Clonmel leads Irish foreign policy!

Sparks

FFS.
From the Irish Times:

SARS countries to be asked to quit Special Olympics
By Fergal Quinn and Patrick Logue
Last updated: 15-05-03, 20:27
The Government is to ask athletes from SARS-affected countries not to attend next month's Special Olympics.
More than 260 delegates affected by the Department of Health decision are from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
The countries will be asked not to attend if they remain on the World Health Organisation's list of areas with recent local transmission ten days prior to arriving in Ireland.
The Special Olympics Organising Committee said it was "surprised and disappointed" at the announcement.
"We question any decision that discriminates against Special Olympics athletes over and above any person or group of persons travelling to Ireland from these countries," the committee said in a statement.
"In light of this obvious inconsistency, the Games Organising Committee has asked the Chief Medical Officer Dr Jim Kiely and the expert group to revisit their recommendation to the Minister," the statement added. Making the announcement at a press briefing this evening the Minister for Health Mr Martin said he had taken the advice from the expert group set up after the outbreak of the virus adding it would be "wrong to ignore their advice and medical knowledge".
"I have considered the decision at length and discussed it with the Taoiseach who ahs informed the Tánaiste. They are in agreement with me that the best course of action is to follow through on the expert group's recommendation," the Minister said.
Mr Martin held out hope for the affected countries that they may be taken off the WHO list and allowed participate. Canada was removed from the list yesterday.
Some six thousands delegates are due to arrive in Ireland for the Games at the end of June.
The decision comes after Mr Martin met with senior officials from his Department for discussions this afternoon.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday that it did not support the banning of Chinese athletes from travelling to Ireland for the games next month if proper "risk minimisation" measures, including quarantining and screening of athletes were put in place.
Bray, Arklow and Portlaoise were due to host three of the countries affected. Earlier this week, Hong Kong had announced that it would not be sending a team to the games. Councillors in Clonmel had voted not to accept the team.
The Labour Party's Ms Breeda Moynihan Cronin said the Government's decision was an act of "blatant political opportunism and discrimination".
"No other citizen from any of the affected countries is being asked not to travel to Ireland," she said.
"Business people, visitors, musicians, artists and anyone else who want to come to Ireland from the affected countries are all welcome. People with learning disabilities apparently are not".
"This is a shameful decision," she added.
Earlier today the Department of Health announced it was strongly advising people not to travel to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan because of the SARS alerts.
© 2003 ireland.com

And from RTE:

SARS countries asked not to come to Games
May 15, 2003
(20:48) The Minister for Health has requested that athletes from five countries affected by the SARS virus do not travel to Ireland for the Speical Olympics next month.
The countries are China, Taiwan, Hong-Kong, the Philippines and Singapore.
A spokesman for the Games Organising Committee said they were shocked and disappointed by the decision.
Micheal Martin had met senior officials from his Department for discussions on the SARS virus.
The announcement was made shortly before teatime today.
Earlier, the Department of Health said it was strongly advising people not to travel to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan because of the SARS epidemic.

DiscoStu

Is farce a strong enough word? These people are being stopped from participating yet, if they, their families or anyone else from the mentioned countries want to come here on holidays its fine.

simu

So much for 100k welcomes:(
Apart from being totally hypocritical (if it concerned business ppl coming from Asia to invest in Clonmel, things would be different), this will make us seem backwards and ignorant in the eyes of the world. D'oh!

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Sparks

Well,
1) SARS is less deadly than a bad case of influenza
2) Their health is far more closely monitored than most
3) They may not be welcome, but their families are welcome to wander in as tourists...

solice

i think thats its a complete shame that all some of the most vulnerable people in society today are not allowed to come to this country and partake in something that would mean the world to them. shame on clonmel and shame on the government.

Cork

Originally posted by solice
i think thats its a complete shame that all some of the most vulnerable people in society today are not allowed to come to this country and partake in something that would mean the world to them. shame on clonmel and shame on the government.

The Government took advice from an expert group. Should they have avoided the openions of doctors who specialised in infectious diseases? Should they merely rely on the moaners from radio talk shows?

The government wented on the side of caution.

A few weeks ago - people were ringing RTE that the government took more pre-cautions aganist foot & mouth than SARS. But when the government takes action reccommended by an expert group -

The Arm Chair Generals are proclaiming that they know best.


Yes, people are entitled to their openion. But the government set up an expert commitee to look at SARS and the special olympics - It made recommendations.

The world does know very little about SARS and saying that is akin to a bad flu is without foundation.

If the Communist government of China had not covered SARS up - we might know more about it today.

But, we can't discount SARS. It does hit the young & old. I think the government were right to accept the best advice which was available.

Sparks

Cork,

The Government took advice from an expert group.

Who were these experts? Did they really say "Don't let the kids in, but their parents should be allowed to come in as tourists if they want"???

Should they have avoided the openions of doctors who specialised in infectious diseases?

Who have being saying that this is a bad decision?

