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

I live in England, as most know all restrictions were due to drop on June 21st and they were then delayed by an additional 4 weeks. The people in favour of that decision, were of the opinion that, "sure, everythings opened now anyway, you can go to a bar, you can go to a restaurant, what can you not really do right now? etc".

So the 4 weeks passed and all restrictions dropped 2 days ago. Somehow the logic has jumped from "sure everythings opened anyway" to how reckless of a decision it is to open, how we're throwing the vulnerable to the wolves, how young people can get long covid (did people know that having your dick decrease in size is 1 apparent symptom of the 200 long covid symptoms?) and how we're creating a variant factory, etc etc. Bearing in mind, the latest ONS data suggests nearly 90% of adults have antibodies.

Nothing is ever enough for these people. It's a perpetual cycle.

On Reddit and the journal, comments were being made by those in favour of the legislation comparing it to how you cannot drive without a licence.

I think that is a good comparison. We now have, in essence, a licence to participate in basic societal activities. Licences expire however. Will the same licence be accepted if you do not want to take the first booster, or the second. Will you be back outside with the lunatics if your licence expires due to not taking another "jab"?

People who say "it's only a pint ffs" are exactly right. It is just a pint, a very basic activity to partake in. What else can it be applied to down the line that is more important than "just a pint". France has already shown how far they are willing to go, will we follow.

And what happens to those who refuse the shot. Even at 90% uptake, that still leaves a couple of hundred thousand who might resist. They do not go off to the wilderness to disappear. Any political party (and I mean any) who claims to support their right to re-engage with society will have an instant, and quite large, voter base - a viter base who will vote, and have a strong motivation to vote, to get back into society and who will not have any care for any other crazy ideas such a party might have.

The covid experience has ben awash with mission creep and shifting goal posts. I see no reason why vaccine papers will be any different.

I was talking to a publican friend of mine over the weekend who told me he isn't even going to bother check for certs bar for exceptional circumstances.

He knows his regulars (his pub would be of the old man/horse racing variety), has been closed long enough that he is itching to get back and any younger people have since migrated to other pubs that have outdoor facilities.

It doesn't bother me too much as I am fully covered within the first two weeks of August and will continue with the outdoor pinting if needs be, but liked his honesty anyway.

She may have been referring to the public sector "ban". All public sector workers, whether they are working from home or not, have to take an additional 14 days paid or unpaid leave if they return from abroad.

However, when you read the circular again, it notes that this requirement applies when restriction of movement guidelines are in place. No restrictions are in place when returning from the EU, so they don't have to take the leave now

Wait a second thee Journal make a good point. You sure or has the heat made you a bit delirious

With indoor hospitality now officially reopening although be it for Fully vaccinated and people who recovered from the virus. Things are looking promising and we're slowly getting free from this but expect the media to be instilling fear at every opportunity. NPHET/Dr Tony and the likes will still be here and of course will be in the news and reminding us its not over yet and new variants will be emerging

From a personal point of view this won't be over for me til I walk in the doors of the 3Arena/concert venue.

I'm still flabbergast why this summer was more restrictive than last even though we had the game changing vaccine

If you are not physically alive then you are not going to get any joy out of the years you may have left. From the vast majority of the elderly who complied with the restrictions and the massive percentage who availed of vaccines, it looks to me anyway that was something they were very aware off when making their choices.

I know people can become frustrated and negative, but the rest of your post reads as if we were imposing further restrictions rather than easing those we had which is clearly not what is happening.

Did you have to prove that you've taken a vaccine to enter a restaurant/pub/hotel last summer? Or did you just have to sign a contact tracing form?

Did you have to prove that you've taken a vaccine to travel abroad last summer? Or did you have to just voluntarily self-isolate on re-entry?

How many people could attend a wedding or funeral last summer even though we had no vaccines? 100? 50? What is it currently?

Did you have to wear a face covering indoors (apart from your own gaff) at all times or risk being fined or imprisoned last summer? Or was it advisory?

Considering we had no vaccines last year, this summer is relatively FAR more restricted than last in almost every measurable way.

Yeah and you to have remember NPHET/Government put the Hospitality sector in a choke hold a few weeks ago with ' if you don't accept opening indoors using covid passports you're not opening til at the earliest end of September'

If NPHET had there way we would be banned from non essential international travel and Hospitality fully closed among other things

So you could eat inside but couldn't drink without food, you could fly anywhere in Europe if they were open.

Now you can drink OR eat, drink indoors without food in Dublin from Monday, go to a match with thousands of others, gigs are coming back, cinemas are open with actual new movies, and you can move freely throughout the country and europe......

So much more restrictive

Fair enough and, hyperbolic as I know I am, I would never be intentionally dismissive of the loss of life caused by this virus. The elderly have suffered just as much as the rest of society and, from my own world, many elderly people are scared beyond repair because they sit in front of the TV all day being told they're going to die.

Perhaps it's a separate point of discussion for another thread but I view the vaccine certificates as a further massive restriction and a very unsettling precedent for the future. In that sense, it's only an easing of restrictions, as you argue, for those who comply with the 100% totally voluntary vaccination rollout. For full disclosure of my motivations/concerns here, I'm mid-30s and slightly hesitant to take one of the mRNA vaccines (but in all likelihood I probably will by the end of summer) - just not in a major rush, and the current coercion tactics have if anything turned me off registering until I see how things pan out a bit further. But I'm also a research scientist by day and absolutely not an anti-vaxxer.

I have also complied with all of the restrictions that I complain about for the most part, barring the 2/5/10km travel limits.

When will enough be enough though? Cases are going to skyrocket as soon as schools go back (exactly as they did last year). Then we'll be waiting all winter probably for the supplies of booster shot vaccines to deal with the annual winter surge (which will be blamed on increased socialisation due to the vaccines not being effective enough). Then it'll be summer and the new Lambda strain will arrive from South America and we're back to where we are now. That's my big fear, anyway. So you'd wonder what's the point.

The Soviet Union had an internal passport system. One parallel among many with the covid regime.

Boris Johnson and colleagues are bringing in vaccine-only entry passes (no antibodies or test results permissible) in September and Johnson has said the unvaccinated would be barred from many "opportunities and pleasures".

Personally I do not think that theatre plays, GAA matches, rock concerts etc. will ever be as they once were. They will be heavily monitored and drained of spontaneity. I doubt I will attend any such event again.

The essence of these events are permanently altered because of the conditions under which they're now to be organised. Especially anything to do with being a romantic rebel: "Hamlet", most rock music, some folk music.

We are a (non-)society of evil-prone bureaucrats. The way in which almost everyone now babbles in a kind of pidgin-technocratic gibberish is probably the truest indicator of the state of people's souls. Language is destiny.