How would you rate the governments performance tackling Covid so far

SheepsClothing

Voted "not great".

The Good:
- Initially set a good tone and got good buy in from the public.
- Through fairly rugged means, they have managed to prevent excess deaths for the year.
- So far, the vaccination program has been ran efficiently on Ireland's side.

The Bad:
- Were initially a couple of weeks too slow off the mark on going into lockdown and taking measures to prevent mass infection.
- Never put in place travel restrictions, or hotel quarantine, preventing us from ever eliminating the virus and wasting our island advantage.
- Never put in place a real contact trace and isolate system. Only ever tracing contacts 2 days back, for a virus with a 14 day incubation period is brain dead stuff.
- Communication has been very bad, especially since the new alphabet soup government took charge.

beauf

robbiezero wrote: »

Just percentage of cases per day will be fine.

You want a % of new cases caused by people who don't even know they have it, have never been tested and have no symptoms. How will they be detected? How will the new cases be detected?

SheepsClothing

Common sense dictates that masks work to reduce the number of viral particles entering the air from any one individual, therefore reducing the risk of infection. I don't understand the push back against them.

SAMTALK

Samsonsmasher wrote: »

The UK are the equivalent of the gold winning athlete who lapped you twice already while Ireland are the equivalent of the mad priest who runs onto the track with a kilt.

Sure the UK have made mistakes at every turn but the fact is they are going to be out of lockdown and back to normal way before us and we will be languishing in lockdown while they will be enjoying pints in the pubs and cocktails on tropical beaches.

Ah sure that's all that matters, never mind the horrific death rate in the UK, as long as pubs are open and holidays back on again

beauf

micks_address wrote: »

The biggest problem I have with the government now is the lack of dates being provided for an exit from Level 5. It would have been pretty straightforward to set a few key date outs like say...

You mean provisional dates. As they are highly likely to move. If people are locked into absolute dates they will lose their minds if they don't happen.

Red Silurian

beauf wrote: »

You mean provisional dates. As they are highly likely to move. If people are locked into absolute dates they will lose their minds if they don't happen.

Dates are probably a bad idea, if they give data limits instead I think there will be better compliance

Mitch Connor

Current handling is shambolic.

Level 5 from December through to April, at least, is a damning indictment of their intelligence and handling of the situation.

Furious and frustrated at this point. Just hating life.

Ave Sodalis

I thought it wasn't bad at the beginning, especially considering nobody knew what they were doing. As the sober person on nights out and formerly working in a pub, I completely understand the need for pubs to be shut so I wasn't upset about it. I defended and would continue to defend a lot of the decisions the government made last year.

The last few months, in particular since the start of this year, has been terrible. Complete mismanagement with clear indications that whilst most of the rest of the world has adapted to a certain extent, we're still reacting and have absolutely no idea what we're doing. In both controlling Covid, and handing out vaccines, we're doing far worse than what we should be able to do.

In saying that, the rest of us are also faced with dealing with people saying things like "lockdowns don't work, masks don't work". It's difficult to get anyone to take the people seriously when some people are still refusing to take this seriously. Honestly, this forum alone crosses into conspiracy theory territory so often I've lost count. Publicly stating (whether via a forum, a social media platform, or real life) that you don't believe in masks/covid, or that you can't understand how lockdowns have reduced the infection rates/death numbers makes you just as, if not more hysterical than those calling for total lockdown at this point.

Most of the population I would imagine are somewhere in the middle, but have to deal with incompetency and lack of brain cells on both sides that are reacting to each other, and it's incredibly frustrating.

Captain Pillowcase

Idiot sandwich would come to mind. I've worked in rooms of 2 year olds who can handle themselves better and they were also better able to communicate with you verbally.

robbiezero

beauf wrote: »

You want a % of new cases caused by people who don't even know they have it, have never been tested and have no symptoms. How will they be detected? How will the new cases be detected?

I have no idea. But then I am not ranting and raving about them spreading the virus when there is absolutely no evidence that is the case.

doublejobbing 2

FR85 wrote: »

Shambolic, we are an island, it was imported. We saw Italy and Spain falling long before we did but yet ports, airports and borders were left wide open.

