Covid 19 Part XXXII-215,743 ROI (4,137 deaths)111,166 NI (2,036 deaths)(22/02)Read OP

titan18

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Hancock in the UK laying down brass tacks today with relation to those travelling from high-risk countries, here there are only half-measures and intention to discuss legislation in the coming weeks. Living with Covid = slow rollout of the vaccines + inability to impose quarantine + restrictions being extended further. It's beyond pitiful how weak our Government are.

Make it worse. One of his excuses was what will the smokers do. He gives more of a sh1t about smokers travelling here being quarantined than he does about the millions here suffering cos of his own incompetence

marno21

caveat emptor wrote: »

Great.....just great.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1359200495613673474?s=20

This isn't news. It's the UK variant with an added E484K mutation.

The fact that the N501Y + E484K mutation combination has appeared separately in the UK, Brazil and South Africa indicates it has to have selection advantage. The planned reconfiguration of vaccines to defeat the SA variant will take care of this one also.

landofthetree

Morries Wigs wrote: »

in the space of 15 mins on the matt cooper show while ago

varadker-no travel abroad this year ,extending pup payments for 6 months to cover business not opening up

mcconkey -its going to go on for another 5 years and vaccines wont get rid of it

Then close the airports.

Otherwise people are going on holiday.

caveat emptor

marno21 wrote: »

This isn't news. It's the UK variant with an added E484K mutation.

The fact that the N501Y + E484K mutation combination has appeared separately in the UK, Brazil and South Africa indicates it has to have selection advantage. The planned reconfiguration of vaccines to defeat the SA variant will take care of this one also.

Really? I think you'll find it is news that The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) have designated the SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 with an additional E484K mutation, first identified in Bristol, as a “Variant of Concern” (VOC).

Hopefully it turns out that the planned reconfiguration will take care of this too.

Wonder how many more variants will emerge in the mean time.

frank8211

CruelSummer wrote: »

The person that compares the education and well being of our younger generation to a pub, shop or other industry has no value or clue as to the vital importance education is to our society and future.
Schools should be reopening after the midterm. Madness to keep dragging this out, children are disengaging and fed up. Get Primary back ASAP and test the teachers if necessary.

what aboit testing the pupils though? They are the ones who brought it back to their families

Plumbthedepths

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

McConkey suckles from the public teat so I don't think he gives a shiny one.

He has no solutions. Just a hard-on for publicity

Plumbthedepths

[Deleted User] wrote: »

He has no solutions. Just a hard-on for publicity

Strange that any misery merchant that wants it gets access to the media. Any good news is almost ignored.

ZX7R

caveat emptor wrote: »

Really? I think you'll find it is news that The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) have designated the SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 with an additional E484K mutation, first identified in Bristol, as a “Variant of Concern” (VOC).

Hopefully it turns out that the planned reconfiguration will take care of this too.

Wonder how many more variants will emerge in the mean time.

Yes it has a new mutation on the Kent strain but it's a mutation that has been seen before.
Then you have the usual may ,might, possibly attached to what could happen no facts other than it has a new mutation.

caveat emptor

ZX7R wrote: »

Yes it has a new mutation on the Kent strain but it's a mutation that has been seen before.
Then you have the usual may ,might, possibly attached to what could happen no facts other than it has a new mutation.

So nothing to worry about so. Great. Cheers for that. :pac:

Morries Wigs

Morries Wigs wrote: »

mcconkey -its going to go on for another 5 years and vaccines wont get rid of it

That's a statement of fact.

The vaccine won't get rid of the virus, and the virus will still be here in some form in 5 years from now. The flu virus is always with us, too, and won't be gone in 5-years' time, and won't have a vaccine to eliminate it from the planet.

Nothing pessimistic about that whatsoever; it's a statement of fact.

Nor does it mean that restrictions won't be eased in a few month's time, at the latest.

ZX7R

caveat emptor wrote: »

So nothing to worry about so. Great. Cheers for that. :pac:

Better to worry about facts than assumptions.

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

That's a statement of fact.

The vaccine won't get rid of the virus, and it'll still be here in some form in 5 years from now.

Nothing pessimistic about that whatsoever; it's a statement of fact.

Nor does it mean that restrictions won't be eased in a few month's time, at the latest.

Sure, you know that and I know that. But neither he, nor his hosts in the most part, ever add that context. They just leave the scary fact hanging, and my elderly aunt and uncle, without that context, interpret it as the end of days

ginoginelli

Leo living up to the slimy dishonest politician stereotype yet again.

