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

Some vaccines give a sterilising immunity, it's still not 100%, but close to it, antibodies in the blood attack the virus quickly before it has a chance to multiply and pass on to others (but you stick your finger in someone's nose, you can still get it), the COVID vaccines have a high antibody count soon after receiving a dose (like much much higher than needed), but this drops off over months (seems to be an evolutionary quirk in our immune system to coronavirus such as colds) which means the virus can get in and multiply and then pass on, protection against severe disease is still there (for most) and doesn't wane anywhere near as much as the ability to stop transmission. It's thought this is because the vaccines aren't specifically targeting the respiratory system so the virus can build up there before the immune system sees the virus and starts attacking it by which time it has a foothold already. Nasal vaccines may help this (but at the disadvantage of not offering as good protection against severe disease) and would likely be targeted at those less vulnerable to the effects of COVID.

Yes, I suppose that is kind of what I am saying. And that

It probably is far fetched. I don't come here claiming to know the answer to everything.

I'm sure adults are picking it up from their adult social interaction.

But all I can tell you is that in my job (second level teaching) we have gone from 2-3 members of staff being absent to almost 20 each day, now that the close contact rule has been brought in. Which, to me, at second level makes no sense as we are masked. But you see, if the rule has to be in place for one, it has to be there for all and I'll be the first to admit that if second level teachers were made exempt from that rule, there would be war (I'd be happy to be exempt)

All I was suggesting is that the possible train of thought from government (yeah yeah, I know, 'they don't have a train of thought) is that if they can mask the older of primary school children they can go back to not needing the isolate rule.

Is this the right and most effective way to go about doing so? No. Is it the cheapest? Yes.

I think labelling it as "rewarded with freedom" and "punished with restrictions" is a bit weird, the adult population aren't children, we should understand what's needed and why it's needed to combat a novel virus that disproportionality effects those with weak immune systems and are older from dying off in droves without feeling the need to be rewarded for it.

Meme from reddit that kind of sums it up.

Can't comment on primary schools but in secondary, that was always how it was done (we were all masked from day one)

The change came for us when they did away with the 'close contacts isolate rule' and that is when principals stopped informing parents of positive cases at all.

My plan is to leave people die tbh. Lots wouldn't agree with it but this predominantly kills the very old and the very sick, so I don't see why 99% of people should have their lives curtailed to save lots of people who have either lived theirs or their survival outlook isn't very good even without covid around anyway.

Mitigate the hospital spread by having some dedicated covid only treatment centres, and vaccinations, antivirals etc are there for those people or anyone else who wants to, but outside that, let's just go back to normal imo.

@titan18 wrote

I think you mean lifestyles, but then it wouldn't be as melodramatic.

The only lives curtailed are those who die.

This was the bit I was replying to, we're adults, rewards are for children, if this is driving behavior during a pandemic (and then it may mostly be on here as public opinion has been very different), then those can't give out when they're treated like children in response.

Interesting to see a minister suggest it could be 'more benign'.

I agree, construction should never have shutdown, that was a brain numbingly stupid move.

Well, NPHET seem to have been banished from the airwaves so that's all we're likely to hear.

No, it's normalising "the mask" to not being something they should be scared of, or seeing someone getting swabbed, or indeed if there ever comes a time when they themselves need to be swabbed to be not something they should be scared of, end of. No one is saying children should be masked and more importantly infants should be. Nobody is saying that full stop, so stop deliberately misinterpreting it. The thing is it was shown to adults, not children! As an adult we have the choice whether or not to show a child anything whether it is normal or not that is our choice as an adult, just like every other choice anyone makes affects what way we interact in the world we all live in that is our responsibility as adults.

It would work if everyone got the vaccine. We still have hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated adults who are the biggest risk to the health service, and we now know that fully vaccinated people might need boosters before winter, so next year we'll be better prepared and should have no need for any restrictions

Just covid. I still think you can do things to live with it (funding covid only treatment centres to keep people out of hospitals and thus not spreading it as much in there, continue buying vaccines for optional use, masks are optional etc, encourage staying at home as much as someone reasonably can when people have symptoms) but closing businesses and restricting travel should be done away with.

I know two people tested during week and results took 27-30 hours. Both got results around 9pm so they seem to go to then at least.

Absolutely terrifying, I don't even need to read the tweets, just looking at those super scary graphs has me under the bed as I type this, I've welded my front door shut too. Can't be too careful with this deadly variant.

There may not be an awful lot of data on when vaccinated are considered free of the virus so 10 days remains the default.