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

Theres no reason to have not started work on expanding our ICU and hospital capacity rapidly in April 2020, other than our current government's incompetence and/or ideology. Implementing slaintecare is an entirely different issue.

The lack of ICU beds is literally the #1 crisis in the healthcare system at present. Reform is not "way bigger" than it. If we have 100~ additional people who require ICU beds by the end of this month the country will be going back into lockdown. Not due to community or primary care or anything else, solely down to not enough ICU beds being in the system. Thats how close the country is to the edge thanks to the mismanagement of the crisis - an amount of people who'd fit in an average apartment getting hospitalized is all it will take to shut down the entire country, again.

Agree, all of this was conspiracy level stuff not long ago, see no end to this any time soon.

But at least the Noggies are only offering the third jab. Did Macron not announce a few days ago, the French are making it mandatory. All those over the age of 65 will have to get the third jab by mid-December to maintain their anti-Covid health pass in order to go about their daily lives.

But using that logic, it means that everytime the numbers move in either direction then your own stats change and are no longer valid.

You can't possibly say on a large scale that being unvaccinated means you're 12x more likely to be in hospital than vaccinated. You are 11.5 (as you put it) more likely as of this moment in time, within Ireland and based also on what? How are we to know that covid is the actual reason people are in hospital? Tomorrow it may drop or rise. I hope they drop.

Next, so you are saying that 50% of the other beds are taken by vaccinated individuals?

So did they have a few cases stored away to scare us

The reporting on it is quite bland apart from the headline number and in the letter NPHET said the situation in relation to Covid-19 is concerning and uncertain and that they are not recommending any significant new restrictions.

Barring any knee-jerk reactions from government/NPHET, these high case numbers might actually act as a blessing in disguise in the long term. People might come to terms with the fact that Covid is here to stay, and that case numbers will eventually become an irrelevance. More and more people will now know people who contracted Covid, and suffer nothing more than a head cold, if that. Unfortunately, there will be those that get sick, but that's part of life and living. We have to move on from this constant obsession with bloody case numbers. A cursory glance at The Journal.ie comments section (not exactly a bastion of critical thinking) highlights the angst, anxiety and hysteria surrounding case numbers for a disease, which lets face it, isn't all that deadly in the first place. What a job the media have done.

And yet here we are in the covid forum haha

We need to know numbers so we can decide on public health strategies. Simple.Otherwise we would be batting in the dark. The numbers arnt there to scare anyone except the paranoid. Covid is here, adhere to public health guidelines. thats it really there not there to get on your nerves , although you obviously think so.

That's subjective I spose

Not too bad for Holland. Only 8 o clock closing for bars

Latvia are banning unvaccinated politicians from voting in parliament.

I would say Irish media are absolutely dieing to out an non vaccinated TD.

I know someone that boasts of having a counterfeit vaccine cert now so it's all a ballss now

The COVID numbers represent those in hospital being treated for COVID, I'm not sure if it can be any clearer than that.

There will be cases of people testing positive for COVID but aren't being treated for it (e.g. in for a day surgery and then test positive at some point) that wouldn't be counted unless it got serious enough that it needed treatment (and that bar for needing treatment might be slightly lower if you're in hospital anyway, it will also necessitate protocol to prevent onward infection so you would generally need a negative test before going in for surgery).

There has been narratives around the numbers being tested as positive being counted but not treated for it, but that's not the case (although no system is 100% and there will be reporting mistakes both ways). Also the loons that have gone into the hospitals trying to prove it's all some sort of made up sham (Gemma O'D would be an example of that).