He has repeatedly insisted that hotel quarantine was not possible in ireland because of the border. Now that Britain has brought in a hotel quarantine lite, varadkar is citing the measures as "too extreme"

He is dishonest to a fault.

Thousands are travelling here still everyday from god knows where. This charade of pretending to be serious about preventing non essential travel is a complete farce.

To deliberately not follow the science, and the publics pleading for border protection, is utterly negligent by now. It is, in fact, nothing short of malfeasance.

ArthurDayne

Deleted User wrote: »

Sure, you know that and I know that. But neither he, nor his hosts in the most part, ever add that context. They just leave the scary fact hanging, and my elderly aunt and uncle, without that context, interpret it as the end of days

Probably the most succinct summation of pretty much the last year that I’ve seen yet.

FintanMcluskey

normanoffside wrote: »

When will the vaccines start having an effect in healthcare settings?

The incidence of the virus in over 85s, compared to the rest of the population is shocking.

https://twitter.com/RiochtConor2/status/1359198669887721479

How much of that is due to community transmission

Azatadine

I dont know why they keep giving McConkey any air. He is in the captivity of negativity and thrives on it.

caveat emptor

ZX7R wrote: »

Better to worry about facts than assumptions.

I think the name gives it away to be honest. Classifying it as a variant of concern.

The UK variant while more transmissible isn't like the South African one which evades the antibodies generated by vaccines or previous infections.

This new Bristol variant of concern contains E484K which the S.A variant has is probably why they label it a variant of concern.

Circumstantial I know but not a massive leap of the imagination to think it might behave similarly.

Plumbthedepths

ginoginelli wrote: »

Leo living up to the slimy dishonest politician stereotype yet again.

He has repeatedly insisted that hotel quarantine was not possible in ireland because of the border. Now that Britain has brought in a hotel quarantine lite, varadkar is citing the measures as "too extreme"

He is dishonest to a fault.

Thousands are travelling here still everyday from god knows where. This charade of pretending to be serious about preventing non essential travel is a complete farce.

To deliberately not follow the science, and the publics pleading for border protection, is utterly negligent by now. It is, in fact, nothing short of malfeasance.

I have no grá for Leo but you are being dishonest mentioning hotel quarantine and suggesting Leo said it's too extreme. He said the possible 10 year prison sentence was too extreme.

spookwoman

waiting for county numbers on hub.

Plumbthedepths

Azatadine wrote: »

I dont know why they keep giving McConkey any air. He is in the captivity of negativity and thrives on it.

His sidekick Thomas Ryan was busy.

Stheno

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

His sidekick Thomas Ryan was busy.

Ryan is worse imo

ArthurDayne

ginoginelli wrote: »

Leo living up to the slimy dishonest politician stereotype yet again.

He has repeatedly insisted that hotel quarantine was not possible in ireland because of the border. Now that Britain has brought in a hotel quarantine lite, varadkar is citing the measures as "too extreme"

He is dishonest to a fault.

Thousands are travelling here still everyday from god knows where. This charade of pretending to be serious about preventing non essential travel is a complete farce.

To deliberately not follow the science, and the publics pleading for border protection, is utterly negligent by now. It is, in fact, nothing short of malfeasance.

I get your point, but the problem is this, what’s the endgame to closing the borders now? As far as I can see, we are stuck in a Catch 22 where you have to more or less suppress the population en masse to get numbers to whatever the government deems manageable — then when you reopen literally the entire population floods out to do the same things at more or less the same time. So cases rise again, the fear snowball starts to roll down the hill again, and we go into lockdown. So what’s the point anymore? People are now just used to the idea that it doesn’t matter how hard we all try — the second we get numbers down, we reopen, and then are blamed for enjoying the brief glimpse of liberty, and then are locked down again.

I just can’t help but feel that all the outrage about inward travel into the country is just a way for commentators in the media to avoid ever admitting that maybe the critics of the lockdown strategy last year had a point — “Oh no I wasn’t wrong at all, the strategy will still work if we do this and that” — rather than ever accepting that maybe, just maybe, the narrative they enthusiastically participated in spinning was unsustainable to begin with. It just reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer insists that the increasingly inedible pig is still good no matter how ludicrous the situation gets — “the lockdown strategy is just a little f****d, it’s still good! It just needs a little bit more of this”....etc etc etc.

Not having a go at you personally by the way, your post is perfectly reasonable and sincere.

boardise

ginoginelli wrote: »

Leo living up to the slimy dishonest politician stereotype yet again.

