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

I like your phrases, don't change!

What about the family members that insist on antigen tests before you visit?

Covidiots was another one.

I knew someone in their late 30s who went shopping and when they got home, wiped down all the groceries with dettol, then took off all their clothes and put them in a high heat wash and then jumped into the shower for a good scrub.

My best friends mother in law was one of these people who got totally freaked out by COVID. Part of that older generation who only get their news from RTE and the radio so obviously during the pandemic that meant fear in extremis.

Even when allowed to go out and about wouldnt. If her grandkids had friends or cousins over she would avoid seeing them for at least 10 days after, Christmas dinners, sunday dinners dropped at the door. Missing grandchildren birthdays even though they didnt have parties but family might visit and drop presents etc. Even when allowed go to funerals of her own family members and friends didnt.

So her daughter rings her about 2 weeks ago to see how she was, she only lives over the road but wasnt keen on people visiting even family, especially without prior warning. She gets off the phone and says to her husband she sounds like she has COVID symptoms. Rings her sister who thought the same. Cue a bit of arguing with her and she claiming shes had a head cold for a few days but is grand couldnt be COVID, "shur ive been grand, only a sniffle and a bit tired" cant be COVID. After a bit more arguing finally an acceptance to get tested and lo and behold yeah, positive COVID.

It has genuinely been like a new lease of life to the woman, practically released her. Shes out and about, her favourite story is now how she had this and didnt even know. Literally her kids say shes like someone released from prison which stuck with me.

There are still people in that prison at the moment and what a horrible time theyve had and my God to our media and those who sought celibrity from fear have a lot to answer for but i doubt they ever will unfortunately

This kind of thing. Do these people look back now a bit embarrassed or what.

Sometimes if you have a short drive between two stops it’s more hassle to take it off.

I know we would all prefer if Covid had never come along. However, it has given us an opportunity to reform the healthcare system in this country. I really hope we actually go ahead and implement substantial reform instead of getting some report together to gather dust on the desks in the DOH. Would be great to stop the brain drain of doctors and nurses to other countries where their working conditions are better and they can give the care to the patients that is required.

God I know what are these people thinking! I've even seen Taxi and bus drivers doing it!!!

Like maybe the person in the car is popping into a couple of shops and it's just easier to leave the mask on! Or maybe someone in the car is going for a covid test and the driver is taking some precautions! or maybe any of a dozen other perfectly reasonable reasons! Can't be having that kind of thing!

You might have seen me . I pop to the shop and often put my mask on at home first . I wear glasses and i need to adjust the mask so my glasses dont fog

It takes a while to get it right on the nose and my glasses in the right spot

So once on I leave it on while I do a few bits , I might drive to the shop then get petrol or pop into the butcher

My mask is on in the car so not bloody crazy at all , just me being practical

Proper mask-wearing procedures are that you don't touch the mask until you are taking it off and putting it in the bin. So I can certainly see why someone might feel like the best thing to do is to just leave the mask on, especially if they're going in and out of several different places.

Though if you're really trying to be hospital-perfect, you would remove and bin your mask every time you leave the mask-wearing area and put on a new one when you go back in.

Though I'd rather see people wearing masks when they're not necessary than refusing to wear them where they are.

Notwithstanding the fact that ordinary masks are basically pointless now.

One thing I have learned is not to judge what others are doing . You have absolutely no idea about their reasons or circumstances . They are not asking you to wear one or interfering with your life so why not leave to it and allow them that decision ?

Maybe the guy in Clontarf preferred not to have raw sewage near his mouth or simply like to swim without the fear of salmonella ? Who knows

Yes . New guidelines is if a close contact you need not isolate but advised to wear a mask for 8 days . Fair play to that lad .

If there was still widespread infection in the population hospital numbers wouldn’t be decreasing. Its one of the telltale signs for mass community transmission.

Oh it has for sure, but social media is awash with ISAG and the likes claiming that the changes are basically criminal and it's likely that infections are spiralling way out of control rather than reducing.

Again, as I've been banging on about for at least 4 weeks, Omicron is beyond our ability to suppress or control, so trying to get a very accurate fix on its prevalence is now a waste of time and energy. The only thing that matters is ICU. For other respiratory illnesses like 'flu and RSV, positivity rates of 30-50% are perfectly normal and give us a "good enough" assessment of where we are. And that's because we only test symptomatic and likely cases.

Test & Trace is a suppression & control technique (for the virus, not people). It is now completely pointless because neither of those things are possible.

Eventually we will bring Covid under the same umbrella as other respiratory illnesses - i.e. only testing people who present to GPs or hospitals. The public health advice will remain that people with any kind of symptoms should remain at home, but that's just good sense for any illness. The purpose of antigen tests will therefore start to fall away; if nobody is notifying close contacts anymore, then why would people bother to get tested?

I suspect we could move to this regime now, but there are too many scenarios where people would lose their **** if they announced the end of contact tracing and masks tomorrow; I.e. Schools and retail. Another month of minor imposition for the sake of maximising population protection is reasonable. But to a large extent it's just theatre to help ease people out of the pandemic.

Habit they will grow out of. Use mine to keep my face warn in these cold days when out and about