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

If only there was a middle ground between ignoring it and jumping straight to the worst case scenario.

Doomsday variant found in Belgium.

Travel restrictions to be announced later and will be immediate. Does that mean home quarantine for all travellers into the country along with vaccinated and pcr tests for everyone regardless of where you traveled from i wonder?

That groundhog day feeling is probably one of the more unwanted symptoms of this whole shebang; pre Xmas 2020 a Kent offshoot, then Delta flew by and now a S/African mutation to add to the mix.... seems like this is gonna run for a bit yet.... years probably.... stop/start... jab/jab.... booster.... masks et al. We'll probably be informed shortly that our current fourth wave has its basis in this SA variant. Any wonder why large swathes of Europe are clocking up record case numbers @ present? Sure the Pharma's can reformulate the jab mix but as OP's have pointed out it would be months before it enters our blood system via a needle. We need to have a <global> approach if we are to supress this beast IMO as these type of variants will keep popping up in the most underdeveloped & unvaccinated countries. Tis like all those horror films sooner or later a "variant of concern" might arrive and outrun us all. Isnt this what the scientists were worried about all along? For a virus to survive it keeps replicating and mutating. 19+ months into this hellhole and mutations are still happening? The SA version has 10 receptor mutations compared to Deltas 2 (cf. bbc news). But science will have the final verdict on how dangerous this SA version might be to us all (vaccinated or unvaccinated) one its examined by the lab boffins over the next few days. Suppose @ least the EU is slightly quicker of the mark re. stopping flights etc. but that Belgian case detected earlier may mean its had the opportunity to spread across Europe already. Hopefully not. And fingers, toes, knees crossed our present vaccines provide some level of protection. Oh for a time machine to take us all back to Christmas 2019 b.c. please!!!!

Still too early to say if the variant is good news or bad news, but pre emotive action in regards to flight restrictions is a good idea for now.

No trials needed. Pfizer say that their future hypothetical vaccine is 98% effective.

The media have completely dropped any impartiality or non-bias towards the reporting of this, Sky News today were treating this like the apocalypse even though **** all is basically known about this variant yet. Our own media are being willingly strung along in the hysteria - just in the middle of October we were told everything was great and dandy - no worries and we'll proceed with re-opening on Oct 22nd.

We then proceed to get hysteria early this month from the media and NPHET & government over a slight increase in ICU/hospital admissions - fingers are wagged at the evil nightclub goers & unvaccinated, opening hours curtailed but COVID is still the most intelligent virus in history that it knows not to pass school gates - those 30 kids sitting in the same room for 6 hours a day are bulletproof, and none of them will carry it home to infect their households. COVID is to quote a Limerick term, "pure sound" like that.

Now this week we get multiple NPHET puppets popping up saying behave yourselves or we'll put you all in the bold corner for Christmas - unashamedly hiding the real facts with a poker face - we are ranked 13th in the EU for Healthcare funding and the HSE is what we have as a result. A shambolic bloated organisation that has approx 300~ ICU bed capacity built up for a population of 5 million....The same organisation is telling us that hospitals are in meltdown over the crisis as we creep towards 150 ICU. Serious question - in the event that there is ever a large scale terror attack, for example on a shopping centre, and we have 200/300 people in the matter of an hour needing ICU support - what's the **** plan then?

Where are the media in all of this and why are they giving the government & NPHET by proxy a carte blanche to treat us all like imbeciles without a second thought? Where is Vincent Browne when you need him?

At this rate I'd say the toy show will have a special children's NPHET briefing.

*Ronan Glynn tap dances on to the LL set to a jaunty theme*

"There's this thing called covid and it's really bad,

It might kill your granny, or even your dad"

The audience runs to the doors, screaming, only to find them locked. The camera cuts to Tubridy, grinning maniacally.