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

So do you believe had we followed this GBD of chasing herd immunity we would be any better off ?

Anywhere it was attempted it failed, and anywhere that believed they had achieved it very quickly discovered they were wrong. The U.K. initially went down that road and per capita have twice the deaths we have.

Yeah the close contact rule Is so ott

I'm out of work and for the moment have no synthoms and not the only one

This is the only way we can flatten the curve

The next week will determine how we go for the next few years. NPHET meet on the 6th. Holohan will recommend lockdown, or as close as possible. Level 4.99. His tweets have been suggesting he wants retail closed. If he wants retail closed, he most definitely wants pubs/restaurants closed.

If Government ignore him and actually drop restrictions, we are on for the end of this. If they go with Holohan, then we're never getting out of this ever. Variants of this virus will be around for at least 10 years. There won't be a zero Covid day. Holohan will be recommending restrictions in 10 years for the 3rd cousin of Covid 19, twice removed.

We should be planning for freedom day. 17th of March. Zero restrictions. NPHET disbanded. All emergency legislation ripped up.

We have had probably 40,000 cases a day for the past week and if you add in close contacts you are probably not too far off 1 million people isolating if everyone is following the rules.

Surely someone in government is aware of this and the country cannot function like this.

Yet from what I can see they are meeting on Thursday.

Businesses all over the country especially small businesses will have to close with staff shortages, I know of two which are shut, I am sure a lot more have had to do the same.

I don't watch much news but surely this is being widely reported.

This is more concerning to me and much more of a threat to the country than Covid.

Financially it creates a mess as positive PCR tests are needed for workers to claim the Enhanced Illness Benefit (both people with the virus and deemed close contacts) but with no availability it makes it even more frustrating

No they aren't.

To avail of Enhanced Illness Benefit, depending on your circumstances, the Department of Social Protection will accept:

1. Confirmation from the HSE that you have ordered an antigen test (system will be in place from Monday)

2. Text message from the HSE that you are a close contact

3. Certification from your GP that you have symptoms of Covid-19 and/or are a probable source of infection.

Yeah well we're going to see soon enough if the CTs are borne out re this digital citizenry tag.. I can't see the justification for it any longer where covid vaccinations are concerned but will all governments across Europe all feel the same?

Point 1 ) I don't recall seeing that, they said from Monday (today) in anything I've seen, there was a press release in the middle of last week giving affect to that, I even ordered a few myself this morning. Perhaps your getting mixed up with his comments around reporting a postive antigen test which he said was available ( it wasnt on friday), which is also now available.

2) The idea would be to take those needlessly going for PCRs out of the system with antigens, hence freeing up capacity, Its a valid theory, let's see if it works out like that.

3) Thats up to your individual GP so, personally I've never had issues accessing mine during covid.

I actually think what's being brought in is sensible both from a point of view of sick pay provisions and from testing capacity. Reducing the isolation period will help a bit more too. Don't see a it being a cluster, people asked for long enough for free antigens and it's about time they've been provided. They've also taken down the barrier to illness benefit which was dependant on a PCR test with 3 different alternatives, I don't see how that could be described as a cluster when it's of benefit to many people.

The French presidential elections are coming up in April. They got 80% vaccinated originally and won't get anywhere near that for the booster. Even if they get 60-70% boosted and withdraw the vaccine passports for those not, Macron will be playing a very dangerous game. He'll be ruling out 30-40% from voting for him and that's before you even get to non-covid policy's You could see even immigrant communities leaning towards Marine Le Pen.

He is going to have to drop the passports before April. If they drop them, then there's a chance we can too. It was blatantly obvious that the EU wanted all countries to bring in the passports, how there won't be outliers to point to. France and the Netherlands are having massive problems with public disorder because of them. And they haven't even withdrawn the passes from the non-boostered yes.

It's a different ball game on the continent. Dropping restrictions is a primary national issue. Elections will be run off as a Restriction Referendum. Whereas we have a choice to restrictions version even more restrictions.

The justification is the disproportionate amount of beds and ICU they occupy, have those %'s changed significantly? If it's 1:1, I agree, they can be dropped (In Europe the % is higher than Ireland still).

Well, you're unequivocally not, but I would come back to my comment about lack of any critical thought on your behalf there.