How would you rate the governments performance tackling Covid so far

Rodin

Responder XY wrote: »

I think there is a large discrepancy in Garda activity across the country. I live in Dublin. I don't have much call to leave the house, but when I do (shopping or exercise on my bike), I usually see multiple garda checkpoints. LAst time I went to Tesco (1.5kms away), I was stopped twice and asked where I lived and what the purpose of my trip was.

My parents and sister live in the midlands and have yet to be stopped throughout the pandemic. That despite the fact that there are two essential workers who have continued to work in their place of work all year and commute 15km each way daily by car from a rural location to the nearest large town. They also would need to make that journey for shopping etc...

They tell me they see no garda presence and anyone they talk to bar me tells them the same. Anyone I talk to in Dublin has been stopped multiple times every time they leave the house and drive anywhere during level 5.

I did drive from Mayo to Dublin and back last week and saw no checkpoints.

quokula

quokula wrote: »

If you were to take it in numbers.

We have one of the lowest death rates in western Europe, despite having an extremely open land border with the country with one of the highest death rates by far in the world.
We have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world so far, only really behind a couple of extreme outliers like Israel and the UK, basically maxing out our delivery of all available vaccine supplies.
We're forecast to be the only economy in Europe that grew in 2020 - in fact our economic outlook even looks better than the likes of New Zealand.

But for a lot of people, it seems that not being able to go and have a pint in the pub for a while trumps all of that.

Disagree with north having one of the highest death rates in the world.

Euromomo. No real excess deaths at all since pandemic whereas we did have spike last spring.

The north has lower incidence than republic at present and around 40% of its adult population innoculated to our less than 10%.

We are more of a threat to them and have been for months.

You've been listening too much to leaky leo playing politics with arlene.

Was happy enough with the response til Christmas where they completely ****ed things up.
That's now been compounded by the inept rollout of vaccines. For the last 2 weeks they've failed to hit the not particularly ambitious target of 100k shots administered. On the one hand we've been told that it's not the EU's fault and there's nothing stopping us trying to get more but yet they'll also say "Ah sure look, that's all we can get". The Brits (who were utterly disgraceful at the start) will bang out a half a million in a day sometimes while we're standing around drooling on ourselves. It's completely ridiculous and answers are needed and some f*cking responsibility needs to be taken.

um7y1h83ge06nx

I think I've gotten to the stage where I've run out of patience with the government.

The problem we have is what is the alternative, SF? I cannot see them being any better - FG, FF, SF are in many ways just different shades of the same colour. Weak, indecisive parties with poor leadership abilities that take the easy approach - waste taxpayers money with decreasing levels of return.

Rodin

It isn't surprising the north is surging ahead as it has a genuine integrated NHS.
Makes it easier to roll out a vaccine program. Stops the vaccine grabbing for example in Kerry.

Just as well it does have an integrated system because there's no other real strategy up north.
They should however be well ahead of the south when it comes to opening up.

The north is ahead in absolute numbers of jabs given and streets ahead relatively (about 3x -4x) per head of population

Rodin

Rodin wrote: »

It isn't surprising the north is surging ahead as it has a genuine integrated NHS.
Makes it easier to roll out a vaccine program. Stops the vaccine grabbing for example in Kerry.

Just as well it does have an integrated system because there's no other real strategy up north.
They should however be well ahead of the south when it comes to opening up.

The north is ahead in absolute numbers of jabs given and streets ahead (about 3x -4x) per head of population

Their (admittedly far superior) system has little if anything to do with it. We're getting out all the vaccines we're receiving. The issue is supply, pure and simple. We're doing roughly 15k per day because that's all we have. A few here and there making up less than 1% going to "the wrong people" barely matters. If we had proper supply we wouldn't need to be so specifically focussed on categorising people to begin win.
In school I remember for one of the booster shots a nurse came in and did 34 of us in just over an hour. All this nonsense about how long it takes is just covering up the lack of supply.

Rodin

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Their (admittedly far superior) system has little if anything to do with it. We're getting out all the vaccines we're receiving. The issue is supply, pure and simple. We're doing roughly 15k per day because that's all we have. A few here and there making up less than 1% going to "the wrong people" barely matters. If we had proper supply we wouldn't need to be so specifically focussed on categorising people to begin win.
In school I remember for one of the booster shots a nurse came in and did 34 of us in just over an hour. All this nonsense about how long it takes is just covering up the lack of supply.

Ireland is free to make whatever deals it wants outside the EU including Sputnik. We choose not to.

