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

You could ring them up and ask them. Probably the best answer.

I saw that too.Governments in general seem to make these sudden moves from time to time. This one because of some variant whose prevalence they are not even sure about.

You would like to be a fly on the wall when these things are discussed in government circles. This move to have fully vaccinated people quarantined without a thorough assessment (or so it seems) runs so contrary to the lifting of most restrictions that you have to question the sanity of those in charge. All the UKs official talk about the importance of vaccination and the freedom it gives can now just be dismissed.

If a caveat can appear out of nowhere anything can happen at any moment.

Maybe its all because of what happened w Delta in the UK (and then throughout the EU) and the 3 week unrestricted flight liberty fr India.

And you need to remove your blindfold, research and make an informed judgement. Your comment is typical of those incapable of arguing the facts. Just like our politicians, if you can't discredit someone's argument, you discredit them. Such an intellectually lazy approach is a dis-service to yourself.

Your first mistake was assuming they want us to make informed decisions. After 18 months its clear they, or certainly the cmo, thinks we are all idiots and not to be trusted to make our own risk assessments or mature enough to act accordingly.

Please refer to Raind's reply to you.

Are we because Christmas would have proved otherwise

There was a QR code on our antigen test from Randox last week.

Dont know what it was for though. We were flying to Spain so it was the QR code on the Spanish locator app that was scanned on entry

Touché!

But being serious, the guidelines for interpreting PCR tests using a high Ct value/low viral load are quite complicated https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/algorithms/PCR%20weak%20results%20guidance.pdf

Where people tested are asymptomatic and have a positive result, with a high Ct/low viral load result, they should be retested, within a one to two day period, before being classified as potentially infectious. I have not heard of a single case of this scenario. As the focus on test results is on symptomatic individuals ("Patients who are most seriously ill and in hospital will get their results first" - HSE) most asymptomatic individuals will take longer than 2 days to get their results.

Basically, I believe that the HSE is not an efficient organisation. And is hence incapable of doing this. Which results in these individuals being classified as positive. It is a complicated area and your and Raind's response is, I believe, reflective of exposure to too many real tinfoil hat wearers, resulting in an almost Pavlovian reaction to anyone who disagrees with the official line.

I enjoy dialectical argument, and learn and modify my beliefs accordingly. I abhor dismissive, knee jerk reactions to a hypothesis that is contrary to someone's currently held beliefs.

This, I believe, is the real problem. We appear to have lost the ability to have reasoned, respectful debate. Debate involves exploring conflicting opinions and differing interpretations of facts. And I see little of that in parts of this thread (and elsewhere). Emotive, disparaging (and often personally insulting) retorts, and outright dismission of opposing beliefs, seems to be more common.

I am not surprised. But I am disappointed. My personal experience on Boards has up until now, been limited to the Photography forum. Perhaps I have been spoiled by the more considered approach of the posters there!

The invocation of reasoned debate is usually more than a hint of a lack of reasoned debate. You seem to have a lot of very fixed notions about many things including a propensity to bloviate to other posters on the art of debate. That in itself is a lack of respect. That you are not surprised and almost instantly disappointed suggests little interest in dialectics.

As for your beef with PCR , asymptomatics and all the rest, it has been done to death and the system is run by people far more knowledgeable than posters imagine themselves to be. These questions are also no longer relevant in any way to where we are and TBH if you feel they are you might want to reflect on these reasoned positions of yours.

They do what we want them to do; find symptomatic cases. If you have a better gold standard I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

The incoherence around rules re PCR testing speaks for itself. You need a negative PCR test to enter the country but you still have to isolate in case its a false negative. But you don't you dare say there are false positives.

There seems to be no agreed nr of PCR cycles needed to assess whether someone is infectious or not. It is all over the place. Ive seen between 20 and 40 cycles mentioned as the standard test variable (although i believe it is 40-45 in Ireland)

I wonder who decides where they are done in Ireland. Who sets the bar regarding cycle nrs?

Manufacturer?

It is really important imo

Things seem a lot quieter in here, are people just moving on or is it because the site is horrible to use.

Maybe boards being down was a blessing in disguise for some of the people who were regularly posting here. I have wondered aloud in here if these forums have been doing as much damage to people's mental health as the restrictions and the news reports. Especially a few posters who have admitted that they are prone to being anxious or low. It's all too easy to get a bit obsessed with Covid and the circus surrounding it when it's a 24/7 news cycle. Maybe some were addicted to posting here, or at the very least had turned it into a significant pastime.