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

Half of that article to be fair is a whole load of caveats and warnings that the increase in hospitalisation seen may be nothing to do with COVID itself though because of the definitions they use. With how transmissible Omicron is and the insane levels in the UK right now, it's not beyond the realms that a lot of this surge is incidental. Not exactly the concrete data to have sarcastic outbursts over and try one up ACE who rightly made a point about RSV.

Out of curiosity, have you always been up in arms re: the flu in kids & vaccines? I hate to make the comparison as it's very touchy to compare for some on here and they think it's some conspiracy junk, but in the last decade, 41 kids died in Ireland of the flu. At the moment in u18s, that rough yearly average of deaths outweighs COVID.

EDIT: Not that we are discussing it or anything but I am happy for kids to be vaccinated (absolute choice, no certs etc.). They're safe and if they offer any level of reduction in transmission then they will help our very problematic cohort (case wise) that is school kids**. Extremely rare these kids will get overly sick from COVID but as long as they keep racking up huge case numbers, we have some issues in terms of knock on effects.

'South Africa has recalled rules that no longer required people without symptoms of COVID-19 to isolate or test if they have been in contact with a positive case, the government announced on Tuesday, saying an amended circular will be re-issued.

...

Now all those protocols will be recalled after the Department of Health was inundated with media, stakeholders and public enquiries and comments following the release of the revised regulations. '

As per Reuters:

Wonder if it has anything to do with CDC guidelines. Important to note as per article that cases in SA continue to decline.

I feel when people start with the, 'I'm not an anti-vaxxer' shtick, it never ends well.

I suppose people are simply angry because the vaccines haven't allowed us to resume our normal lives at this point.

It's understandable really as that's partly how they were sold to the public by the government. Of course I know that the vaccines are preventing a lot of sickness and tragedy but unfortunately we're not used to this kind of situation really. With most vaccines, you take them for you and you don't have to worry about other people. This is more complicated and pushes our patience to certain limits.

The vaccine was always about preventing hospitalisation & deaths, while hopefully reducing transmission. No one ever claimed it would be 100% effective.

To say that they are not working is horse manure. They most certainly are preventing severe illnesss and deaths. Yes, the new variant in particular seems to be breaking through to cause infection, but with more positive cases in the last two weeks compared to all of the cases found up to xmas 2020 its impossible to argue that the vaccines aren't working when you examine the stats on hospitalisation and deaths.

Eradicate.... wow they most certainly did not say that. There's been very few viruses eradicated though vaccination.

On the reduce, can you be specific, they they say reduce symptoms, illness, deaths?

How is he an epidemiologist ? The website you cite seems to have plucked that out of thin air, can't find it anywhere else. He's a cardiologist and one who doesn't seem to have been active in his field for several years.

Also if ever proof were needed he's a quack he ' advocated for early treatment including hydroxychloroquine'

That article is very particular as to when it gives citations, funny that. Good tactic to 'pull on the heart strings' though.

Yes Maebee, COVID is disease caused by Sars-Cov 2, which is the virus in the question, there is significant amounts of data between highly vaccinated country populations e.g. Ireland compared to low- vaccinated populations e.g. Bulgaria that proves reduction in severe disease and fatal outcomes is beginning to happen.

This time last year very few people were talking about others getting vaccinated. It was just about themselves and their own family members. There was a consensus that if a person got vaxxed then it wouldn't matter at all to said person, if an individual next to them in a shop or restaurant wasn't vaxxed. When it started to come to light that the vaccines didn't seem to be as effective in stopping transmission as it was hoped they would, this all changed and then things started to get nasty.

Initially though it was largely pushed that if you got vaccinated you were sorted (for a least a while). Things haven't worked out that way so of course people are pissed off. It's a fairly natural reaction. Maybe we were naive to think that one vaccine would be enough for us to return to normal but rightly or wrongly a lot of people did take it under those expectations (as well as to protect their direct family of course) and they are going to be feeling frustrated (to say the least).

This is quite ironic, considering SA discovered new variant and .. that it's a new variant?

At the time there was a high level of confidence that it reduced transmission, and then along came Delta, and the situation changed. I also highly doubt the director of the CDC ever making such dramatic qualifiers such as 'vaccinated people do not carry the virus', unless you can find a decent primary source i.e. a published research article where they might have based this idea off? Media have been very loose on quoting scientists throughout this and MSN are not a reliable news source.

Yes so maybe she shouldn't have unequivocally stated that "Vaccinated people don't carry the virus, they dont get sick"? And maybe Joe Biden shouldn't have been telling the entire world that you aren't going to get covid if you get vaccinated?

My point was ,we were told that they do stop transmission and those quotes prove it. to claim that no one ever said this and that it was always just about preventing severe illness is blatantly false.

When I quoted SA I was drawing attention to fact that they're reversing on earlier decision to stop contact tracing and other things mentioned, I thought it relevant to mention.

Most of the loudest voices had the majority of us under the impression that the vaccines would bring about the endgame when they arrived.

I mean, remember Tubridy on the Late Late Show saying "the vaccines are coming. I promise you".