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

Hard not to look at all of this and not think that in a few weeks we will look back nostalgically at a discussion as to whether pubs would close at 5pm or 8pm.

Journalists in Ireland were one of NPHET's best allies for almost 2 years.

They don't deserve to call themselves journalists.

It's easy to come out as critical now, when Ireland enters year 3 of this nonsense

The truth of the matter is they don’t actually know if what they are saying is true. They don’t have the clinical data yet to confirm any of this as the variant isn’t around long enough.

You need only look at the spike in Omicron cases there to see why they are petrified. That rate of growth is unheard of in this pandemic. If even half as many people with Omicron get it severe enough to be hospitalised vs Delta’s hospitalisation rate, the HSE gets overrun if left unchecked, as it grows exponentially quicker. That’s the simple reality of why these restrictions are needed at this time.

Anyone I talked to since the announcement yesterday is livid about the timing of this. I think this government will regret this very soon.

Where are all of the embarrassing lunatics ranting and raving last night about how we are the only country doing this? About how it’s all a power trip for NPHET? They don’t have a clue what they are doing? Why are other countries with superior health infrastructure to us also taking drastic measures then?

Netherlands, who already had more strict measures than us at a 5pm closure, are about to announce a full lockdown tonight according to news reports. Only essential retailers open.

Boris considering further restrictions and being told by health experts a 2 week full circuit break lockdown will be required after Xmas. If the UK is worried, given their fairly lax approach relative to others early on in the pandemic, you know there’s something to worry about. Get some cop on, drop the conspiracy crap and realise that EVERY country in Europe is extremely worried about this variant, and there will be restrictions imposed almost everywhere in the next couple of weeks. Ireland is far from alone.

There are politics at play in both NL and UK. What is Germany doing? What is Spain doing?

Simple, more lockdowns.

It buys time for people to be infected at a slower rate which doesn’t overflow the hospitals, and buys time for everyone to get boosted.

We’ve been through this exact scenario before. It has worked.

Got a test a few weeks back at 10am, got the text next day at about 5pm, girlfriend got a test the other day about 10am as well, got the text at 7pm......from someone else I know they had a similar waiting time

Who said we are the only country doing this!

Where Ireland is alone is that we don’t open up, even when we can because nothing is ever going to be enough. Denmark is a good example, a country now imposing restrictions when needed, has opened up when possible, will open up again when the situation allows it, will close again if the situations demands it. That’s called an actual plan to live with COVID.

Whats ours pray tell? Restrictions followed by an opportunity for some normality but instead restrictions followed by, well, emm, more restrictions. What’s the plan, because you and I know we won’t ease restrictions at the end of January, when every other country begins to ease them and live a bit, we won’t. It’s a fact. What’s the plan? Less than 100 cases a day is concerning, 5,000 cases a day is concerning!

The majority of commentary isn’t questioning the need for restrictions, it’s questioning the absence of any sane plan to actually live with the virus as other countries have done.

Ireland is the most restricted country in Europe for the past 2 years along with being one if the most vaccinated, so yes very much an outlier and alone in that regard.

We are not at square one. If we were at square one (I.e. no immunity whatsoever) with a strain such as delta or omicron, you would have seen far, far worse impact on hospitals and excess deaths than how it was in the initial wave.

The measures have worked. The problem is that you expected these things to be a silver bullet. They worked for what they were supposed to do - decrease the risk of health system overload and prevent as many excess deaths as we can.

I’m also sick of this absolute crap about how we’ve had no freedoms etc. I have been very free to do almost anything I wanted in this country for the majority of 2021. People are talking as if Ireland has been in full lockdown for the entire year.