Covid 19 Part XXXIV-249,437 ROI(4,906 deaths) 120,195 NI (2,145 deaths)(01/05)Read OP

The Great Gatsby

RGS wrote: »

There has been no gatherings at golf courses for the short period they were open last year. We have been closed for 210 days since March 2020.
It was turn up, shoes on in the car park, off to the 1st tee, play and go home.

We had strict protocols in place. Rakes disappeared, flags remained in the hole, the majority of clubs implemented online bookings, online payment and digital scorecards, kept locker rooms and shower facilities closed.

With those protocols in place, it's mind boggling that golf courses in Ireland have been closed as long as they have been -- as someone said earlier, more than 3 times longer than in Scotland . . . I'd love to know what goes through someone's mind (or a groups mind) when they sit down and decide what's open, what's not, what's essential, what's not, etc -- how golf is on the lockdown list for so long is ridiculous.

Wolf359f

The Great Gatsby wrote: »

With those protocols in place, it's mind boggling that golf courses in Ireland have been closed as long as they have been -- as someone said earlier, more than 3 times longer than in Scotland . . . I'd love to know what goes through someone's mind (or a groups mind) when they sit down and decide what's open, what's not, what's essential, what's not, etc -- how golf is on the lockdown list for so long is ridiculous.

Hard to justify Golf as essential.
But then if you allow it, based on it being outdoors and played solo, then they have to allow a whole lot of outdoor solo activities:
Kayaking
Surfing
Paddle boarding
Horseback riding
Archery
Scuba diving
Fishing
Windsurfing
Sailing
Diving
etc...

Or is golf allowed as as it on private property?
So 2 guys meeting up in a garden with 2 hurleys, a flag, a flaggan of cider and a hole dug out can be classed as golf.... once they use a gold ball of course.
Once something is allowed, then it's always up for bending the rules etc....

For the greater good, who really gives a **** about golf?

mollser

Wolf359f wrote: »

Hard to justify Golf as essential.
But then if you allow it, based on it being outdoors and played solo, then they have to allow a whole lot of outdoor solo activities:
Kayaking
Surfing
Paddle boarding
Horseback riding
Archery
Scuba diving
Fishing
Windsurfing
Sailing
Diving
etc...

Or is golf allowed as as it on private property?
So 2 guys meeting up in a garden with 2 hurleys, a flag, a flaggan of cider and a hole dug out can be classed as golf.... once they use a gold ball of course.
Once something is allowed, then it's always up for bending the rules etc....

For the greater good, who really gives a **** about golf?

All of those activities should have continued as they pose minimal covid risk but greatly increase peoples wellbeing. Reward>>>>>>>>>>>risk. But they don't care, it's only about covid.

Lumen

As far as I know none of those activities are explicitly prohibited, only travelling more than 5km to get there and gathering while doing them.

Am I wrong?

Kiith

Wolf359f wrote: »

Kayaking
Surfing
Paddle boarding
Horseback riding
Archery
Scuba diving
Fishing
Windsurfing
Sailing
Diving
etc...

Yeah, it'd be terrible if people were allowed to do outdoor activities that pose practically no risk to anyone :rolleyes:

Lumen

Lumen wrote: »

As far as I know none of those activities are explicitly prohibited, only travelling more than 5km to get there and gathering while doing them.

Am I wrong?

Where i live I’ve seen lots of horseback riding, paddle boarding, sea swimming , and fishing throughout level 5, I’ve done some of the above activities myself!

I live close to beaches , fantastic to see people outdoors enjoying healthy safe activities for the last few months! There was no ban on such activities.

bucketybuck

Wolf359f wrote: »

But then if you allow it, based on it being outdoors and played solo, then they have to allow a whole lot of outdoor solo activities:

Yes, you are right, they should be allowing outdoor solo activities.

Doing so would have allowed people some respite and in turn increased the likelihood of adherence to more important measures implemented elsewhere.

Unfortunately such complicated ideas are beyond NPHET and our current government.

leahyl

Donnelly on Morning Ireland now, there’s something very arrogant about him - I don’t know why I think this!

Happydays2020

Kiith wrote: »

Yeah, it'd be terrible if people were allowed to do outdoor activities that pose practically no risk to anyone :rolleyes:

Archery could be dangerous to other people.

wadacrack

leahyl wrote: »

Donnelly on Morning Ireland now, there’s something very arrogant about him - I don’t know why I think this!

