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

no, done 2 antigens xmas morning before going down to my folks, came back positive, couldnt get a pcr till the 27th. i only got the pcr as i was 100% convinced the antigens were wrong, it was that feckin mild. had a blocked nose for a day around 26th.

this issue is being reported in way higher numbers after vaccination compared to infection so your claim that occurs at a higher level after infection is just that, a claim. You don't get to just wave away something like this because it's inconvenient to your narrative and because it doesn't affect you. Women know their own bodies and aren't just imagining things. It's a problem and it's being researched right now

In fairness they bring covid into everything else.

Its the good cop bad cop routine and everyone's falling for it.

Current restrictions for boosted are 6 days isolation and 3 antigen tests over the 6 days, if they're all clear they're good to go. This increases to 10 days without a booster

What were they hoping to reduce it to?

It is rather predictable that this will be dragged out longer than necessary, we of course have 2 years of precedent to support this prediction.

Omicrom is milder and prevalent, not even the biggest shill can deny that now. This should be ending within weeks, but instead it will take months with all the usual games, gaslighting, lies and bullshit that the NPHET government do love to employ.

They'll get at least a week or two out of the 6 nations, I can only imagine the whinging now. "It was those Italians brought covid here in the first place, did we not learn anything from March 2020, we can't be letting teams and supporters be flooding in here spreading de virus".

Hmm... On the one hand you'd get many more COVID cases but on the other hand we're already dealing with over 20k cases a day... It's not a bad idea, that's for sure

I'd say NPHET were worried about the testing capacity being stretched, which on the other hand, it already is

This is why we need government to make a balanced call, be a first for a FF led one

Booster jab seems to be very effective against omicron as well negating the need for an omicron specific vaccine. The waning of Antibodies is a separate issue that would effect all vaccines (even variant specific).

You've posted a link to an article where those who investigated it found no link between the two events, but at least thanks for posting the source.

My guess is that it's scaremongering, similar to the concerted effort to spread misinformation to pregnant women (that has caused a large number of severe cases that would otherwise have been avoided).

Omicron isn't based on Delta. It seems to have evolved from an earlier 2020 strain. Now they think it may have been circulating in mice before jumping back to humans.

TBH the Martin comment looked more like a response to a question from a journalist than policy although his mindset on this would have him very much in favour of it on safety grounds.

Martin is weak and risk-averse. He's also in an age group that are statistically more vulnerable to Covid and his attitude to it has been shaped by the tragic deaths of 2 of his children

Per a recent IT article:

Mr Martin said the experience of losing two children has shaped him as a person and he believes that throughout the pandemic the “number one priority [is] to prevent people from dying”.

He said the overall aim “to prevent as many people as possible from dying, as many people as possible from becoming severely ill – that has to be still, in the society we live in, the number one metric”.

Mr Martin said he has noticed language around Covid slipping to “how many deaths can we tolerate” almost, but for him it is still about “preventing death and preventing severe illnesses”.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/taoiseach-speaks-about-how-the-death-of-his-two-children-has-shaped-him-as-a-person-1.4759140

Now, I have every sympathy for his loss and the impact it had on him and his family. It's not something any parent should have to go through and as a parent myself, I can't imagine the pain.

But, there's a wider impact on society and families, business and industry, and the economy and future of the country as a whole to consider here. His last comment above highlights why we are still taking a hyper cautious approach to the response, and he's letting his personal loss (albeit understandably) influence the decisions he's making for the country.

As Taoiseach he needs to consider all of those other elements as well, and it would seem that he can't do this objectively (again understandably), which is why NPHET are making the majority of the decisions largely unchallenged. The obvious issue with that (Tony Holohan himself aside) is that their remit and scope does not include consideration of the wider social, economic and political impact.

Governments are there to govern, and leaders to lead, but he has completely abdicated that responsibility to Holohan and Co, and because the legacy of Bertie, Enda and Leo has left us with an increasingly divided parliament where FF/FG are more concerned with holding on to their dwindling power than anything else, we effectively have had 2 Governments largely on autopilot, tinkering at the edges, but without making the fundamental changes this country needs.

With Covid they've jumped on the ability to further kick that can down the road at every stage, regardless of the impact (now and in the future) this will have on the nation and those who live and work here, and who ultimately will be the ones paying for it in both economic and social terms for decades to come.

When they say they have no plans for something, they definitely have plans for something.

There is also the fact that MM is very likely to retire soon on his mega pension that will never be under threat. He doesn't have to worry about any future repercussions because he'll have a guaranteed pension and some tidy little speaking gigs to keep him ticking over.

Then we have to consider the fact that he has never been able to make a decision without 10 reports to recommend the recommendations.

We really ended up with the worst possible person at the helm for some of the more crucial parts of the pandemic. If, as is fairly clear now, nphet are the decision makers of how and when we start to lift restrictions then my original prediction of a March date for the severe restrictions to end may have been extremely optimistic.