Leo was at the helm at the time, hes a trained doctor and surely during his training "contagious diseases and viruses" were covered in the course, he should have taken is political hat off and put his doctors hat on and closed it up tight.

He is the biggest failure this country has seen in a long time. I hate the sight of Mehole Martin, his attitude and arrogance is one thing but Varadkar's handling of it in the early days was just criminal.

Leo's initial handling was a disaster, but at least we had the thing all but beaten by June, we were down to under 10 cases a day for a while.

Whatever initial mistakes were made with travel, then was the time to close the borders.

But we didn't. Virus began to seep back in, first from Irish holiday makers contracting it in Spain, likely from Brits, with a bigger surge happening circa August as E European meat plant workers brought it back (places like Romania did OK in the first surge here, had theirs later in the summer).

As staggeringly incompetent as that was, we still had one last chance to stop our ex pats returning at Christmas.

Instead, we asked them politely.

We would currently have upwards of 95% less cases per day had we done so. Had we closed the borders at Christmas we would currently be open to a level the UK is aiming for, vaccinated as they are, by May or so.

First Up

robbiezero wrote: »

Who are they and how many cases per day are they causing?

The people who are passing the virus to each other, either directly or indirectly. That's the only way it spreads and stays alive.

If people took the precautions that have been repeatedly set out in black and white, transmission would stop. The reason the virus is still alive is that people are not doing that.

doublejobbing 2

A list of FG FF communications in the last year. Probably missing some.

Last week- MM announces we will likely be in lockdown until May. Leo says we might not be.

February 10th or so- MM promises a plan will be unveiled by mid February, seemingly forgetting that mid Feb is Feb 14th, or 3 or 4 days after his statement. MM then releases a plan on Feb 23rd that tells us less than nothing by the looks of it.

January- Donnelly. We will have all vulnerable people vaccinated by June. This was then rolled back. Now they seem to have rolled it forward again claiming 1 million individuals per month by April. I've no idea any more.

Early January- Foley. Schools will definitely be re opening this week

Late December- Darragh O'Brien. Lockdown or no lockdown, building sites will be exempt and will be re opening in January

Early December- MM. If there is a lockdown in January, non essential retail will be staying open regardless

Earlier in December- MM. We shouldn't assume pubs necessarily will have to close again at the end of the Christmas period

August- Leo proclaims that we will never see another national lockdown. At worst we will see short, regional ones as the need arises.

August- Leo claims we will be opening nightclubs, let alone wet pubs, 48 hours before he knocks the pair of them on the head

Spring 2020- the leaving will go ahead, no matter what

Spring 2020- Simon Harris uses a lifestyle profile behind a paywall in the Sunday Indo to claim that pubs may never re open until a vaccine is found. At the time most projections had a vaccine several years away, if ever, yet Harris cared so little that he thought there was nothing wrong with such an off the cuff remark. A defining marker in the attitude some of our rulers had to the restoration of our social freedoms.

March- Leo. Once we flatten the curve, we will live along side the virus

Alf Veedersane

SheepsClothing wrote: »

Voted "not great".

The Good:
- Initially set a good tone and got good buy in from the public.
- Through fairly rugged means, they have managed to prevent excess deaths for the year.
- So far, the vaccination program has been ran efficiently on Ireland's side.

The Bad:
- Were initially a couple of weeks too slow off the mark on going into lockdown and taking measures to prevent mass infection.
- Never put in place travel restrictions, or hotel quarantine, preventing us from ever eliminating the virus and wasting our island advantage.
- Never put in place a real contact trace and isolate system. Only ever tracing contacts 2 days back, for a virus with a 14 day incubation period is brain dead stuff.
- Communication has been very bad, especially since the new alphabet soup government took charge.

It's not that they haven't put it in place, per se. Public health has been chronically underfunded by the DoE/HSE and they only have the resources to go back 48 hours rather than to actually try to identify the source.

beauf

robbiezero wrote: »

I have no idea. But then I am not ranting and raving about them spreading the virus when there is absolutely no evidence that is the case.

