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

As I said about a week ago before 5pm thing came out,I have no sympathy for the publicans or the restaurant owners.

They happily signed up for Team NPHET Government. They signed up for the vaccine passes. There was absolutely no pushback against the Restaurants Association guy who rolled over for FF/FG and has a very suspicious Twitter timeline, as if he was promised a gig with one of them. The Vintners have been piss weak from the start. They were promised MUP, they are getting it in a few weeks but they'll have no industry soon enough.

Was there push back against the Vintners over the last 2 years from independent publicans? No, they signed up for it. Kept their mouths shut. Didn't band together and usurped them.

All of us are shying away from our responsibilities. I have been anti restrictions since last summer. I have done nothing about it apart from whinge. It's time to live up to our societal responsibility.

There's also been hardly any outbreaks from hospitality. In latest cluster report, for the last two months there are

• 9 clusters attributed to pubs, with precisely zero in the last month.
• 7 attributed to restaurants
• 201 attributed to schools

But yeah, close the pubs/restaurant/cinemas because that's clearly the problem.

I prefer the man on the telly to do my thinking for me too.

Stops me getting a headache.

you can change your mind and let your kid go without a mask.

my kid 5th class has not worn a mask , I have a letter in his bag explaining this and stating he is not to be provided with one. They haven't read it just let him be. Be strong , if you feel it's wrong don't comply .

Just seen your reply and I respect that your kid may want to and that's fine too. My kid thought it a pain in the hole and doesn't mind there is only him and occasionally another. I hope that I'm teaching him a lesson too , to follow his own path.

They don't want to do that as they just get proven wrong every time (e.g. the latest October/November debacle and then the "no reversing restrictions" that every country has now abandoned).

I’d agree with some of that but remember at the start it would of been a brave group to go against the health advice the public were firmly behind it. The wheel has been very slow to turn in this country in relation to questioning restrictions and slow reopening. Made worse by a media that is fully behind restrictions. But I think now the middle group of people the people who aren’t staunch anti vax or restrictions or lockdown indefinitely types are starting to go enough Is enough this is making no sense. so I don’t think we will be as slow to remove restrictions once winter is over

There’s value in the booster for your own personal protection. And if you think the health system really is shoddy why would you want to leave yourself at the mercy of it, especially if it were to be put under more strain than it can handle?

"The children wanted the masks"

Thats what people say when they want to abdicate responsibility. "Its not my fault, the children wanted it".

They are primary school children, you are an adult, take responsibility for what happened. You put masks on children and never stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, it was the wrong thing to do. Now you want to complain as you start to realise just how much of a fool this country has been taken for, as if it wasn't already clear a long time ago.

If case numbers and hospitalisations are dropping dramatically in Spring, why will they keep restrictions? For whose benefit will they be kept?

Why would I put it under pressure? All evidence points to Omicron not leading to increased hospitalisations. Nphet are using models which haven't exactly been brilliant.

"If case numbers and hospitalisations are dropping dramatically in December, why will they keep restrictions?"

The current announcement shows there is no rhyme or reason for their decisions - they are not science based. All metrics in this country are looking good - hospitalisations have been declining for weeks, cases are stable, boosters are increasing every day. Their only justification for more restrictions is out of "an abundance of caution".

They have no proof omicron will be more severe (evidence from SA points to the opposite), yet the choose to believe the worst case scenario is at hand and have no problem throwing away our freedoms "out of caution".

Fool me once shame on me, but after the 4th? time, I wont be fooled again

Schools as we know are a major source of cases but that's about it, no deaths etc so everywhere expect schools get the restrictions. Think it was the same with Leisure centres also having hardly any outbreaks before they introduced certs

Covid effects are mild or non-existent for the majority of people in this country. Many don't know they even have it unless tested.

The only ones who are at any real potential risk are the elderly, the infirm and the immunocompromised and it's these groups that should be restricting their movements, taking precautions and following their GP's advice - as in fairness they probably already do against a whole host of things far more dangerous to them.

What's happened here though is an approach of trying to force everyone to feel as worried as that group and trying to make them live under restrictions to protect them against something that (as per the numbers) is no real threat to them anyway.

That's the official line anyway. The real reason is to deflect from the point that 20 billion a year is squandered by the same people making these "recommendations" in a health service that is on the brink every winter and can't handle even a modest increase on the most minimal demands.

That's what we're protecting - the positions and paycheques of those who have mismanaged the HSE for decades.