He puts on an act. Strikes me as very insecure

Happydays2020

leahyl wrote: »

Donnelly on Morning Ireland now, there’s something very arrogant about him - I don’t know why I think this!

Interesting from the IT today

Donnelly queries exclusion from department tweets
Simon Carswell
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly queried why he was not being mentioned in tweets posted on the Department of Health’s Twitter feed, internal department records show.

leahyl

wadacrack wrote: »

He puts on an act. Strikes me as very insecure

Being totally caught out now by Mary Wilson - he’s stumbling over his words.

FishOnABike

is_that_so wrote: »

The impression you get is that an appeal will just be rejected out of hand. The system needs to be challenged for legality and robustness.

To be honest, that appears to be a common tactic in dealing with government departments. Reject appeals to filter out the less determined, only the really determined will go on to take their appeal to a higher level or ultimately take their case to court before finally succeeding.

leahyl

Happydays2020 wrote: »

Interesting from the IT today

Donnelly queries exclusion from department tweets
Simon Carswell
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly queried why he was not being mentioned in tweets posted on the Department of Health’s Twitter feed, internal department records show.

She questioned him on that very article - at one point he couldn’t get the words out!

stephenjmcd

Happydays2020 wrote: »

Interesting from the IT today

Donnelly queries exclusion from department tweets
Simon Carswell
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly queried why he was not being mentioned in tweets posted on the Department of Health’s Twitter feed, internal department records show.

Was quite funny listening to him stumble through that question on morning Ireland

AdamD

Wolf359f wrote: »

Hard to justify Golf as essential.
But then if you allow it, based on it being outdoors and played solo, then they have to allow a whole lot of outdoor solo activities:
Kayaking
Surfing
Paddle boarding
Horseback riding
Archery
Scuba diving
Fishing
Windsurfing
Sailing
Diving
etc...

Or is golf allowed as as it on private property?
So 2 guys meeting up in a garden with 2 hurleys, a flag, a flaggan of cider and a hole dug out can be classed as golf.... once they use a gold ball of course.
Once something is allowed, then it's always up for bending the rules etc....

For the greater good, who really gives a **** about golf?

We've been at this over a year, not every question should be about whether something is 'essential' or not. Its utter nonsense. People searching for reasons to not allow an activity, it should be the opposite.

Golf should never have been stopped. If you think otherwise you've completely lost sight of what the virus is. We should be stopping activities because they're risky, not because it looks bad, not because it raises questions about other activities, not because of who it effects.

But hey, apparently golf is only a risky activity in Ireland.

shtpEdthePlum

Did he say if it was safe to get back on a trampoline from today?

TheDoctor

Big day re. easing restrictions in the UK today.

Wish them well.

JDxtra

leahyl wrote: »

Being totally caught out now by Mary Wilson - he’s stumbling over his words.

He's totally out of his depth.

The Minister for Health should not care about what tweets he is/isn't mentioned - especially at the height of the pandemic back in January.

funnydoggy

saabsaab wrote: »

Not 100% effective. More to come.

That's some serious crystal ball stuff..

We don't know if a variants becomes one of concern and evades vaccines. It hasn't happened yet and there have been thousands of variants. It might happen, who knows.

What is being understood more now is that antibodies aren't the only thing fighting infection. T-cells stay around long after antibodies wane and they do a job to fight the virus too, and not exclusively with any one variant.

To say otherwise and predict the future is a waste of mental energy imo.

WoollyRedHat

JDxtra wrote: »

He's totally out of his depth.

The Minister for Health should not care about what tweets he is/isn't mentioned - especially at the height of the pandemic back in January.

Good point about timing particularly. Article in question https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/stephen-donnelly-queries-why-his-department-s-tweets-don-t-mention-him-1.4534536?mode=amp

Jim_Hodge

Wolf359f wrote: »

Hard to justify Golf as essential.
But then if you allow it, based on it being outdoors and played solo, then they have to allow a whole lot of outdoor solo activities:
Kayaking
Surfing
Paddle boarding
Horseback riding
Archery
Scuba diving
Fishing
Windsurfing
Sailing
Diving
etc...

