Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

If I was to give a mark to Ireland's response to covid, it would be a B-minus.

Nearly every decision made at the start of the pandemic I agree with. Looking back now, it seems a little absurd to have the streets empty and schools closed and what not. But given what we knew - and more importantly, what we didn't know - at the time it seemed eminently sensible.

We were too slow to open up last summer, and this summer. I know that other EU countries opened earlier and more, but at the back of mind I always remember that they have a functioning health system. We do not, and never have. Therefore we had much less wiggle room and probably had to use the sledgehammer more often than they did. That all being taken into consideration, we probably were still too cautious and too reliant on a "watch what happens in other countries first" approach. Marks off for that.

The failure to secure more vaccines outside of the EU system a significant mistake, in my opinion. That, and the over cautious approach of NIAC made February to April incredibly frustrating and depressing, for the ordinary person - and devastating for those owning small businesses, so marks off for that.

However, the relative cohesiveness of the Irish people in complying with restrictions, and then the uptake in vaccinations, is in some part as a result of a consistent messaging approach from government. Better than other countries and we certainly had more clarity than the UK, even if it was a message we did not want to hear. I know that Golfgate and Merriongate and the Beacon/St Gerards scandals did undermine the messaging somewhat, but I think most intelligent people see them as they are - isolated incidents and more reflective of a wider question of entitlement in politics rather than diluting covid messaging itself.

Pretty sure that social distancing is part of lockdowns by keeping us apart. That's not a terribly useful study given that NHs were wide open almost worldwide in the very early part of this and it's a mathematical model. Add in the fact that in most of those examples cases had exploded - England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Spain were a mess and R0 was probably well above 3 at that stage with exponential growth so effects were always going to be limited initially.

Having looked at his Twitter, I would put Cummins in the same bracket as O'Doherty, absolutely.

1,394 new cases, 321 in hospital, 58 in ICU

You do know that Israel's spike came after the stalling of their vaccination program at 60% . Delta got established there while they were trying to encourage more to get vaccinated .

Don't know about Belgium but Iceland got a few cases mainly in unvaccinated because despite a very thorough vaccination program there were few who didn't get jabbed . Once established it is so infectious it is hard to get rid of as we are finding and Belgium to a lesser degree .

Vaccinations are the only way out of this , but you just keep on trying to say the opposite .

Good job the vast majority of people in this country don't listen to nonsense like that .

Let's not rewrite history here. We were still under quite severe restrictions even over the Christmas period. Dublin had a 2 week stint below level 3 and then straight into full lockdown. This was after a 6 week lockdown in October.

A combination of over cautious lockdowns creating pent up demand and allowing so many people return to the country untested from what was at the time ground zero for Delta was a recipe for disaster.

What do you think vaccinations will achieve? Specifically, regarding case numbers and hospitalisation's

Knowing that anyone over the age of 18 in Ireland who wanted a vaccine has now had ample opportunities to get one.

Those who haven't taken it by now are unlikely to do so, and don't care for restrictions or vaccinations or travel etc.

Im fully vaccinated before you decide to take that route here, but I also believe that we have now reached peak vaccine uptake with 9 out of 10 adults fully vaccinated.

I don't actually and think we are just delaying further for the sake of optics rather than any other reason.

I also agree with you that simple things like having gyms open would have made a difference, especially mentally, as I am a regular gym user and found the closures daft. Likewise, we could have had coffee shops open long before they did. Again, a simple measure that would give people something to do and allow a social outlet.

Instead we had this bizarre notion in government that we were all just data points in a model that could be controlled indefinitely as they saw fit.

What difference will vaccinating those in the youngest bracket make to the dangers of Covid though?

Those age groups aren't ending up in hospital, in fact, only for the test, chances are they wont know they have it

Its my understanding that the vaccine neither stops one getting or spreading the disease, it only prevents serious illness, am I incorrect on that?

I think you know the answer to that question, Fintan , don't you .?

Talking case numbers and high levels of infection in unvaccinated children ...

We don't know how high levels of infection are in children if they are asymptomatic or if they are not tested .

We also don't know how Delta will affect them as they have been mostly protected from infection in previous waves .

I don't think it will result in serious disease as I said previously . Hasn't so far here .

Still would not like increased hospitalisations or illness in children to result from people's weariness of the case numbers and incessant testing .

It's a small price to pay to keep an eye on a group which are most likely not going to be vaccinated for a while , if ever , and are dependant on us 'adults'to look out for them .

https://www.aappublications.org/news/2021/09/03/covid-delta-variant-children-hospitalizations-090321

Very good article re Delta in US but talking a lot of sense re global issues

More over, some idiots from some councils have also closed public toilets in the parks when you could attend them. Great care about our health!

Again we use other countries as examples for restrictions. Yet dont use them as examples for getting rid of them.

I'm not citing Canadian restrictions, I'm citing a superspreader event that happened in Canada.

But if you want to talk about restrictions, it seems like this year we re-opened gyms before Canada. So what's your point exactly?