Covid 19 Part XXXIII-231,484 ROI(4,610 deaths)116,197 NI (2,107 deaths)(23/03)Read OP

Probes

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Do we take it you don't have experience with children and their shoe requirements?

I had a 1 and 2 year old at the start of this all, we measured their feet and got shoes online. Didn’t seem much of a bother to me personally.

Kiith

I've been pretty critical of NPHET the last few months, and disagree with much of what they have been talking about lately (i.e. restrictions to continue after vaccines etc...), but this week pushed me over the edge. Seeing their fearmongering about pregnant women, without even the slightest bit of science to back them up, angered me more then then i can really put into words. We recently found out we are pregnant, and this statement by NPHET is aimed at terrifying couples like us into hiding in our homes in fear.

It's disgusting behaviour, that needs to be called out more. They should continue to advise the government, as we do need medical experts to help us get through this pandemic, but they need to be removed from any sort of press conferences or public speaking positions.

I'm not going to the protest in Cork today, but i'm done listening to anything they say.

Probes

Nphet are only there to provide information, if you think they are fearmongering then you are free to take risks and suffer whatever consequences. This whole movement against Nphet is bizarre, they dont make decisions they just provide information.

Leftwaffe

Probes wrote: »

Nphet are only there to provide information, if you think they are fearmongering then you are free to take risks and suffer whatever consequences. This whole movement against Nphet is bizarre, they dont make decisions they just provide information.

Come on now. NPHET don’t officially make the decisions but the current gov basically accept anything they say as gospel. They may as well be making all the decisions. Martin and co pass the buck to NPHET, even more so now since Christmas.

I know you won’t agree with that and that’s fair enough. But what they said about the pregnancies the other day is nothing short of disgraceful. The sooner this group is pushed back behind the scenes and taken out of the media eye the better.

Wombatman

Gardai seem to be taking the anti-lockdown protest, planned for Cork today, fairly seriously. I wonder how many they are expecting to attend? Doubt there will be over a thousand. If it does go ahead, let's hope it's without incident. Checkpoints outside the City probably the best place to start in trying to minimise the gathering.

AdamD

pjohnson wrote: »

Hes clearly doing a Van Morrison and aiming for the conspiracist market.

Dont think its been a very lucrative market in the past due to its small numbers. If he thinks thats what he has to do his newer stuff really must not be doing well.

Unfortunately I don't think it's as cynical as that, he just doesn't seem all there.

Probes

Leftwaffe wrote: »

Come on now. NPHET don’t officially make the decisions but the current gov basically accept anything they say as gospel. They may as well be making all the decisions. Martin and co pass the buck to NPHET, even more so now since Christmas.

I know you won’t agree with that and that’s fair enough. But what they said about the pregnancies the other day is nothing short of disgraceful. The sooner this group is pushed back behind the scenes and taken out of the media eye the better.

It sounds like you are directing your ire to the wrong group. Nphet are there to provide their recommendations, if the government accepts them wholesale then that is a government issue, not an nphet one. We are in a fast moving pandemic, mistakes will be made but if there is cause for concern in any area then it should be shared with the public, the government are quite able to hold a press conference and either agree or disagree with the advice given.

Kiith

NPHET should not be going in front of the public and saying pregnant woman are at risk of a stillbirth based on absolutely no scientific evidence. There is literally nothing to even suggest those cases are COVID related, but they went ahead and said it anyway.

Considering stress can have a big impact on early pregnancy, maybe they should have actually looked into it properly before scaring a **** ton of people.

seamus

As a rule I only take the morning hospital numbers as gospel (otherwise you'd be on a rollercoaster), but last night's numbers are fantastic.

Both ICU and hospital numbers appear to be falling at a much faster rate now.

Admissions have slowed marginally and discharges haven't increased by any huge margin, they remain pretty steady.

Which suggests that the big impact is being made in hospital-acquired infections. This would indicate that the vaccination of front line staff is having a real impact now. Which basically guarantees that we'll not see the likes of January again. 40% of the hospital infections were acquired in hospital.

Even 4 weeks out, there's no reason to expect we won't see considerable easing of restrictions from April on. The vaccination of HCW means that even in the event of a big spike or outbreak, it won't snowball within the hospital system itself.

Ficheall

podgeandrodge wrote: »

Even likes of Currys are quite good

Unless there are any issues whatsoever with your product, in which case, good luck.

