Relaxation of Restrictions, Part XII *Read OP For Mod Warnings*

Parachutes

https://youtu.be/V7Sw9VLF-60

If you didn’t laugh you’d cry

Hector Savage

https://old.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/puewbw/enough_is_enough_concerns_with_the_australian/

Wow, so f*cking depressing .... I would post in the Australia response thread but they'd be cheering it on over there ...

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117933551#Comment_117933551

Australia have followed the NZ zero covid strategy. The strategy is a good one which gives huge benefits from the perspective of deaths and freedoms while the rest of the world suffers from illness and lockdowns. Australia, however has made a mess of their response with constant quarantine breakthrough cases so the residents there are living in the worst of both worlds, made worse again by an absolute shambles of a vaccine rollout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928201#Comment_117928201

And what about the retail staff who have to wear masks for eight, nine, ten hours a day.

Penfailed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117933396#Comment_117933396

That attempt at humour made me cry. My kids are crying too. Thanks.

Penfailed

I wish people would stop calling it 'freedom day'. It's pure Daily Mail bullshít.

Parachutes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117936662#Comment_117936662

Crying over a tiktok video? Fits the bill perfectly for someone terrified of covid to be honest.

DebDynamite

I recently got glasses, which I actually quite like and have no problem wearing them, but the absolute pain on them steaming up whilst wearing a mask makes it not worth the hassle (very low prescription - so not needed all the time). I’m relieved I’ve not been a wearer of glasses during this, especially if I had to wear a mask all day.

But the glasses steaming up thing, is the steam on them literally my breath meeting the surface of the glass? When you see someone’s glasses steaming up, that’s their breath in physical form on their glasses, right? Makes you wonder then as to the effectiveness of masks really if you can literally see one’s breath escaping a mask.

Vaccinated30

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117936982#Comment_117936982

Light a match and try blow it out while wearing a mask, you will see how they are effective. Air escapes or we would all suffocate. They reduce the amount in the air and it rises instead of going straight into the face of the person you are talking to, whos mask prevents the air coming into their mouth.

Simplist way I can explain

charlie14

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117927695#Comment_117927695

If there has been one constant from some posters her it is this "we should do this because such-and-such is doing it" as if this pandemic has been some kind of one fits all. There have been alone a multitude of different strategies employed by countries before we are now in the end-game of restrictions and nobody yet knows why some countries or areas fared better than others. Or even why with now the same levels of vaccination they are continuing to do so.

All the Scandinavian countries bar Sweden have had lower levels of death than the rest of Europe in general without doing much different to anyone else. For Denmark that could have been simply to do with geography or something as simple as there adherence social distancing. The joke in Denmark with non-nationals is that the Danes were delighted to see the 2 meter social distancing rule gone as they could now go back to their normal 5 meters. Their vaccination levels are much the same as the U.K. yet their incident rate is now much lower. Again nobody knows why. Perhaps its to do with Denmark after first vaccinating the vulnerable rather than working down the age groups, then vaccinated younger people. Either way I don`t think there can be much of a case made for their rates now being lower that Ireland simply because they have no social distancing and no face masks. Denmark themselves do not appear to know why it is the case as the government have stated if numbers rise they will not hesitate to impose further lockdowns.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117936982#Comment_117936982

Without mask - projected outwards in the direction of those facing you - with mask projected in a chaotic manner around your head. Less droplets contacting other individuals.

I am skeptic as to the overall effectiveness of mask outside of some specific scenarios, however that they reduce the amount of particles being spread about is undeniable.

charlie14

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117936669#Comment_117936669

i look on it as Boris and his Brexiteers looking on themselves as a band of latter day Churchill`s.

Where Churchill had his VE (victory in Europe) day Boris and the gang went with VO (victory over Europe) day. Just meaningless theater.

DebDynamite

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117937546#Comment_117937546

Isn’t Covid spread via aerosols rather than droplets though?

I’m just back from the local shopping centre. It’s a bright and airy shopping centre. I was just observing how effective masks would be in this setting after October 22nd. There’s cafes whose seating areas are within the shopping centre itself, so people dining there are literally in the same space maskless that people going from shop to shops are required to wear a mask in. The only ones going around maskless are children who are unvaccinated and statistically more likely to have Covid than anyone else. Anyone I saw wearing their masks I correctly - under the chin or with the nose exposed - were mainly the elderly - the very ones we’re supposed to be protecting!

Once everything is open, how much difference will masks really make?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117937700#Comment_117937700

What is a aerosol but a tiny drop.

