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

Lot more HIV though. Likely balances it out a bit.

Oh, they can, and by a very large margin.

Just two?

ha ha ha ha ha

I'd be concerned handing them control of a country that will likely still have emergency legislation in place.

I'm strong as an ox was just going to take the booster to protect others around me but I mean if they're already boostered they should be safe then.

If I was on my own all the time I wouldn't take the booster. I don't know what to do now but I absolutely can't stand Nphet or the government anymore and hate complying with their bs anymore.

Mary Lou said she agrees with Nphet advice so it could be the same or even stricter if they were in charge. There isn't anyone decent to vote for anywhere in Ireland. They're all nasty snakes

I've listened to some podcasts while out walking that that just concern Omicron. So omicron has the potential to be extremely problematic due to the speed at which it spreads ergo we face imminent disaster provisioning healthcare if the virus is allowed spread unchecked. This seems to be true regardless of how efficient your healthcare system is, hence Denmark's lockdown announcement and Dutch and British and pretty much every country in Europe. I don't think the issue is with NPHET, not in this one moment of the pandemic. They've clearly enjoyed the authority that has come with Covid but they would be going rogue if in the middle of successive lockdowns in Europe, they decided to adopt a laissez faire approach. The bigger question does not concern Ireland at all, our healthcare system is about as efficient as a late communist factory but even with adequate provision of resources and enhanced capacity we would still be in the weeds. The real issue is how do we as a society decide to either deal with a complete reorientation of how we live our lives, particularly in the winter months in an ever ageing Europe or whether we adapt and adopt a much less fearful attitude towards our own mortality and embrace the idea that being alive is not the same as living. It might be ruthless but anyone who has experienced anyone on life support knows that you eventually have to say that the time has come and for the chord to be pulled. It's pretty arbitrary in that the person is not going to survive but they go into an ICU for a day or so anyway.

.. I don't see any issue with the new 'restrictions' announced tonight.

Like, let's say closing the pubs at 8 etc save 100 lives. Is that not a good thing?

What I want to know is how long would the healthcare system be decimated for and what would society look like afterwards? One death is a tragedy, 150 deaths a week is a statistic. It's crude, it's awful and politically untenable but it just might need to be done. It's all about framing though. At the most basic level, how fucked up can things be and how long would they be fucked up for? Irreversible long-lasting consequences or akin to ripping off a plaster?

Don't worry lads Leo will save us in the new year, he'll put Tony back in his box

Closing at 5.15pm would have saved 168 lives, it is disgraceful that NPHET didn't insist upon it. Don't they care about those extra 68 grannies?

I'd imagine a Tony House Party is a bit duller than a normal House Party, so he might be confused.

I was in Denmark for work a month ago, while the situation has obviously worsened considerably since then, you would have had no notion of COVID being there at all. People weren't even wearing masks on public transport at that stage (in fact wearing a mask would have given you away as a foreigner). The closest thing to normality I've experienced since March of last year.

The situation has been a bit more strained here in Belgium with a big focus on the vaccination campaign (and a very militant anti-vax movement) but generally the coverage of COVID is very easy to bear. Some news websites will just offer a section on the latest COVID developments for people who are interested, otherwise it is very much just an element in the news cycle. It's a fact of life but one that is now mostly in the background.

When I went back to Ireland this summer the coverage was almost suffocating. Signs of it everywhere you went, anxiety in so many people. The word "concerned" might as well be burnt into people's retinas. It didn't feel like the same country I'd left two years ago, it was really disheartening. And with such inept leadership (that is willing to admit on national television that vaccines don't work ffs), I don't know if this spell will ever really go away.