You kinda are since you're asking for the perfect detail of the impossible.

There is absolutely evidence of super spreader events. Thats the whole point of contact tracing.

First Up

doublejobbing 2 wrote: »

A list of FG FF communications in the last year. Probably missing some.

Last week- MM announces we will likely be in lockdown until May. Leo says we might not be.

February 10th or so- MM promises a plan will be unveiled by mid February, seemingly forgetting that mid Feb is Feb 14th, or 3 or 4 days after his statement. MM then releases a plan on Feb 23rd that tells us less than nothing by the looks of it.

January- Donnelly. We will have all vulnerable people vaccinated by June. This was then rolled back. Now they seem to have rolled it forward again claiming 1 million individuals per month by April. I've no idea any more.

Early January- Foley. Schools will definitely be re opening this week

Late December- Darragh O'Brien. Lockdown or no lockdown, building sites will be exempt and will be re opening in January

Early December- MM. If there is a lockdown in January, non essential retail will be staying open regardless

Earlier in December- MM. We shouldn't assume pubs necessarily will have to close again at the end of the Christmas period

August- Leo proclaims that we will never see another national lockdown. At worst we will see short, regional ones as the need arises.

August- Leo claims we will be opening nightclubs, let alone wet pubs, 48 hours before he knocks the pair of them on the head

Spring 2020- the leaving will go ahead, no matter what

Spring 2020- Simon Harris uses a lifestyle profile behind a paywall in the Sunday Indo to claim that pubs may never re open until a vaccine is found. At the time most projections had a vaccine several years away, if ever, yet Harris cared so little that he thought there was nothing wrong with such an off the cuff remark. A defining marker in the attitude some of our rulers had to the restoration of our social freedoms.

March- Leo. Once we flatten the curve, we will live along side the virus

Yes, its hard to paint a moving picture. Meanwhile people keep spreading the virus.

beauf

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

It's not that they haven't put it in place, per se. Public health has been chronically underfunded by the DoE/HSE and they only have the resources to go back 48 hours rather than to actually try to identify the source.

They were overwhelmed with the volume at times anyway. People ignore the restrictions then complain when the system can't cope. You reap what you sow.

Samsonsmasher

SAMTALK wrote: »

[/B]


Ah sure that's all that matters, never mind the horrific death rate in the UK, as long as pubs are open and holidays back on again

I couldn't give a sh*t. I want my freedom back.

Alf Veedersane

beauf wrote: »

They were overwhelmed with the volume at times anyway. People ignore the restrictions then complain when the system can't cope. You reap what you sow.

They've had too few resources to do the degree of contact tracing they want to do and should be doing even when the case numbers weren't exceptionally high.


There would never be enough resources in place to deal with the numbers when they were beyond the levels they've been beyond at times but they should be provided with the capacity to do a lot more than they have been.

SheepsClothing

Samsonsmasher wrote: »

I couldn't give a sh*t. I want my freedom back.

That much is clear.

Red Silurian

doublejobbing 2 wrote: »

A list of FG FF communications in the last year. Probably missing some.

Last week- MM announces we will likely be in lockdown until May. Leo says we might not be.

February 10th or so- MM promises a plan will be unveiled by mid February, seemingly forgetting that mid Feb is Feb 14th, or 3 or 4 days after his statement. MM then releases a plan on Feb 23rd that tells us less than nothing by the looks of it.

January- Donnelly. We will have all vulnerable people vaccinated by June. This was then rolled back. Now they seem to have rolled it forward again claiming 1 million individuals per month by April. I've no idea any more.

Early January- Foley. Schools will definitely be re opening this week

Late December- Darragh O'Brien. Lockdown or no lockdown, building sites will be exempt and will be re opening in January

Early December- MM. If there is a lockdown in January, non essential retail will be staying open regardless

Earlier in December- MM. We shouldn't assume pubs necessarily will have to close again at the end of the Christmas period

August- Leo proclaims that we will never see another national lockdown. At worst we will see short, regional ones as the need arises.