Leftwaffe

Probes wrote: »

It sounds like you are directing your ire to the wrong group. Nphet are there to provide their recommendations, if the government accepts them wholesale then that is a government issue, not an nphet one. We are in a fast moving pandemic, mistakes will be made but if there is cause for concern in any area then it should be shared with the public, the government are quite able to hold a press conference and either agree or disagree with the advice given.

I’m not no. I’m not sure if you read my post properly. NPHET make recommendations but they are generally accepted by government regardless. For example, we are the only state in the EU with construction closed and MM eluded to be being frustrated at this in recent days. MM is the Taoiseach.

In relation to COVID placentitis. Rotunda hospital have had 200+ women give birth whilst being diagnosed with C19. There have been zero adverse outcomes in relation to any of these. Ireland has approx 200 still births per year and this rate has not increased at all since the pandemic began.

The issue is, it’s possible to find evidence of C19 infection in the placenta following a still birth but it’s extremely difficult to conclude that C19 caused it. These still births can be associated with C19 but these no way to determine whether they were the cause of death.

So here we are, we have pregnant women all over the country panicking over something that is completely unfounded at this current time. Why did NPHET feel the need to release this information considering it is not properly researched? Why didn’t they take 5 mins to go through this recent study that was properly concluded?

www.imperial.ac.uk/news/215533/covid-19-infection-pregnancy-linked-with-still/amp/

4,006 women from bother the US and UK who had covid whilst pregnant were studied. Zero increased risk of still brith or early neonatal death.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Turtwig

seamus wrote: »

Admissions have slowed marginally and discharges haven't increased by any huge margin, they remain pretty steady.

Which suggests that the big impact is being made in hospital-acquired infections. This would indicate that the vaccination of front line staff is having a real impact now. Which basically guarantees that we'll not see the likes of January again. 40% of the hospital infections were acquired in hospital.

Much as I want this to be true I do think this is one hell of an assumption. HCW are a big driver of hospital acquired infections. The community can however be bigger. If the virus was at the levels seen in January in the community there could still be a snowball of hospital acquired infections.

As things are now, with less virus in the community less infected patients are entering the hospital system. Were that to change things could still snowball.

Probes

Kiith wrote: »

NPHET should not be going in front of the public and saying pregnant woman are at risk of a stillbirth based on absolutely no scientific evidence. There is literally nothing to even suggest those cases are COVID related, but they went ahead and said it anyway.

Considering stress can have a big impact on early pregnancy, maybe they should have actually looked into it properly before scaring a **** ton of people.

They literally said the reports should be treated with caution and that analysis was still ongoing. There obviously is something to suggest they might be Covid related, the Covid infection was in the placenta. So, you are twisting their words.

Elessar

seamus wrote: »

Even 4 weeks out, there's no reason to expect we won't see considerable easing of restrictions from April on. The vaccination of HCW means that even in the event of a big spike or outbreak, it won't snowball within the hospital system itself.

Varadkar has already privately said to FG members that all we'll be getting in April is an increase on the 5km limit, click and collect and the re-opening of construction. So he has already pre-decided regardless of figures that that is all we are getting. Don't get your hopes up.

iamwhoiam

Elessar wrote: »

Varadkar has already privately said to FG members that all we'll be getting in April is an increase on the 5km limit, click and collect and the re-opening of construction. So he has already pre-decided regardless of figures that that is all we are getting. Don't get your hopes up.

If they dont allow garden meetings with another household people wil do it anyway .They already are

Probes

I just watched the video of Nphet talking about the stillbirths. The video is cut off at the start but it sounds like he is being asked a question by a reporter and he is being extremely cautious in his reply "possibly", "preliminary", "not concluded". And then he finished with "we've had a very positive experience with maternity and Covid in this country so far.

Sounds like some here making a fuss over nothing.

Klonker

seamus wrote: »

Even 4 weeks out, there's no reason to expect we won't see considerable easing of restrictions from April on. The vaccination of HCW means that even in the event of a big spike or outbreak, it won't snowball within the hospital system itself.

If this were a normal country and we kept the current trend until beginning of April then I'd absolutely expect considerable easing of restrictions but alas we are not a normal country.

Leo is making lots of noise about outdoor dining space for restaurants in the summer. That's months away so it doesn't sound great for much easing in April. Construction will go back, I expect they'll increase 5km to 10km as a token gesture as they know this restriction seems the most unpopular (because it makes the least sense) and probably children back training outdoors and maybe you can meet a few more people outdoors. I wouldnt expect much more than that in April but I hope I'm wrong.