Rodin

Rodin wrote: »

Ireland is free to make whatever deals it wants outside the EU including Sputnik. We choose not to.

Yup, and are we making that choice? Responsibility and consequences for obviously incorrect decisions have to happen.

Rodin

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yup, and are we making that choice? Responsibility and consequences for obviously incorrect decisions have to happen.

In the evitable post mortem, the govt didn't do what it should have done... but the govt didn't spread this virus over Xmas. People did.

The irresponsible must accept the consequences of their actions

Rodin

Rodin wrote: »

In the evitable post mortem, the govt didn't do what it should have done... but the govt didn't spread this virus over Xmas. People did.

The irresponsible must accept the consequences of their actions

So let's arrest people?
The government have ****ed up (and contributed to the spread over Christmas) and are continuing to **** up. Rather than pointing fingers about something that happened over 2 months ago we/they make some ****ing attempt to do a better job now. Since as far as I know time machines haven't been invented.

quokula

Rodin wrote: »

Ireland is free to make whatever deals it wants outside the EU including Sputnik. We choose not to.

There isn't an infinite supply of the Sputnik vaccine. Ireland has vaccinated more than twice as many people per capita than Russia has.

There are fewer vaccines in the world than there is demand. Ireland can't singlehandedly outbid every country in the world. Like other European countries, we decided we were better off using the collective bargaining power of the EU. While everyone is obsessed with comparing with the UK, they are actually one of only a few countries in the world who have secured a significant higher vaccine supply than Ireland has through Europe.

Other countries behind Ireland in vaccination include Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Sweden, Austria and many more. We are administering vaccines as quickly as they can be supplied.

El_Duderino 09

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Was happy enough with the response til Christmas where they completely ****ed things up.
That's now been compounded by the inept rollout of vaccines. For the last 2 weeks they've failed to hit the not particularly ambitious target of 100k shots administered. On the one hand we've been told that it's not the EU's fault and there's nothing stopping us trying to get more but yet they'll also say "Ah sure look, that's all we can get". The Brits (who were utterly disgraceful at the start) will bang out a half a million in a day sometimes while we're standing around drooling on ourselves. It's completely ridiculous and answers are needed and some f*cking responsibility needs to be taken.

In what way has the rollout been inept? It seems to me that they have administered the vaccines they get, pretty efficiently.

If Ireland and all the other countries went solo looking for vaccines, we’d be behind all the bigger, more influential countries in the queue and we’d have no vaccines yet. Presumably the countries that manufacture there vaccine would keep it for themselves and then start giving it to other countries.

I doubt that situation would make people happier.

We’re in the top 20 or so in the world for vaccine per population and some people call it “inept”. I really wonder what would constitute good performance.

JoseJones

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/january-stocks-of-moderna-covid-vaccine-still-waiting-to-be-administered-vd5w38vjn

Are you sure about that?

Natterjack from Kerry

JoseJones wrote: »

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/january-stocks-of-moderna-covid-vaccine-still-waiting-to-be-administered-vd5w38vjn

Are you sure about that?

I would be. That seems about right to hold back. Given the uncertainty in supply, holding of second doses is a bit of a guessing game, but as supply rates increase, it and future deliveries are more secure, than that number can maybe be lowered.

JoseJones

https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-40234244.html

This is also informative.

Natterjack from Kerry

JoseJones wrote: »

https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-40234244.html

This is also informative.

It is going very well indeed. There were always going to be imperfections in the definitions, overlaps, and conflicts of various groups prioritisation, and a certain wastage due to the logistics involved. But anecdotes for a mother of a friend, or callers to Joe Duffy, mean nothing in the context of a rollout programme for five million people. 10% have received a jab. With the limitations on supply and its tie to the EU programme, Ireland is top of the league.
Its going very well. But talk radio and newpaper headline writers need something to be up in arms about. Newspapers go for sales rather than responsible quality journalism - whats new ?

Rodin

quokula wrote: »

There isn't an infinite supply of the Sputnik vaccine. Ireland has vaccinated more than twice as many people per capita than Russia has.

There are fewer vaccines in the world than there is demand. Ireland can't singlehandedly outbid every country in the world. Like other European countries, we decided we were better off using the collective bargaining power of the EU. While everyone is obsessed with comparing with the UK, they are actually one of only a few countries in the world who have secured a significant higher vaccine supply than Ireland has through Europe.

Other countries behind Ireland in vaccination include Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Sweden, Austria and many more. We are administering vaccines as quickly as they can be supplied.

The Kiwis and Aussies don't need to vaccinate like Ireland does. Their societies are mostly open!