August- Leo claims we will be opening nightclubs, let alone wet pubs, 48 hours before he knocks the pair of them on the head

Spring 2020- the leaving will go ahead, no matter what

Spring 2020- Simon Harris uses a lifestyle profile behind a paywall in the Sunday Indo to claim that pubs may never re open until a vaccine is found. At the time most projections had a vaccine several years away, if ever, yet Harris cared so little that he thought there was nothing wrong with such an off the cuff remark. A defining marker in the attitude some of our rulers had to the restoration of our social freedoms.

March- Leo. Once we flatten the curve, we will live along side the virus

Yes I remember all that

Another important miscommunication that created more questions than answers

15th September Ireland will have 5 levels in the living with covid plan, entire country on lv2 except Dublin which gets 'level 2 plus' Leo Varadkar compares the move to how New Zealand had a level 2.5 for about a week when they were coming out of a lockdown (imagine being compared to New Zealand)

Early December - entire country gets moved to 'level 3 minus'

Late December - entire country gets moved to 'level 5 plus'

So do we have 5 or 8 levels?

micks_address

beauf wrote: »

You mean provisional dates. As they are highly likely to move. If people are locked into absolute dates they will lose their minds if they don't happen.

Any date given now or in April will be provisional.

doublejobbing 2

Red Silurian wrote: »

Yes I remember all that

Another important miscommunication that created more questions than answers

15th September Ireland will have 5 levels in the living with covid plan, entire country on lv2 except Dublin which gets 'level 2 plus' Leo Varadkar compares the move to how New Zealand had a level 2.5 for about a week when they were coming out of a lockdown (imagine being compared to New Zealand)

Early December - entire country gets moved to 'level 3 minus'

Late December - entire country gets moved to 'level 5 plus'

So do we have 5 or 8 levels?

Yes. The levels were brought in to bring nailed down clarity, two or so days later it's announced that when it comes to Dublin pubs we will make it up as we go along.

Absolutely shambolic.

doublejobbing 2

First Up wrote: »

Yes, its hard to paint a moving picture. Meanwhile people keep spreading the virus.

If MM had shut the UK borders pre Christmas we would have 95% plus less cases.

But he wants to blame the pubs.

Moving picture my hole.

neris

lack of communication and clarification from the govt with all these kite flying leaks to gauge the reaction of the nation plus the unelected nphet pulling the strings in the background

SAMTALK

Samsonsmasher wrote: »

I couldn't give a sh*t. I want my freedom back.

As do we all

Red Silurian

doublejobbing 2 wrote: »

If MM had shut the UK borders pre Christmas we would have 95% plus less cases.

But he wants to blame the pubs.

Moving picture my hole.

They closed the border with the mainland but couldn't convince their buddies in stormont to do the same, they also left 13 hours between the announcement and the closure, messing aer Lingus put on extra flights... It should have been a 2-3 hour window at a maximum realistically

Frozen Veg

A new party is needed with no connections to the current establishments.

Fianna fail ran the country to the ground and they are following a similar pattern this time.

Fianna Gael are much of the same. Have delivered mediocrity time and time again. Just didn't reach the catastrophes of Fianna Fail.

Sinn Fein. God knows. Wouldn't have faith in their ability to do any better. Could set the country back decades in other regards.

Labour. Offer nothing more than above.

Fresh thinking and blood is needed. Would be great to see young people getting into politics not joining the establishments above but looking to create fresh thinking and a new approach.

Red Silurian

Frozen Veg wrote: »

A new party is needed with no connections to the current establishments.

Fianna fail ran the country to the ground and they are following a similar pattern this time.

Fianna Gael are much of the same. Have delivered mediocrity time and time again. Just didn't reach the catastrophes of Fianna Fail.

Sinn Fein. God knows. Wouldn't have faith in their ability to do any better. Could set the country back decades in other regards.

Labour. Offer nothing more than above.

Fresh thinking and blood is needed. Would be great to see young people getting into politics not joining the establishments above but looking to create fresh thinking and a new approach.

Your comments about SF and Labour are based on what exactly?

It's been an arse-covering exercise by the HSE since day one. Total ****show