MarkY91

Klonker wrote: »

If this were a normal country and we kept the current trend until beginning of April then I'd absolutely expect considerable easing of restrictions but alas we are not a normal country.

Leo is making lots of noise about outdoor dining space for restaurants in the summer. That's months away so it doesn't sound great for much easing in April. Construction will go back, I expect they'll increase 5km to 10km as a token gesture as they know this restriction seems the most unpopular (because it makes the least sense) and probably children back training outdoors and maybe you can meet a few more people outdoors. I wouldnt expect much more than that in April but I hope I'm wrong.

Why only children training outdoors?

Klonker

Probes wrote: »

I just watched the video of Nphet talking about the stillbirths. The video is cut off at the start but it sounds like he is being asked a question by a reporter and he is being extremely cautious in his reply "possibly", "preliminary", "not concluded". And then he finished with "we've had a very positive experience with maternity and Covid in this country so far.

Sounds like some here making a fuss over nothing.

But they reported the death range of 0 - 90something. They knew that was going to be questioned so to say they didn't bring it up because it was asked by a reporting first is disingenuous. They knew exactly what was going to happen.

Klonker

MarkY91 wrote: »

Why only children training outdoors?

I meant as in children teams sports because I think that was allowed during our level 5 in November and not for adults. I'm only trying to guess the level of restrictions, don't expect me to make sense of them :pac:

GeorgeBailey

A few people have mentioned the fact that these threads are quiet shows everyone has had enough of covid and has moved on. But we've had these lulls before. Basically we're in one of those phases where not much changes. There's no fear that restrictions will soon get worse because they're already as bad as they're likely to get and they'll stay that way until early April at least. Virus numbers are going down at a stable and boring pace so there's no shock or horror at increasing hospital numbers. The vaccine rollout isn't going as fast as we'd like but it is at least happening.

My guess is that once they start talking about whether or not they'll reduce restrictions or the vaccine rollout completely falls apart or there's a sudden spike in cases/hospitalisations people will suddenly realise they've not actually moved on (although we've all definitely had more than enough of covid). Hopefully by Autumn there'll be so little worthwhile to talk about that people will actually have properly moved on.

TheDoctor

April 5th is still 30 days away. Wont be any leaks about relaxations for another 2/3 weeks so all that can be discussed in the meantime

- Vaccine roll out
- Cases/deaths/hospital numbers
- Latest speculation around variants

Going to be a long few weeks!

Loafing Oaf

Elessar wrote: »

Varadkar has already privately said to FG members that all we'll be getting in April is an increase on the 5km limit, click and collect and the re-opening of construction. So he has already pre-decided regardless of figures that that is all we are getting. Don't get your hopes up.

Maybe he's just keeping expectations low, even among his own troops, so that when things are loosened up even a small bit more than anticipated, everyone will be delighted...

zuutroy

All the 'normal' countries that have chanced re-opening are now back on an upward trajectory. Like it or not reopening before serious vaccine uptake is doomed to failure.

fits

Well 12,500 got their first dose vaccine on Wednesday. No it’s not as quick as we’d all like but we will get there.

User142

TheDoctor wrote: »

April 5th is still 30 days away. Wont be any leaks about relaxations for another 2/3 weeks so all that can be discussed in the meantime

- Vaccine roll out
- Cases/deaths/hospital numbers
- Latest speculation around variants

Going to be a long few weeks!

Varadkar surely won't be able to keep his mouth shut for 2 weeks.

Sweet.Science

Fair play to them but its disheartening watching from a distance

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

retro:electro

Kiith wrote: »

NPHET should not be going in front of the public and saying pregnant woman are at risk of a stillbirth based on absolutely no scientific evidence. There is literally nothing to even suggest those cases are COVID related, but they went ahead and said it anyway.

Considering stress can have a big impact on early pregnancy, maybe they should have actually looked into it properly before scaring a **** ton of people.

And two of the still births were included in yesterday’s death figures, despite the coroner still investigating if Covid was the cause. Desperate stuff

https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2021/0304/1201064-5-things-we-learned/


Four preliminary reports of stillbirths potentially associated with a condition called Covid Placentitis have emerged in Ireland, said Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn.

He said the reports should be interpreted with caution, as the coroners have not yet concluded their findings.

Two of the deaths have been officially reported as part of this evening's figures.

TheDoctor

Sweet.Science wrote: »

Fair play to them but its disheartening watching from a distance

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

We're starting those with underlying health conditions on Monday so that's group 4 of the 15 starting.