And it’s spread by droplets and aerosols. Even if you did not reduce aerosol spread at all, reducing large droplet spread would have a major impact

lee_baby_simms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117937700#Comment_117937700

lol were you in Blanchardstown? I was there earlier and had a very similar train of thought while walking around.

mightyreds

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117937700#Comment_117937700

I was there about 2/3 months ago and my wife wasn't vaccinated and we couldn't eat in those cafes, even though we were inside the centre

Penfailed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117936774#Comment_117936774

I was joking. The video was shíte. I'm not terrified of Covid. I've had it FFS!

bodhrandude

I thought you would have been at Wild Roots in the park today in Sligo Penfailed, free admission at Stephen Street, Damien Dempsey headlining and nine other acts.

https://sligotourism.ie/2021/09/15/wild-roots-in-the-park-25-sept-1pm-to-11pm-stephen-st-sligo-admission-free/

Penfailed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117938361#Comment_117938361

The line up didn't really do it for me TBH. I was supposed to be in Belfast last night for Liam Gallagher (I had actually bought the ticket as I wanted to see IDLES in the support slot). He cancelled earlier this week as he allegedly fell out of a helicopter and busted his nose.

PTH2009

Ffs can we please move the 22nd Oct reopening forward

Penfailed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117938511#Comment_117938511

It's not looking like that's going to happen but here's hoping.

Scuid Mhór

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117938511#Comment_117938511

I can’t help but feel like it’s happening a bit too quickly. Of course I agree that life has to go on but we will be throwing a lot of variables into the blender. At what cost one wonders.

MilkyToast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940237#Comment_117940237

Well the England has been open a while now and half their excess deaths since July have been from things other than Covid, probably because of missed appointments and diagnoses, etc. So you can stay closed and cause more of one or open up and cause more of the other. Except the "staying closed" avenue is also storing up mental health issues and economic impact.

Everything has a cost.

MilkyToast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117937735#Comment_117937735

Infected droplets (> 100 microm) don't go much further than 1m, are usually only produced from sneezing and coughing by infected people, and usually suspend in the air for less than 5 second. They're poor deliverers of respiratory viruses. Virosols (<100 microm, but usually <5 microm) are produced with singing, shouting, breathing, talking, etc. They hang about in the air for hours if temperature and humidity are right.

Virosols can also be breathed directly into lungs, bypassing nasopharyngeal immunity, where droplets have to penetrate all sorts of mucus linings in all sorts of hostile environments before infecting the host.

Since it's unlikely that many people have been going out when they're coughing and sneezing everywhere the last couple of years, and many less people than that have been standing within 1m of people who are coughing and sneezing, I doubt that reducing large droplet spread will have had much impact at all.

The best way to avoid covid (or any respiratory disease) being spread indoors is to open windows and/or have good air filtration. Those dumb perspex screens the government made businesses pay for and put everywhere so the "something must be done" crowd would feel like something was being done... reduced that aerosol-clearing airflow and probably increased infections.

Edit: re: however that they reduce the amount of particles being spread about is undeniable.

No. Masks do not reduce lung capacity. You breathe out and in the same number of "particles" regardless of masks, if we're talking about cloth/surgical.

hotmail.com

Masks were originally intended for people with symtoms. Can we not even just go back to that.

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940237#Comment_117940237

The people who've been producing numbers on this are satisfied and with over 90% fully vaccinated there is not really any case to be made to hold on anymore. Current cases may look high but 40% of them are kids and they will begin to fall very soon, with the school close contacts change from tomorrow and ultimately the end of self-referrals. Hospital rates are manageable and COVID will become another disease to manage.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117940555#Comment_117940555

Yes , the change re school contacts and the end of self referrals will reduce the amount of cases being picked up in primary school children !

I don't know but maybe that is what Scúid Mhór is talking about when he mentions ' throwing a lot of variables in the blender ' ?

All this does really is allow infections, however mild, go unmarked in an unvaccinated population .

This is a mistake at this stage imo, but I am of course only one voice .

Even from a POV of keeping a record this completely goes against all that NPHET have said all along.

The only other time thos happened was in January last when the track and trace system could not cope because of high numbers .

Nothing that has been said by NPHET makes sense to anybody working with children .

pgj2015

Does anyone know if there are plans to do away with the need to prove you have been vaccinated to eat indoors?

Vaccinated30

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117942461#Comment_117942461

22nd oct

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117942583#Comment_117942583

Remember don't throw out your masks