He has repeatedly insisted that hotel quarantine was not possible in ireland because of the border. Now that Britain has brought in a hotel quarantine lite, varadkar is citing the measures as "too extreme"

He is dishonest to a fault.

Thousands are travelling here still everyday from god knows where. This charade of pretending to be serious about preventing non essential travel is a complete farce.

To deliberately not follow the science, and the publics pleading for border protection, is utterly negligent by now. It is, in fact, nothing short of malfeasance.

But why do so many hang all this on Varadkar ?
The Taoiseach and Min for Health are more to the fore in dealing with a health matter and decisions are made by a Cabinet under guidance from NPHET.
Do people think Varadkar has been appointed a Health Czar or what ?
The hostility directed towards the Tanaiste seems irrational and puzzling .

hatrickpatrick

ArthurDayne wrote: »

I get your point, but the problem is this, what’s the endgame to closing the borders now? As far as I can see, we are stuck in a Catch 22 where you have to more or less suppress the population en masse to get numbers to whatever the government deems manageable — then when you reopen literally the entire population floods out to do the same things at more or less the same time. So cases rise again, the fear snowball starts to roll down the hill again, and we go into lockdown. So what’s the point anymore? People are now just used to the idea that it doesn’t matter how hard we all try — the second we get numbers down, we reopen, and then are blamed for enjoying the brief glimpse of liberty, and then are locked down again.

Simple. Vaccinate all of the at-risk groups, then open the borders again. That should be the barometer for most questions regarding "if we do X restriction, how do we justify undoing it in the future".

blackcard

Is it just me or is anyone else getting fond of wearing face masks? Keeps my face warm on these cold days. I don't have to bother to smile at people or have a shave. When I wear a wooly hat along with the face mask, I can get away with people not recognizing me

giveitholly

blackcard wrote: »

Is it just me or is anyone else getting fond of wearing face masks? Keeps my face warm on these cold days. I don't have to bother to smile at people or have a shave. When I wear a wooly hat along with the face mask, I can get away with people not recognizing me

It is just you

titan18

boardise wrote: »

But why do so many hang all this on Varadkar ?
The Taoiseach and Min for Health are more to the fore in dealing with a health matter and decisions are made by a Cabinet under guidance from NPHET.
Do people think Varadkar has been appointed a Health Czar or what ?
The hostility directed towards the Tanaiste seems irrational and puzzling .

If its not his remit, maybe he should shut up then instead of talking to the media every chance he gets.

Imo, open things up in March bar the clear danger spread events of hospitality etc. Theres feck all data that there's loads of spread by people training individually in gyms, or getting a haircut.

Utopia Parkway

blackcard wrote: »

Is it just me or is anyone else getting fond of wearing face masks? Keeps my face warm on these cold days. I don't have to bother to smile at people or have a shave. When I wear a wooly hat along with the face mask, I can get away with people not recognizing me

The one time it's positively bearable is this week as it's absolutely baltic out.

ginoginelli

boardise wrote: »

But why do so many hang all this on Varadkar ?
The Taoiseach and Min for Health are more to the fore in dealing with a health matter and decisions are made by a Cabinet under guidance from NPHET.
Do people think Varadkar has been appointed a Health Czar or what ?
The hostility directed towards the Tanaiste seems irrational and puzzling .

Do they? I only mentioned Varadkar becasue of the public dishonest statements he has made. Dont get me wrong, they are all accountable. Martin, Ryan, Coveney, Donnelly, whoever is behind this charade is equally culpable.

NPHETs guidance btw on international travel has completely been ignored . They have repeatedly called for strict hotel quarantine since the summer. Not following the scienctic advice on this critical issue is what has everybody so infuriated. Many lives and livelihoods have been lost, that likely could have been saved.

It's been the biggest blunder of our response. And we keep on making it.

ArthurDayne

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Simple. Vaccinate all of the at-risk groups, then open the borders again. That should be the barometer for most questions regarding "if we do X restriction, how do we justify undoing it in the future".

Sure, that makes sense from the perspective of simple common sense — but common sense is not necessarily the rationale being relied on by the powers that be.

Applying what seems to be the chosen State rationale right now, your suggestion takes us down one of two pathways — we close the borders and then either (1) we maintain strict lockdown to avoid any further spike in cases or deaths until we have the vulnerable vaccinated or (2) we reopen some things and thus follows the inevitable rise in cases and the calls for another lockdown. Throw into the mix the fact that the speed of the vaccine rollout is at present looking less than spectacular and it muddies things further.

Either way, it appears to me that the rationale the government has followed thus far invariably leads us to lockdown again anyway.