Only 10 more groups to go until my turn.

FlubberJones

Sweet.Science wrote: »

Fair play to them but its disheartening watching from a distance

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

Yep, they're running away with it un the UK, great job...

Making the flaccid leadership and health service here look even worse than normal, which is a real challenge but they're managing it.

Probes

retro:electro wrote: »

And two of the still births were included in yesterday’s death figures, despite the coroner still investigating if Covid was the cause. Desperate stuff

https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2021/0304/1201064-5-things-we-learned/


Four preliminary reports of stillbirths potentially associated with a condition called Covid Placentitis have emerged in Ireland, said Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn.

He said the reports should be interpreted with caution, as the coroners have not yet concluded their findings.

Two of the deaths have been officially reported as part of this evening's figures.

I feel like people are falling over themselves to criticise Nphet here. It's very possible that Covid increases the risk of stillbirth like other infections do too. I'd say it's quite likely that they are concluding that Covid has been a complication in those births leading to a negative outcome. They don't know how much of a problem it is, if it's worse with Covid or if it's typical of all infections. We are in a fast moving pandemic, we are dealing with variants now too, there is a lot of uncertainty. To criticise them for doing their job in reporting the information and providing recommendations is pretty low.

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/pubinfo/flu-vaccination/flu-vaccine-pregnancy/

Amirani

retro:electro wrote: »

And two of the still births were included in yesterday’s death figures, despite the coroner still investigating if Covid was the cause. Desperate stuff

That's how deaths have been counted for the whole pandemic, I've no idea how people still don't realise this.

If Covid is involved, the death will show up in the Covid death figures. If the coroner later concludes that it wasn't Covid-related, it will be denotified. It's very simple.

Suggesting that these cases should be treated differently is nonsense, and would rightly be criticised as dishonest and manipulation of the numbers.

Edit: Probably worth adding that it's not NPHET who do the counting, it's public health/HPSC.

Klonker

Amirani wrote: »

That's how deaths have been counted for the whole pandemic, I've no idea how people still don't realise this.

If Covid is involved, the death will show up in the Covid death figures. If the coroner later concludes that it wasn't Covid-related, it will be denotified. It's very simple.

Suggesting that these cases should be treated differently is nonsense, and would rightly be criticised as dishonest and manipulation of the numbers.

Edit: Probably worth adding that it's not NPHET who do the counting, it's public health/HPSC.

Well I guess this is where some people disagree and I understand your point of view. I think they should of broken from normal protocol and not include those deaths in the figures and specifically the death range. I just feel its a very sensitive situation and an exception should have been made until it could be investigated further.

Plumbthedepths

People know the fear of God has been put into pregnant women by the speculation that Covid can cause stillbirths ( despite all international evidence to the contrary) but defend the willingness of Nphet and the media to do it. Does anyone seriously believe an expectant mother needs to have their desire not to catch Covid heightened.
Twist and turn all you want but this was handled appallingly by Nphet and in particular RTE.

Amirani

Klonker wrote: »

Well I guess this is where some people disagree and I understand your point of view. I think they should of broken from normal protocol and not include those deaths in the figures and specifically the death range. I just feel its a very sensitive situation and an exception should have been made until it could be investigated further.

HPSC aren't just going to skip adding deaths to their Infectious Diseases reporting system because it's a bit of a sensitive situation. They have processes to follow, many of which are legally enshrined.

Given all the clamour for open disclosure, I can't believe we're back to a situation where people are calling for doctors to cover things up and be dishonest so they don't upset some people's sensibilities.

These deaths are "possible" Covid deaths under public health definitions. They're being treated as that and being reported as that. If people don't want to know about this stuff then they should avoid the news, many of the rest of us want information to be freely available. We've a bad history of cover-ups, so would rather we move away from that.

Cork2021

Everyone needs a laugh!!

https://twitter.com/risteardsrep/status/1367920073428643840?s=21

Plumbthedepths

Probes wrote: »

I feel like people are falling over themselves to criticise Nphet here. It's very possible that Covid increases the risk of stillbirth like other infections do too. I'd say it's quite likely that they are concluding that Covid has been a complication in those births leading to a negative outcome. They don't know how much of a problem it is, if it's worse with Covid or if it's typical of all infections. We are in a fast moving pandemic, we are dealing with variants now too, there is a lot of uncertainty. To criticise them for doing their job in reporting the information and providing recommendations is pretty low.

