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

It's not much of a mystery.

The email was invitation was sent to around 100 people. Only around a third turned up, so the majority didn't.

At the time the advice was to WFH, but IT security and working practices in Downing St make that difficult or impossible, so large numbers of staff would have been required to go in daily and mix in fairly cramped and badly ventilated offices. Getting out into the garden probably felt like a welcome relief and no less safe given the general working conditions.

The restrictions on outdoor mixing were being loosened at the time as the initial panic and uncertainty over disease severity and transmission patterns eased.

So it's not difficult to see how amongst a bunch of people working in those conditions and with notions of their own exceptionalism, a third would consider it a risk worth taking.

I know and I had said this as well but they were adamant that she is also isolating and really had to self isolate from her positive parents and if they isn't possible, which is always the case, then she needs to be stuck at home for a full 2 weeks.

It's utter lunacy and really pissing me off considering we are 99% sure she got it in the childminders and passed it to us (wet have no close contacts as we have seen nobody and only people she saw those at childminders) - it's likely at time of testing it was gone from her system or as likely she wasn't swabbed very well in the drive through one we got a pcr test in. It's a crazy situation.

I literally said in my post I don't blame my childminder - I am not being remotely unfair on her. My grievance is clearly with the way the rules are written which speak about a 7 day isolation for household contacts but is on the ridiculous premise that anyone will actually be practically able to avoid everyone else in their house.

Try reading the whole thing and not jumping on something you haven't read correct. At no point have I said I would be sending her in and the main reason we see nobody else is to help stop spread, particularly with the childminder and her family in mind.

So either the HSE website is wrong or the person on the phone was wrong. To take the example you've been given with multiple children in a household you could be in isolation for an extended period of time with the clock being reset every time.

If that is the case and it is 14 days then I certainly wouldn't be getting a test for love nor money.

A couple of Saturday morning musings. Not sure if its being mentioned before, but regarding the Djokovic case, one of the angles that the official's are using is that 'it will provoke antivax sentiment in the country'. A lot has been said about governments throughout this pandemic but its scary to see their true colours showing. Why are they so concerned about personal choice amongst their citizens.

In UK, we now see that what was being said in front of cameras was very different to what was happening behind closed doors. I've said before about restrictions making no sense, and the usual posters would jump in saying we had to listen to the officials. Yet now we see a situation where police were telling people not to sit alone in public parks or beaches or even not being allowed touch loved ones coffins at a tiny funeral. All the while the civil servants at the top were doing as they please.

We are told to trust the experts, but a lot that has transpired in the last 2 years and no doubt over the coming years has confimed to me not be blindly lead by what the politicians say and not be afraid to be critical of what an expert says when it goes against everything that we have come to know and expect in life.

Apologies if I misread your post but I did see you mention that the rules are unfairly targeting people with children who can't isolate from them, and my point was that the rules are not there to punish you if you can't isolate from your children, it's just a fact of the virus itself that your child needs to isolate for more days in this case.

We didn't isolate from each other when we had it in our house (young children too) and we all ended up getting it relatively quickly, but we knew we could do full isolation period without impacting our jobs.

Any households that I have heard where they have isolated positive child/parent have usually ended up with longer isolation periods for the household overall, as other family members are only testing positive at the end of the first isolation period etc.

Sorry for OT but it's related to post-covid recovery.

GDP in Irish context is not used by:

1. Government of Ireland including the Revenue
2. EU
3. IMF

All these organisations use GNI as a macroeconomic indicator. Only an economic amateur can use GDP and Ireland in the same sentence...

The reason is that Irish GDP is inflated by tax haven operations, one of the tax haven primary indicators in academic research is that their GDP is much higher than their GNI, just FYI 😊 In Irish case by 40% at least (varies).

The government of Ireland expected the GNI-Debt ratio to be 115% at the end of 2021. This is high level of indebtedness and ROI wouldn't be allowed to Eurozone with it etc.

So no, Ireland is coming out of the pandemic heavily indebted.

And high GDP growth after a high drop + 40-50% virtual GDP from tax haven operations tells you exactly nothing about the state of the economy or the gov budget.

Yes, we can still borrow relatively cheaply but who will finance the debt and how????

Correct 👍🏻

Thanks shesty. That's the biggest load of bolloxology ever though. I have 2 young children myself (3 and 7) but thankfully only needed to get them tested once in 2020. Haven't bothered in over a year because my two have constant sniffles, runny noses etc during the winter months. There's even less chance I'd be getting them tested ever again knowing this.

Anyone convinced we don't have much in the way of restrictions should try be a single person organising a date Monday - Friday

There is absolutely nothing to do after work hours

Not a fan of RTEs coverage but an optimistic piece from Fergal on a Saturday morning.

940 in hospital this morning, down 80. 119 admissions and 127 discharges.

So when is Ireland’s new freedom day?

We had October 22nd which was ‘delayed’. I have no problem with the EU Covid Cert for travel purposes which includes a variety of options, from testing to recovery, with vaccination being the easiest for travel. However Certs used to stop people attending gyms, have a coffee, go to a hotel bar, I do not support without a referendum or mandate from the population and a significant public debate on the science behind why such a measure exists.

No way would I like a referendum to be called for this as it would make it very difficult to remove.

FF may pull the plug on this coalition in 2023 but I really doubt that. The only option is fkr people to continue to contact theor TDs and keep pressure on them to remove all these measures.