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

So because they report COVID figures and ICU numbers due to COVID in the same article you are getting scared? Ok....

My thinking is they aren't reporting how many vaccinated are in hospital because hospital numbers are a delayed reaction to increasing case numbers and those stats simply aren't available yet. Or do you think they should say this in the same article so you don't get afraid?

Our daily case numbers are due to hit 2,000 in the next 2 weeks so the next 4-6 weeks will be a good test of how much the vaccines weaken the link, looking at Britain would suggest the vaccines don't break the link completely but instead of being fearful I am interested in what happens

Seems more like a punishment rather than mitigating infection risk

Posters on this forum love leaving out the negative test part when comparing Ireland's vaccine passport system to that of other countries. I'm sure it's sure its just accidental, they wouldn't misled on purpose I'm sure 😉

Most of our measures at mitigating infection risk have felt like punishment to be fair

The EU travel certificate will allow a 3 day old PCR to be used for travel, if the same certificate will be used to get into pubs then, by default, a test would also work to get into the pub

I guess it depends on how much information appears when the barcode is scanned by the barman, if it's a simple yes/no then there will be no way to differentiate

The vulnerable goal posts are constantly shifting. The criteria becoming more vast and vast. A bit like how they shift the criteria of "Poverty" every single year.

I have asthma but I am a rather fit and healthy person. I would be classified as "Vulnerable", I am not though. I cycle 30-40km nearly every day, or get my 10k steps if I'm not on the bike. I eat well, I'm not remotely overweight, I'm in my 30s, I'm rarely sick. There's nothing remotely vulnerable about me.

I am concerned that, regardless of the statistics, a lot of people are going to get whipped into a frenzy over the next few weeks.

It is not good and the division it could cause is dangerous.

You make an interesting point - many people think they are vulnerable to covid based on pronouncements by various departments of official Ireland and the media.

but when you look at who ends up in ICU (or dead) their risk is minimal.

A good friend hasn't been seen in a year cos he is worried about his asthma - which is actually a chest infection from 3 years ago.

Seems disproportionate to me but his life.

while the obese (who are actually at most risk bar the really old) are ordering wine ,takeaways and the rest like it's the last days of rome.

How many overweight people does anybody know that tried and succeeded losing weight in the last year ?

I know one and the rest got fatter.

But they're the ones we are protecting.. go figure.

Yes some countries are ok with a negative antigen test (something which I can definitely get behind) but does it appear on the travel cert?

Was at a Bohs match in the Aviva last night, which was at about 10% capacity with strictly enforced and universally obeyed social distancing measures. Every 2 minutes the 'stewards' (Pulse Security, a private contractor) were hassling people to pull their masks up over their noses. Completely ignores the idea of masks being required where social distancing can't be achieved. It was a 90% empty, open-air stadium. It's entirely performative at this stage and I don't see when it will end. Really sucked the joy out of the event.

Anyway I'm predicting another full lockdown come October. What's the point in mass coercion to boost vax uptake if our society remains a joyless, sterile, micro-managed dystopia? How are we worse off now than we were last summer? What is the **** end goal, considering we've missed the boat on eradicating this virus and will now have to live with it for the remainder of our evolutionary future?

I hope I'm wrong.

Yes and No.

It depends on which bits they want to follow in all honesty. Countries relaxing restrictions ahead of us then no thats ignored, countries doing the opposite, thats to be taken notice of.

Countries using antigen testing in unison with Vaccinations, ignore that, The Neherlands closing night clubs again, look, look at that over there.

Im genuinely at the stage where im thinking what was the point in getting vaccinated in the first place, the goal posts keep moving to the stage where the loonies saying vaccinations wont get us out of this cycle etc etc are starting to look like the sane ones.

The amount of people that believe this will end when everyone has had there 2nd shot is……well, was funny. Wait until they are not allowed enter a restaurant despite having received two doses of a vaccine.

Sorry sir, your vaccine pass expired last week.

I'm not sure where the "they" and "goalposts" stuff is coming from here.

We had nearly 1,000 cases yesterday.

When we increased to 1,000 cases previously:

• April 2020 - Under severe lockdown for 12 days and we remained there for another 5.5 weeks.
• October 2020 - Already at level 3 with most socialising closed, NPHET hit the panic button and we locked down again for 6 weeks
• December 2020 - Moved to level 5 when we hit 1,000 cases, after 10-14 days of warning that everything was f*cked
• July 2021 - Request that unvaccinated people take additional care. Most activities open. Plan to reopen indoor dining going ahead. NPHET asked for guidance on allowing events to start.

So you can see that despite some of the nutjobs on Twitter, we are approaching current case levels from a drastically different perspective than we ever did before. Last year when we hit 1,000 cases in a day if someone was seriously discussing reopening the pubs, they'd have been laughed out of it.

The goalposts have indeed moved, we're tolerating far higher levels of infection in the community than we did before.