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/pubinfo/flu-vaccination/flu-vaccine-pregnancy/

'It's very possible that Covid increases the risk of stillbirth'
Your opinion or evidenced based?

Amirani

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

People know the fear of God has been put into pregnant women by the speculation that Covid can cause stillbirths ( despite all international evidence to the contrary) but defend the willingness of Nphet and the media to do it. Does anyone seriously believe an expectant mother needs to have their desire not to catch Covid heightened.
Twist and turn all you want but this was handled appallingly by Nphet and in particular RTE.

The news organisations should not have been running this in the way they were, I agree with you on that. It should not be headline news and should not be used for fearmongering, which is what happened. That's a journalistic standards thing as much as anything else.

Plumbthedepths

Amirani wrote: »

The news organisations should not have been running this in the way they were, I agree with you on that. It should not be headline news and should not be used for fearmongering, which is what happened. That's a journalistic standards thing as much as anything else.

The question about the 4 still births was tabled by George Lee (no surprise I 'm of the opinion he was prompted to do so) however I don't pretend for one second think Glynn was unaware of the fear his response would garner.
Like the other poster we will have to disagree, this unwillingness to criticise Nphet no matter the circumstances seems bizarre to me but so be it.

podgeandrodge

seamus wrote: »

As a rule I only take the morning hospital numbers as gospel (otherwise you'd be on a rollercoaster), but last night's numbers are fantastic.

Both ICU and hospital numbers appear to be falling at a much faster rate now.

Admissions have slowed marginally and discharges haven't increased by any huge margin, they remain pretty steady.

Which suggests that the big impact is being made in hospital-acquired infections. This would indicate that the vaccination of front line staff is having a real impact now. Which basically guarantees that we'll not see the likes of January again. 40% of the hospital infections were acquired in hospital.

Even 4 weeks out, there's no reason to expect we won't see considerable easing of restrictions from April on. The vaccination of HCW means that even in the event of a big spike or outbreak, it won't snowball within the hospital system itself.

Elessar wrote: »

Varadkar has already privately said to FG members that all we'll be getting in April is an increase on the 5km limit, click and collect and the re-opening of construction. So he has already pre-decided regardless of figures that that is all we are getting. Don't get your hopes up.

I don't get it. Why wouldn't they at least, as Seamus hopes for, that if figures drop there is potential for easing restrictions earlier. Instead, it's continual doom with no "hey lads, if things go better we will ease up earlier".

Klonker

Amirani wrote: »

HPSC aren't just going to skip adding deaths to their Infectious Diseases reporting system because it's a bit of a sensitive situation. They have processes to follow, many of which are legally enshrined.

Given all the clamour for open disclosure, I can't believe we're back to a situation where people are calling for doctors to cover things up and be dishonest so they don't upset some people's sensibilities.

These deaths are "possible" Covid deaths under public health definitions. They're being treated as that and being reported as that. If people don't want to know about this stuff then they should avoid the news, many of the rest of us want information to be freely available. We've a bad history of cover-ups, so would rather we move away from that.

I'm not saying cover up, I'm saying delay for a short period until can be investigated further.

Separately, this is the first I'm hearing about "possible deaths", the announcements call out "covid related deaths". Big difference in that so maybe they should call them "possible deaths" from now on.

Arghus

Kiith wrote: »

NPHET should not be going in front of the public and saying pregnant woman are at risk of a stillbirth based on absolutely no scientific evidence. There is literally nothing to even suggest those cases are COVID related, but they went ahead and said it anyway.

Considering stress can have a big impact on early pregnancy, maybe they should have actually looked into it properly before scaring a **** ton of people.

I don't know if you watched the presser where this came up but Dr. Glynn was asked a question about this by a journalist,a particular one who tends to look for maximum controversy and aggro. He didn't come into the room talking about this. He really couldn't have stressed enough that these were cases that required further investigation, that there was nothing officially confirmed.

I'm not entirely sure what the context was of the information being out in the public domain. He was asked a direct question by a journalist of whether he was aware of reports about it - he answered he was, stressed these were all prelimary reports, explained the medical context, stressed that it was very, very rare, said pregnant women shouldn't do anything beyond what they were already doing, repeated the fact that the experience of pregnancy and childbirth has continued to be a positive experience for the vast, vast majority while Covid was going on and said if people had concerns they should talk to their GP/doctor. He couldn't have been fairer.