Or is golf allowed as as it on private property?
So 2 guys meeting up in a garden with 2 hurleys, a flag, a flaggan of cider and a hole dug out can be classed as golf.... once they use a gold ball of course.
Once something is allowed, then it's always up for bending the rules etc....

For the greater good, who really gives a **** about golf?

Where have you been. Most of those other activities have been ongoing within your 5km and now further afield. You could always fish, kayak, wind surf etc...

hmmm

Kiith wrote: »

Yeah, it'd be terrible if people were allowed to do outdoor activities that pose practically no risk to anyone :rolleyes:

This has been one long morality exercise in Ireland. Other countries seem to have had much more emphasis on science and risk, but we've outdone ourselves with trying to find someone/something to blame.

I think it's because our restrictions were relatively lightly enforced, which meant the government were relying on public opinion to enforce them. Much of that opinion is poorly educated about where the risks are, and keep trying for zero risk in the areas they target instead of risk reduction.

Of course there's a risk with anything (e.g. people stupidly deciding to car-share on the way to an outdoor activity), but those risks are relatively low and are given far too much prominence. I knew myself we had reached that point when media and social media lit up with outrage at people going for a hike on the side of a mountain, I can't think of much which represents less of a risk.

We have the same thing now with MHQ. RTE blasting out headlines about how three outbreaks (out of 385) could be traced back to plane travel. Nevermind all the other outbreaks, the entire attention of the country is focused on the morally deficient people who are travelling and demand zero risk (e.g. serious talk about detaining people who are both vaccinated and recently tested in case they are carrying the virus).

is_that_so

saabsaab wrote: »

Not 100% effective. More to come.

Against death and serious illness they are. There are now at least 750,000 variants so yes of course there will be more but that doesn't mean a new VUI will automatically become a VOC. TBH hard to see here whether you welcome them or are using them as an opportunity to defend our ongoing approach.

RGS

Wolf359f wrote: »

Hard to justify Golf as essential.
But then if you allow it, based on it being outdoors and played solo, then they have to allow a whole lot of outdoor solo activities:
Kayaking
Surfing
Paddle boarding
Horseback riding
Archery
Scuba diving
Fishing
Windsurfing
Sailing
Diving
etc...

Or is golf allowed as as it on private property?
So 2 guys meeting up in a garden with 2 hurleys, a flag, a flaggan of cider and a hole dug out can be classed as golf.... once they use a gold ball of course.
Once something is allowed, then it's always up for bending the rules etc....

For the greater good, who really gives a **** about golf?

Nothing to stop any one doing most of the activities you mention as most of the activities take place in public places. Horseriding schools I presume are closed.
Golf and Tennis take place in enclosed private properties so easy to keep closed. That's the main reason golf and tennis are mentioned by posters. They are specifically prohibited.

RGS

JDxtra wrote: »

He's totally out of his depth.

The Minister for Health should not care about what tweets he is/isn't mentioned - especially at the height of the pandemic back in January.

100% agree. To complain about the number of mentions he is getting in tweets is childish and IMO shows a total immaturity.


More worried about how many times Harris is mentioned in tweets than dealing with our health problems.

Sofa King Great

Donnelly used an interesting phrase on Morning Ireland regarding the vaccines - something along the lines of "80% of people will be in a position to be offered the vaccine"

Up to now I've only heard "offered the vaccine". Is this a watering down of the target? Will they open up the booking portal at the end of June and therefore you are "in a position to be offered"

Jim_Hodge

saabsaab wrote: »

Not 100% effective. More to come.

They were never 100%.

Jim_Hodge

Sofa King Great wrote: »

Donnelly used an interesting phrase on Morning Ireland regarding the vaccines - something along the lines of "80% of people will be in a position to be offered the vaccine"

Up to now I've only heard "offered the vaccine". Is this a watering down of the target? Will they open up the booking portal at the end of June and therefore you are "in a position to be offered"

You're over thinking it.

is_that_so

Sofa King Great wrote: »

Donnelly used an interesting phrase on Morning Ireland regarding the vaccines - something along the lines of "80% of people will be in a position to be offered the vaccine"

Up to now I've only heard "offered the vaccine". Is this a watering down of the target? Will they open up the booking portal at the end of June and therefore you are "in a position to be offered"

The portal is flagged to be available in the next couple of weeks, first to the 65-69 group. That Donnelly comment is just what they hope and the big number is aimed at giving people hope. It's still largely only first shots.