thread have developed, and their off the wall theories based on nothing but the echo coming off each other’s vacuous ramblings.

There are legitimate criticisms and legitimate reasons to argue for reduced restrictions. Most, not all, of the reasonable posters who articulated these views have long since left the discussion on this thread

Bigfatmichael

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

The same posters who wanted Christmas so badly, got what they wanted and are now seemingly appalled by the consequences.

This was always going to be the price. A massive acceleration of disease and a slow and painful return to control of spread.

Some of us here were blue in the face warning this would happen and were called names and scaremongerers and all the rest.

While I have sympathy with the vast bulk of the population it's very difficult to have same with some who have developed an acute form of amnesia as to where we are now and what they pushed for.

This is the result.

The only way forward is to get infection rates significantly down in to low double figures and from there retaining control with lesser but sufficient restrictions. That's the way out along with the vaccines. If we don't we keep drifting in and out of crisis.

We were down to 50 a day during the summer, wouldn't this have been the time to enfore isolation of these people for 15 days and mandatory quarantining of people arriving into ireland.

But no the government fecks up altogether. Its a disgrace how actually useless they are. We should have taking the New Zealand approach but dont have the balls to do anything with regards northern Ireland.

P

Spanish Eyes

I think plenty of people including myself are mightily peed off with this isolation/lockdown.

I do it for my friends, elderly relatives, and family who have vulnerables.

Not easy for anyone, but the majority are observant.

This too, will pass. Stick yer arm out for J and J. that will be the flu vaccine of the future.

Great place here to vent for sure here, but it won't change anything unless you are a Rebel Almighty, most of us are not, but if you are, Go For It, you don't need anyone's approval. Silence is Golden sometimes.

thegreengoblin

St.Spodo wrote: »

Hard to think of another policy that has failed so spectacularly on its own terms as 'living with covid'. 6 months of house arrest with a 3 week reprieve at Christmas. I don't want to think about the long term effects this will have on us.

It's horrible to think about it. I've tried not to be too downhearted about my boys being denied their right to play a game of football every weekend. But hearing this crap tonight has me on the verge of tears for them. It's disgraceful stuff.

hamburgham

landofthetree wrote: »

In Holland they are thinking that the British variant isnt anymore contagious that other strains.

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/02/are-coronavirus-variants-spreading-less-quickly-than-feared/

If this is true we need to start opening up stuff in from April at the latest.

I never believed that it was, just more hysteria. Everybody knows that viruses ‘mutate’ all the time, that’s why it’s so difficult to find a cure for colds and the flu. Throwing the word ‘mutate’ around makes it sound a lot more sinister and threatening.

bloopy

Real Donald Trump wrote: »

Holohan and the government are really trying to crush/destroy people mentally

I've said it before.
It is psychological abuse on a massive scale.
They will break us in the end.

nj27

Bigfatmichael wrote: »

Lockdown has officially ended for me and many others today after that announcement.

Indeed, good to finally reach the end after all this time. Seems like it lasted ages but at least it's over and done with.

copeyhagen

protests incoming?

not the usual ones, which i presume are anti mask anti vax.

Parachutes

bloopy wrote: »

I've said it before.
It is psychological abuse on a massive scale.
They will break us in the end.

They're treating us like a bunch of ****ing lab rats.

Graham

Silentcorner wrote: »

Well show us some evidence then...all you do is snipe at people who don't agree with you.

What is your alternative to a further 9 week lockdown?

Who said I was looking for an alternative?

While I wouldn't but a specific number of weeks out there, it is fairly obvious we need to wait until the case numbers are much lower.

A lower number gives us the best chance of avoiding another spike/lockdown while the vaccine program rolls out.

GT89

Why are mutations only an issue in the last 2 months. How come mutations were never an issue until that point surely the virus would've mutated 100s if not 1000s of times.

lawred2

copeyhagen wrote: »

folks are in Spain and the rumour is their part of Andalucia will have lockdowns lifted tomorrow.

meanwhile in Ireland, we find out about another 9 weeks of level 5 lockdowns from a fooking article in the mirror at 9pm on a Thursday..

Another 9 weeks.. ah here. That's heartbreaking.

Parachutes

copeyhagen wrote: »

protests incoming?

not the usual ones, which i presume are anti mask anti vax.

So what's any different now? 'anti-mask' people have been saying these lockdown are a load of bollocks for nearly a year.

Bigfatmichael

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I think plenty of people including myself are mightily peed off with this isolation/lockdown.

I do it for my friends, elderly relatives, and family who have vulnerables.

Not easy for anyone, but the majority are observant.