Watch him here, he's measured and calm. He was asked a question about it, he didn't bring it up. He answered honestly and wasn't trying to scare people. It isn't his fault if George Lee freaks about it afterwards and RTÉ leads with that story. The media usually run with things and hype them up, but usually the remarks from NPHET in their original context are far more sober and unhysterical - and that was no different in this instance. I think the characterisation of NPHET and Ronan Glynn, in particular, trying to add to pregnant women's stress is entirely unfair.

I know a lot of people like any opportunity to find fault with anything they, NPHET, do - but it's a real stretch this one. If there was one single adverse outcome at any stage that could be linked to this condition and NPHET said nothing, despite being aware of it, I am entirely sure that would also be used as grounds for criticism too. They can't win.

Here’s his comments from the last day.

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1367541421750841350?s=20

Turtwig

I think part of the problem too was that NPHET only became aware of the investigations after their actual meetings that day. It was probably something Glynn would like to have prepared better. The Irish media went nuts with it.

That said I do think framing matters. If Glynn had begun by reiterating the successful amount of Irish pregnancies during the pandemic it would have been better. A bit like offering a person €100 today or wait for €200 in 30 days time. If you phrase that as €100 Euro today and €0 Euro in 30 days vs €0 today and €200 in 30 days people have a better intuition for the scenario involved.

blade1

Guards getting a bit of practice in for cork protest.


https://twitter.com/PierceOCinneide/status/1368189424387948553?s=19

bennyl10

blade1 wrote: »

Guards getting a bit of practice in for cork protest.


https://twitter.com/PierceOCinneide/status/1368189424387948553?s=19

Always amazes me how these clips never offer context. Do the anti everything eegits think we’re all thick?

Also.. stopping trains and cars? You mean stopping those breaching regulations?

Lundstram

bennyl10 wrote: »

Always amazes me how these clips never offer context. Do the anti everything eegits think we’re all thick?

Also.. stopping trains and cars? You mean stopping those breaching regulations?

They violently arrested a well known street performer earlier, they clearly thought he was a protestor.

Maybe it's the Gardai who need to focus on context.

Polar101

"Ronnie Lodge" has some good points, he should definitely heed his own advice.

bennyl10

bennyl10 wrote: »

Always amazes me how these clips never offer context. Do the anti everything eegits think we’re all thick?

Also.. stopping trains and cars? You mean stopping those breaching regulations?

Looks like he was playing his bongo too loud and singing questionable lyrics. They should have just shot him to be sure.

Klonker

Arghus wrote: »

I don't know if you watched the presser where this came up but Dr. Glynn was asked a question about this by a journalist,a particular one who tends to look for maximum controversy and aggro. He didn't come into the room talking about this. He really couldn't have stressed enough that these were cases that required further investigation, that there was nothing officially confirmed.

I'm not entirely sure what the context was of the information being out in the public domain. He was asked a direct question by a journalist of whether he was aware of reports about it - he answered he was, stressed these were all prelimary reports, explained the medical context, stressed that it was very, very rare, said pregnant women shouldn't do anything beyond what they were already doing, repeated the fact that the experience of pregnancy and childbirth has continued to be a positive experience for the vast, vast majority while Covid was going on and said if people had concerns they should talk to their GP/doctor. He couldn't have been fairer.

Watch him here, he's measured and calm. He was asked a question about it, he didn't bring it up. He answered honestly and wasn't trying to scare people. It isn't his fault if George Lee freaks about it afterwards and RTÉ leads with that story. The media usually run with things and hype them up, but usually the remarks from NPHET in their original context are far more sober and unhysterical - and that was no different in this instance. I think the characterisation of NPHET and Ronan Glynn, in particular, trying to add to pregnant women's stress is entirely unfair.

I know a lot of people like any opportunity to find fault with anything they, NPHET, do - but it's a real stretch this one. If there was one single adverse outcome at any stage that could be linked to this condition and NPHET said nothing, despite being aware of it, I am entirely sure that would also be used as grounds for criticism too. They can't win.

Here’s his comments from the last day.

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1367541421750841350?s=20

I understand George Lee was the one who asked the question who seemed to have some prior information on it but it was always going to be asked when the death age range was given as 0 to 90+.

Lundstram

Lundstram wrote: »

They violently arrested a well known street performer earlier, they clearly thought he was a protestor.

Maybe it's the Gardai who need to focus on context.

You can be certain there'll be a few in here praying for an unruly handful is it will give them licence to tarnish entire gathering, and bay for blood hoping that the Gardaí "crack some skulls".