Rodin

[Deleted User] wrote: »

So let's arrest people?
The government have ****ed up (and contributed to the spread over Christmas) and are continuing to **** up. Rather than pointing fingers about something that happened over 2 months ago we/they make some ****ing attempt to do a better job now. Since as far as I know time machines haven't been invented.

People don't like fingers pointed because they know they're culpable.
This present "lockdown" is a joke. No enforcement and not enough adherence to rules. 2 months in and we're still hitting 500+ cases a day.

A bit more personal responsibility would go a long way in this country.

tails_naf

Rodin wrote: »

People don't like fingers pointed because they know they're culpable.
This present "lockdown" is a joke. No enforcement and not enough adherence to rules. 2 months in and we're still hitting 500+ cases a day.

A bit more personal responsibility would go a long way in this country.

I agree. I leave the house once a week to go to the town for some shopping as I live in a rural area. I'm aghast at how many are out and about in whats supposed to be the strictest level lockdown. I'm not surprised the cases are still high as there is a lot of mobility. I guess people are of the mindset thst they won't take it seriously if the govt won't - as evidenced by our open borders and 'having a meeting to dicuss the option passing legislation of forcing partial quarantine' type 'action'. Like everything if level 5 was a serious circuit breaker, or even taken as seriously as our first lockdown we'd be in a lot better shape by now.

M_Murphy57

Rodin wrote: »

People don't like fingers pointed because they know they're culpable.
This present "lockdown" is a joke. No enforcement and not enough adherence to rules. 2 months in and we're still hitting 500+ cases a day.

A bit more personal responsibility would go a long way in this country.

A lot of the cases continue to be from in-hospital and care home transmission.

Vaccinated elderly in homes are still being routinely tested, and some are testing positive but asymptomatic - those are part of the current case numbers too.

The government had no plan for vaccinating the elderly in hospital and are only this week "entering talks" to start thinking about how to vaccinate people who csnt present at their GP for vaccination because they are in hospital (genius stuff not to have considered this at least 4 months ago)

How would you like those elderly people to be punished for not being "responsible" enough?

GlobalSun

acequion wrote: »

I find your posts really interesting. I love to get the perspectives of non Irish. It's nice that you love Ireland so much and are so complimentary towards the Irish.

As a native I agree with you completely on all the bad points and disagree on the good. I don't think this is a great country, far from it. Our quality of life all over the country has hugely deteriorated and it's generous of you to say that we're poorly managed "at the moment" because the fact is that we've always been poorly managed. Power and control in this country have always been autocratic and indeed corrupt, right back to De Valera's time, right back to the stranglehold of the Catholic church. I find it frightening how little power the citizen really enjoys in Ireland. And never less so than now in the second decade of the 21st century. As you said so aptly, the dysfunctionalities have really risen to the surface.

Ironic for me that you choose Belgium as a good country to move to. I moved from there to here many years ago thinking to make a better life here. Belgium back then was a cesspit, with its two communities failing to get on and a very stagnant political landscape. I've no doubt they've moved on and do things better nowadays. I've lived all over Europe and settled here mainly due to family and roots. But at this point I've had enough. I'm close to retirement and weighing up my options for my nether years outside this country. I really have no faith that Ireland will ever properly get its act together. I was very confident during the noughties that we'd come of age. Granted the conspicuous consumerism was vulgar, but understandable. But the 2008 crash and the subsequent handling of it coupled with the handling of this pandemic and god knows the hangover to follow has me down and out. There are undoubtedly better places to hang one's hat.

Thank you.

I suppose I always view the "good" aspects of Ireland through a comparative lens (comparing to my "home country" - France).

When it comes to Belgium - I agree. The country still needs a lot of work (after all, they broke their own record of the longest period without a government). However, the day to day quality of life is slightly better than Ireland's (if you disregard some of the social issues). They have a good & cheap transportation infrastructure, rather reasonable healthcare, a decent access to the property ladder, reasonably priced rentals of quality, cheap/free higher education. That said, they have a very bureaucratic approach to things and are far less flexible than Ireland on some aspects.

More than likely, when we'll finally manage this sanitary crisis, we'll wind up in an another economic crisis. Right now, we're curing one disease and feeding another.

acequion

GlobalSun wrote: »

Thank you.

I suppose I always view the "good" aspects of Ireland through a comparative lens (comparing to my "home country" - France).

