Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

Polar101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118473744#Comment_118473744

They will be writing an alternative history where they'll tell everyone they were right all along.. about something. There will be a lot of "Like I said back in 2020"'s and "Anyone with common sense knew x, but they were not listened to"'s.

Spiderman0081

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118473714#Comment_118473714

So vaccine passes and masks will no longer be necessary either? That’s great news.

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118474828#Comment_118474828

Different people lead different lives.

Let me take just one example:

Theatre groups in Ireland still have to meet up over Zoom or other internet interactions - yet the West End in London is wide open.

If you are an actor and you cannot act, and you cannot even rehearse properly, then can you go about your daily business normally?

Some people can live normal lives in this quasi-lockdown and some people can't. Some people are forced out of work and onto the dole while other people can go to work.

It seems to be lost on you that not everyone has your exact circumstances or that of your social circle (other middle-aged office workers?). Loads of people in different walks of life are caught in a bind.

Micky 32

A nice drop down to 83 from 92 in ICU.

lee_baby_simms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118474946#Comment_118474946

Covid is no longer a threat to the health service. NPHET can be wound up at the end of the month.

Ficheall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118474171#Comment_118474171

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118474250#Comment_118474250

Apologies, I was perhaps unclear. My point was whether the reduced severity (meaning it would kill fewer people) outweighed the increased spreadability (meaning it would kill more people). Wasn't referring to someone having already it/immunity etc.

As in, IF an individual catches covid, you want it to be Omicron, yes, but is an individual's chance of "catching Delta AND dying from it" higher than "catching Omicron AND dying from it". Like, do you want there to be rabies (very deadly, not very transmissible) or mumps (less deadly, more transmissible) in your neighbourhood, kind of thing.

mollser

re restrictions, they really need to be asked thow much will keeping the restrictions in place for the next 2 weeks will cost the tax payer (its probably €100m odd), and could this cash be put to better use, i.e. invested in hospital cap x? There's been a serious disconnect between cost / benefit in the entire response.

growleaves

I am hopeful that the Taoiseach is hopeful that NPHET may be hopeful about allowing trade to continue at 8.01pm at the end of January or possibly February.

See, I can be optimistic.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475009#Comment_118475009

Not sure really - only way to measure that is basically how many people are dying now vs during delta wave. Anecdotally I'd say less, but we won't really know until the death registrations are finalised in a few months time (assuming omicron wave is mostly over by then)

Ficheall

Fair. Let's hope you're right - on both counts!

seamus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475026#Comment_118475026

We would be jumping the gun somewhat to decide to just drop all restrictions now. Most countries are planning no major rule changes till the end of the month.

We could however, very easily, return closing hours back to normal practically overnight. I don't think, "Oh NPHET aren't meeting till X date" is really good enough. Light a fire there lads.

fm

So it's looking like cases have peaked on January the 8th at 26,000,last January they also peaked on January the 8th at 8000 cases reported.But I thought it was lockdowns that made cases peak and then fall,I mean we needed 3 months and more of heavy restrictions in 2021 to get them down,and don't forget the 5km rules.Billions spent on keeping hospitality,shops and construction closed all wasted imo.lockdowns have been one of the biggest mistakes this country has ever made.

landofthetree

Thank God the schools weren't closed by the bedwetters. It would be getting all the credit for falling numbers.

ganoga

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475088#Comment_118475088

why don't we forget about other countries and use our intuition. let's move on...

mollser

Also very frustrating - "NPHET "hopeful" Ireland near peak of surge" - its as clear as day that the peak in cases was last Friday 8th - what data do they be looking at? Like, this isn't a feeling - its raw data, and everything says it's peaked a week ago - they continue to patronise, but the journalists never question anything. So end of Jan it is I guess

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118473989#Comment_118473989

I am pro-everything.

The people who wanted everything shut down are the real anti-everything crowd, using their formula "The virus doesn't care about [everything]"

bucketybuck

Its interesting this new concept that finally reopening somehow invalidates the criticisms of the past 2 years? That finally allowing people to live magically turns all the previous mistakes into successes?

Its very much a Vitas Gerulaitis moment, with the small difference that he meant it as a joke.

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475281#Comment_118475281

When some Oireachtas Committee inevitably has a few hearings on all this the politicians, Tony et al will all be in there telling us what a magnificent job they did.

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118474250#Comment_118474250

There are few immunonaive people but there are many naive people.

marno21

It’s also time to talk about disbanding NPHET as soon as it’s no longer a public health emergency. The clue is in the name.

Let whoever did it pre-2020 be responsible for surveillance regarding new variants and other infectious disease issues.

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475551#Comment_118475551

You could argue the emergency is over now and certainly by the end of January the justification for NPHET to continue will surely no longer exist.

Danye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475310#Comment_118475310

There’ll be tribunals about this nonsense in 10 years or less!

My view of it is if the facts support dropping the restrictions, drop them and get on with it, but keep NPHET and other infrastructure on at the very least rapid ability to be recall, until we're sure it's definitely gone. I'd look at winding stuff down in maybe April if everything looks good.

This thing has been too unpredictable to just throw caution to the wind entirely. I'm not at all saying that we should maintain restrictions, but definitely maintain monitoring for several months until the pandemic is definitely not a threat and throw some of those resources into planning and strategising for any future risks.

We also need to look, globally, at enhancing biosecurity to prevent something like this having such a dramatic impact. There are huge lessons to be learned from this and I would be concerned that we aren't going to learn them, and I don't just mean in Ireland. I mean, the EU, the US, the world needs to have much more preparedness to be able to stop a pandemic in its tracks in future.

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475606#Comment_118475606

The facts are 18K+ official cases and over 1,000 in our creaky hospital system. It's not the right move to reverse things just now, when next week and the following week should bring much better facts. TBH I don't get this impatience at this stage given how many times we've been told 2-3 weeks more.

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475596#Comment_118475596

They're not going to investigate themselves.

the kelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475654#Comment_118475654

True but i can understand it.

Rewind last summer, nah just give it a few more weeks, actually huge hurricane coming so a few more weeks, actually no storm but still schools are important so a few more weeks etc etc.

You're right in what ye say but i do get the impatience also.

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475701#Comment_118475701

Last summer there was a wait till we are almost all vaccinated and we did try to do things in September but along came Delta. My point about impatience is that it is a bit pointless now when saving a sudden horror variant we have nearly reached the end of this.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475281#Comment_118475281

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118474919#Comment_118474919

Different people do indeed lead different lives and I never said that there were no one impacted by the current restrictions, obviously those who work in entertainment and hospitality are. That said for the vast vast majority of the population, the current level of restrictions is practically invisible. Though to look at this thread you wouldn't believe that.

I've quoted bucketybuck above as an example of kind of silly hyperbole that a handful of accounts are posting to this thread, the "finally allowing people to magically live" sort of stuff. If we were still under level 5 after 2 years you could agree, but the vast majority of restrictions are long in the rear view mirror. If you or bucketybuck haven't been living your life and have been hiding away, well that's on you. The rest of us have been getting on with it.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118473779#Comment_118473779

That's excellent news and a sign of a return to normality. The only thing that could prevent this going ahead would be a big surge in cases or the arrival of yet another variant.

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475654#Comment_118475654

With declining numbers all round and we know a large number of the 1,000 are not even symptomatic it loses the fear factor. We wouldn't dream about restricting society in previous busy flu seasons when we had thousands of people on trolleys over the winter, so the grounds to keep restrictions in place now are very shaky. We really need to get over the "let's just wait 2 more weeks" thinking.