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

Omicron is only 23 days old today. Yet opportunist politicians are out with the usual bleating about the lack of planning. I wonder what contingencies they thought of.

Meanwhile, Norway has banned alcohol sales, Denmark is closing entertainment venues at 10pm and the Netherlands is locking down. Michael Martin made the mature, responsible and deeply unpopular call. No thanks expected.

Nobody thought there would be a variant of covid, it isn't something anybody could have predicted or planned for or used as an excuse for caution for 18 months.

Why should anyone accept your criteria for the number of acceptable deaths?

Its not all about you.

Everyone knew that new variants are part of the picture. The transmissibility of this one has forced the hand of health authorities all over Europe, not just in Ireland. Its arrival 4 weeks before Christmas has amplified the hysteria.

I'm not the other poster's keeper, so I have no idea why he posted the link he posted but my assumption would be because that's where he saw the information he wanted to share.

You can post what you want, but it is very disingenuous to get all up in arms about a not-my-politics slanted publication being linked instead of addressing the point made. It's like an ad hominem attack on the source rather than an actual point. Like you just really want everyone to know that you really don't like the meany publication, rather than having anything relevant or useful to say.

And then you went with "you and the OP dumping that crap here lap up anything without any critical thinking" when I pointed out that the Reuters link was in the fourth line. I'm not sure I've ever posted a link to a GP article in my life.

It's a pretty immature and aggressive way to try and have a conversation about anything. That's all.

You decided to jump in and defend the OP and their sources after they went quiet when it was shown their link dump was shown up for what it was from a grifter fake news site.

All I was doing was pointing out the dubious source. Sorry for upsetting your Saturday night.

You keep missing the word "could" in that article. That's why the poster had to link to a fake news website instead of using the source.

That's odd as viruses tend to mutate as a matter of course. The only people who didn't see variants arriving when this pandemic began are people who had or have no idea about viruses in general (and I'm only talking about trivia level knowledge as opposed to the insights of a virologist).

I have no idea what Tony Holohan posts on Twitter and I have never seen him make a guest apperance anywhere. The little I have seen of Twitter it struck me as more a magnet for every nut job on the planet to dump their often incohert rambling uncontested, rather than a discussion forum, and unlike some here I don`t have this person called Tony Holohan, who somehow has usurped the elected government and is making all decisions for some unknow reasons of his own, living rent free in my head 24/7.

Chief medical officers are civil servants, who like many other civil servants here and worldwide advise governments on everything under the sun, but the buck stops with the governments on whether they accept that advice or not or how they choose to act on it or not. Do you seriously believe that CMO`s such as Chris Whitty in England, Frank Atherton in Wales or Jaap van Dissel in the Netherlands etc. are now dictators running those countries. It`s a nonsense.None have the power to dictate anything. Same as the nonesense that Tony Holohan now rules Ireland.

See, the vaccine worked really well against the original strain, and really well against Alpha. We kind of nearly had it beat. Then Delta came along and was so transmissible and virulent that it overwhelmed vaccines to an extent. Now Omicron.

Western European democracies have guaranteed personal freedoms for their citizens for decades. Why now, have they all suddenly and simultaneously decided to impose arbitrary controls on their people?

Its a headscratcher.

Be sure to keep some tinfoil for the turkey

Thats optimistic imo, the fallout from this is unprecedented - never have so many sacrificed so much for so few. Its a bit grim but the majority of those that we sacrificed for will be dead by 2025, probably quite lonely, died of natural causes like age, and having NOTHING to do with the hysteria magnified by the landed boomers.

Keep on boosting and keep those profits nice and fat. But that means that we avoid lockdowns? Oh yeah, of course, well only the summer months obviously when viruses are less virulent anyway but once the winter comes it's straight back to lockdown. We'll make sure to boost you though just so you're ultra safe going to the shops for 5 minutes.