Should they merely rely on the moaners from radio talk shows?

No, the WHO are saying this is a bad idea. On radio talk shows, to be fair, but offically as well.

A few weeks ago - people were ringing RTE that the government took more pre-cautions aganist foot & mouth than SARS. But when the government takes action reccommended by an expert group

A few weeks ago, not a lot was known about SARS. Now we know more, and extreme measures aren't called for.

The Arm Chair Generals are proclaiming that they know best.

Again, the WHO is decrying this and they're not armchair generals.

The world does know very little about SARS and saying that is akin to a bad flu is without foundation.

Not true. SARS has the same symptoms, it is the same form of virus, and SARS has a slightly lower mortality rate than influenza.
Neither has a working cure.

solice

expert groups, thats all the bloody govt does, sets up clinics and think tanks and expert groups. for filling in pot holes the would set one up

Cork

Originally posted by solice
expert groups, thats all the bloody govt does, sets up clinics and think tanks and expert groups. for filling in pot holes the would set one up

Bertie has not the knowledge of soloman so expert groups are vital.

WHO guidelines are general.

The expert group was specific to the special Olympics.

Sparks

Cork,

Bertie has not the knowledge of soloman so expert groups are vital.

It hasn't stopped him from making knee-jerk decisions before.

WHO guidelines are general.
The expert group was specific to the special Olympics.

This wasn't a WHO guideline:

The move was confirmed last night after health minister Micheal Martin met senior health officials.
The World Health Organisation criticised the decision, saying it was not consistent with the latest guidelines for attending large events.
Mary Davies, chief executive of Ireland`s Special Olympics committee, said she was surprised and disappointed by the news.
She said an expert had been sent over from the World Health Organisation to assess the risk.
``What he stated was the issue is reducing and managing the potential risk and managing those risks if they should occur,`` she said.
``He doesn`t think we should be looking at banning anybody from moving around the world under these kind of circumstances.``

patch

It's nice to see sombody taking a few precautions.Sars is still rampant, I'm not scared yet, but I wouldn,t rule it out for the future.
Sparks, no disrespect intended when I ask if you'd have any objections to Irelands special olympics team travelling to china for a couple of weeks??

Sparks

It's nice to see sombody taking a few precautions.Sars is still rampant, I'm not scared yet, but I wouldn,t rule it out for the future.

Noone is saying don't take precautions. But this isn't a precaution. If the kids themselves want to come to Ireland purely as tourists, remember, they can do so with no hinderance.

Sparks, no disrespect intended when I ask if you'd have any objections to Irelands special olympics team travelling to china for a couple of weeks??

With the healthcare that they receive, no I wouldn't have any problem with it - they'd be a lot safer than if I went there on my own!

simu

Why not quarantine the athletes? Anyone showing SARS - like symptoms stays at home. Surely this would be preferable to giving up completely on the athletes from the countries in question after all the effort they have made to prepare for the games and all the efforts made by their host towns in Ireland.

I still think this ban is an illogical, knee-jerk reaction on the part of the Minister for Health though, given that any body else from affected countries can enter the country at will.

Sparks

simu,
If I understand the reports correctly, they're allready under effective quarintine in their home countries for just this reason...

Imposter

I seen a piece on CNN from Hong Kong and China about this last night. The point they were making was that the teams had offered to go in to quarantine for 10 days prior to coming to Ireland. That was refused by the department of health.

I can see this doing a lot of harm economically to Ireland aside from affecting the athletes who have been training for years for this event.

Again a rather shameful decision by the government.

Trebor

I thought it was the mayor of one of the towns that said they would not host the team from an infected area as his townsfolk did not want to put them up for fear of getting infected.

so the government had to refuse them because they had no where to send them.

Imposter

The piece portrayed it as a government decision and even flashed a letter on Dept of Health headed paper with Michael Martin's signature on the bottom.

Gorgeous George

SARS is a serious health risk and so the Special Olympics and any other event which would have brought large numbers of people from affected countries should have been cancelled outright. As for the bad PR affecting us economically. Don't be ridiculous. With respect to the participants other than to themselves and their families the Special Olympics is a non-event.

colinsky

I really can't belive that some of you folks are actually supporting this prejudice.

If there is a valid SARS threat with people from a certain country or area visiting Ireland, the appropriate response would be a ban or restriction on ALL people travelling from that location. Restricting special olympians (and ONLY special olympians) while tourists from the same countries can travel unrestricted is purely discriminatory against the athletes. It provides NO direct health benefits, and only demonstrates the blatent bigotry and hate of this administration.

We already saw this in the turning away of the Iraqi athletes -- who didn't even have any connected SARS threat. The special olympians -- just because they are "different", are being held responsible for things which they are not responsible. The Chinese Special Olympicans _do not have SARS_. The Iraqi athletes _are not dangerous terrorists_. Don't blame them for governments. They AREN'T governments. They're just people who have been trainng for an athletic event and want to compete.