This too, will pass. Stick yer arm out for J and J. that will be the flu vaccine of the future.

Great place here to vent for sure here, but it won't change anything unless you are a Rebel Almighty, most of us are not, but if you are, Go For It, you don't need anyone's approval. Silence is Golden sometimes.

A lot of people live on their own, boards is a great place to vent with people you don't know. No one is bragging oh i'm done with restrictions or whatever, its showing how pissed people off are.

hynesie08

nj27 wrote: »

Indeed, good to finally reach the end after all this time. Seems like it lasted ages but at least it's over and done with.

Can't wait to go for a meal and a haircut, gonna buy a new shirt as well.

hamburgham

greensausage wrote: »

Unfortunately no political party are in favour of easing restrictions, fg ff and sinn fein are all in favour of keeping us locked up for another 3 months at least, so an election would not do much good.

It’s weird, I wish I could find the words to describe why but there seems to be a ‘right on’ vibe about it. It’s like they are trying to outdo each other with the severity of the restrictions to show how ‘right on’ they are. I’d also include Nicola Sturgeon here.

copeyhagen

Graham wrote: »

Who said I was looking for an alternative?

While I wouldn't but a specific number of weeks out there, it is fairly obvious we need to wait until the case numbers are much lower.

A lower number gives us the best chance of avoiding another spike/lockdown while the vaccine program rolls out.

do you think a 9 week extension makes sense now, with vaccines rolled out to the vulnerable?!

Silentcorner

wakka12 wrote: »

This is not proven at all or even close. We had one summer where cases dropped across Europe, and may well have just coincided with the end of continent wide strict lockdowns. And you're managed to jump to the conclusion it directly follows same cycles as established seasonal viruses before this virus has even been around for a year yet. There are numerous examples which directly contradict your claim.
Why did South Africa have a much larger second spike in mid summer? Why did much of the Southern United states peak in mid summer? Why did much of South America have large resurgences in mid summer? Why did Russia see large waves of excess deaths from COVID in July while western europe saw none?
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/09/04/russia-records-30k-excess-deaths-in-july-most-month-fatalities-in-decade-a71354

Does thinking for yourself just mean ignoring everything that goes against your belief? Rich of you to tell off the other poster for 'not thinking' , like jesus. How about you have a think instead of mindlessly buying into the next big distraction/denial theory that dies a death before it's replaced by some other nonsense. And btw, I'm not denying there's a seasonal element, it's just not anything like as simple as you claim though.

I can't actually believe I have to explain this.

The climate differs all over the world, therefore the viral infection rates differ all over the world....other variable impact infection rates also.

This is Ireland, we have had a year of this, the patterns are telling us what this is, the stats are telling us who this virus affects....our health service has been stretched twice in a year

Our collective immune systems are reacting to a new virus, much like we react to the mutated flu virus every year....of course there is a seasonal element to this, if the last year is anything to go by, we won't get another surge until next winter....if, on the off chance we did get a surge, it would be much milder than the other two, which our health system coped with comfortably (compared to flu season every year)

manofwisdom

Irish Aris wrote: »

Not sure why people are surprised by the news. To me it's been obvious for a week now that restrictions will go on until the May bank holiday.
Now I just hope that beginning of May will be the end of it, although I'm not so sure anymore.

It was far from obvious.

Graham

copeyhagen wrote: »

do you think a 9 week extension makes sense now, with vaccines rolled out to the vulnerable?!

I've already said I wouldn't put a specific number of weeks down.

I do think it makes sense to extend the restrictions until case numbers are a lot lower.

Silentcorner

copeyhagen wrote: »

protests incoming?

not the usual ones, which i presume are anti mask anti vax.

I'd take to the streets at this stage.

In the meantime, bombard your local elected officials.

copeyhagen

Graham wrote: »

I've already said I wouldn't put a specific number of weeks down.

I do think it makes sense to extend the restrictions until case numbers are a lot lower.

majority of cases have been in nursing homes over the last few weeks. if they havent got that under control now, then its rampant in there and they never will.

9 weeks is b0llox and you know it.

SushiLover31

Silentcorner wrote: »

I'd take to the streets at this stage.

In the meantime, bombard your local elected officials.

I would too. I've had enough of this.

ypres5

thebaz wrote: »

How about we had an efficient and dynamic rollout of the vaccine from the start - if that occured , we could have vacccinated the vulnerable , and shortened the 5 month level 5 lockdown.

well you see to anyone else that would make sense but in kermits fantasy world the vaccine doesn't work and we should just ape China's policy of mass human rights abuses indefinitely so he can fulfill some personal fantasy