When it comes to Belgium - I agree. The country still needs a lot of work (after all, they broke their own record of the longest period without a government). However, the day to day quality of life is slightly better than Ireland's (if you disregard some of the social issues). They have a good & cheap transportation infrastructure, rather reasonable healthcare, a decent access to the property ladder, reasonably priced rentals of quality, cheap/free higher education. That said, they have a very bureaucratic approach to things and are far less flexible than Ireland on some aspects.

More than likely, when we'll finally manage this sanitary crisis, we'll wind up in an another economic crisis. Right now, we're curing one disease and feeding another.

I love France. It's one of my absolutely favourite places on the planet.:)

However I'll most likely retire to Spain as I've got close ties there and go there all the time, well, used to go all the time.

Very interesting points about Belgium, as having lived many years there I've a big soft for Belgium and the Belgians. But when you say they are "far less flexible" than Ireland, in what ways? Ireland has become rigidly inflexible imo. Ireland came late to bureaucracy and has embraced it with a passion, official Ireland that is.

Rodin

M_Murphy57 wrote: »

A lot of the cases continue to be from in-hospital and care home transmission.

Vaccinated elderly in homes are still being routinely tested, and some are testing positive but asymptomatic - those are part of the current case numbers too.

The government had no plan for vaccinating the elderly in hospital and are only this week "entering talks" to start thinking about how to vaccinate people who csnt present at their GP for vaccination because they are in hospital (genius stuff not to have considered this at least 4 months ago)

How would you like those elderly people to be punished for not being "responsible" enough?

Just don't ask how it gets in to the nursing homes in the first place...the shoddy practices in infection control in nursing homes are well known.

Red Silurian

New Zealand went down one alert level this morning

Aukland now on Level 2 (Formerly level 3) and the rest on Level 1 (formerly level 2)

No pluses no minuses... i think our govt could learn a lot from that

FlubberJones

Red Silurian wrote: »

New Zealand went down one alert level this morning

Aukland now on Level 2 (Formerly level 3) and the rest on Level 1 (formerly level 2)

No pluses no minuses... i think our govt could learn a lot from that

They seem unable to learn and continue to act in a stupid and dull way

is_that_so

Red Silurian wrote: »

New Zealand went down one alert level this morning

Aukland now on Level 2 (Formerly level 3) and the rest on Level 1 (formerly level 2)

No pluses no minuses... i think our govt could learn a lot from that

That NZ can count or that the sparsely populated isolated rock in the Pacific is no comparison?

GlobalSun

acequion wrote: »

I love France. It's one of my absolutely favourite places on the planet.:)

However I'll most likely retire to Spain as I've got close ties there and go there all the time, well, used to go all the time.

Very interesting points about Belgium, as having lived many years there I've a big soft for Belgium and the Belgians. But when you say they are "far less flexible" than Ireland, in what ways? Ireland has become rigidly inflexible imo. Ireland came late to bureaucracy and has embraced it with a passion, official Ireland that is.

From my experience, Belgians love order and rules. Their system is generally quite efficient, but incredibly rigid as opposed to Ireland's (at least from an administration perspective). It's good and bad at the same time. For instance, opening a bank account takes ages and you drown in paper work. Same for rental applications (Ireland is slowly turning into the same).

I almost got fined €50 for crossing the road by foot when the traffic lights were green and no car in sight. The police saw me and told me to go back to the other side of the road and wait until the pedestrian lights turned green or I'd get a fined. They had a fair point, but still. You'd never see this in Ireland or France.

FrStone

I came across an ad campaign being run by the Government of Ireland on social media:

https://www.antiviralireland.com/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckwCwuhsg28

Alex, a healthy guy in his 20's who, like many of us, is missing GAA and socialising with his friends. He never thought COVID would be more than just the flu

Basically the campaign shows us young people who are apparently healthy who caught Covid19 and sensationalises it. Surely this is nothing but scaremongering? The people in the campaign are the exception not the rule.

Surely a government run campaign should not try and sensationalise. The outcome for the average 18 -24 year is overwhelmingly positive.

ednwireland

nah this is a scary advert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iroty5zwOVw

is_that_so

FrStone wrote: »

I came across an ad campaign being run by the Government of Ireland on social media:

https://www.antiviralireland.com/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckwCwuhsg28



Basically the campaign shows us young people who are apparently healthy who caught Covid19 and sensationalises it. Surely this is nothing but scaremongering? The people in the campaign are the exception not the rule.

Surely a government run campaign should not try and sensationalise. The outcome for the average 18 -24 year is overwhelmingly positive.

It's the socialising of the 18-35 and the risk of spreading it that is the issue. They are the most active group socially and the idea I'd imagine is to highlight the risk to them but more importantly to other at risk groups.