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

Are there any statistics at all on long Covid? ICU patients are not the only ones being affected by C19 you know. There are people who got Covid months ago and still have not been able to return to work or exercise because of the after effects. A friend of mine falls into this category - in her 40s, fit, healthy, marathon runner. (Smoked in her 20s, maybe that now counts as an underlying health condition?!?) Was vaxed with Jansen (1 dose) and got Covid in August. She hasn't returned to training and is still out of work sick. That's just as bad if not worse than being in ICU - not to mention the mental anguish she suffers from now, wondering if she is ever going to get better.

I can see why some people think the pubs should be allowed to stay open and sure 'let her rip', it's only the 80 year olds dying and, well, they don't pay any taxes anyway. But, it's not you know. I don't have the stats on long Covid. I don't know if they even exist, but while my friend's situation might be in a minority, she can't be the only one.

Looks promising but as you know too early to open the champagne, always a lag, hopefully our higher vaccination rate will mean that we will do better than they do.

I'm sorry, who is talking about closing schools?

Fair enough. Let’s see where the UK is on Boxing Day.

100% our minds control our bodies, long covid is no longer in the media for the same reason suicides receive little coverage, it leads to others focusing their minds that direction

Yes, I understand and agree with that concept. I'm not inside my friend's body, so I can't definitively say that she isn't imagining it, therefore I guess I can argue no further. But if it turns out that this has all just been in her head all this time, well that is just a serious shame.

I'd be for that but just got the feeling by saying "not letting it rip" the OP means closing things

It does look like there is some simplistic analysis going on. This day last year with no vaccination there were only a few hundred cases and 34 in ICU. This year despite so much vaccination the numbers have increased hugely and ICU has trebled. And this was in train before the most recent variant. You'd wonder if the vaccinations are making as much difference as has been claimed since we'll be in the same boat next month as we were last January.

I work in a school. With booster vaccines, masks, distancing and sanitising, they have no reason to close. We don't have students unmasked, dancing on the tables, gathering in crowds etc etc. We have them in a very controlled environment. In many cases, they are safer with us than they would be at home, where working parents can't be expected to also keep an eye on them.

They come into school, sanitise. They walk to their classroom, sanitise. They enter the room, go to their desk, sanitise. They sit 1.1m apart from everyone else in the room and they are masked. Every time they move, they sanitise. If they don't - we tell them to. Is that what happens in bars/pubs/restaurants/cafes? No, it is not.

I feel for business owners, I really do. My yoga teacher lost her studio in the first lockdown and it devastated her. It's so unfair that people such as them, people who go out on a limb to enhance a town or village with these fantastic bars, gyms, salons, restaurants, have been dealt this awful hand. But honestly, I have a family member who remains unvaccinated and he still swans in and out of all the previously mentioned places. Never asked for a cert.

The hospitality industry are having an awful time. But, they have been most let down by their own. The numerous businesses that refused to adhere to the easing of restrictions have - in my view - left us where we are. There are many, many businesses not checking certs. I know this for a fact.

No, I understand. The mind is a fierce powerful thing. I get that. In a way, if it turns out to be all in her mind, then that is even worse! (Not saying that it should be a reason to up restrictions, just saying makes me even more scared of ever catching Covid!)

No, it wasn't. Schools would never need to be closed.

Tbh, if proper inspections of cafes/restaurants and bars are done and proper measures are taken and carried out in a consistent manner by all concerned, they don't need to close either.

But - a lot of people are just not playing ball. In LIDL this evening doing my shopping, an entire family just going around with no masks on. In The Range Maynooth last week - not a soul working in that place has the mask above their nose.

I went to a restaurant with my dad a month ago. We weren't asked for our vax certs. So, probably means nobody else in there was either.

Went to a Costa Coffee 3 weeks ago. Was asked for cert and ID, gave them both, only when I sat down did I realise I gave my OHs cert by accident. So ..... even when they are checking, they're not.

My previous example of the family member who struts around the place unvaccinated proves why personal responsibility is never going to work. To use an analogy from my own profession, that's like allowing the kids to correct their tests themselves

You are falling into the trap of assuming the status of schools regarding opening/closure will have something to do with protocols within schools. They will close, if they close, because of the status of infection spread in the community. You might need to prepare yourself for that. It's a hugely efficient way to take a million people out of circulation.

And in schools there is the laughable scenario where, despite the local restaurant having to look for a vaccination cert, a Principal is not permitted to ask a teacher's vaccination status! You couldn't make it up.

Well then you should also know for a fact, that even in the places that don't check certs, more than 9 out of every 10 would be vaccinated, as per population statistics.

Your still running after the un-vaccinated ball thrown a few weeks ago.

It's a different ball now, called the Omicron, the vaccines and boosters don't work now it seems, or at least NPHET have no faith in them

What makes me feel safe is looking after myself and taking precautions. The whole reason this has gone on as long as it has is because so many morons in this country can't do that. That's the real pandemic here, one that we have been living with much longer than we have been living with Covid.