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

"Never forget the entire mainstream or legacy media was paid off to beat the covid drum - there is not a speck of decency or honesty in any of them."

Who paid them?

Pat was insufferable yesterday. Over on RTE Radio, there was actually some balance as Claire's guest, a geriatric consultant said he took a pragmatic view of covid at this stage and did not think masks should be mandatory in settings outside of healthcare.

I would hate for mask wearing restrictions to be brought back. It has been such a relief personally to enter premises freely and mix freely without having to fumble about with a mask, and to hear people clearly when they are speaking to you. That's all worth a lot imo.

My wife and son have recently recovered after a second dose.

To be fair to RTE (that's something I never thought I'd be saying), I was listening to Morning Ireland this morning and the presenter (think it was Rachel English or Aine Lawlor) was really sticking the boot into Anne O'Connor (HSE Chief Operations Officer). Specifically asked her for the breakdown of Covid figures in hospital presenting with Covid and incidental Covid. When Anne tried to pass it off and say the breakdown doesn't matter for hospitals as all patients need to be treated in Covid wards regardless, the presenter grilled her about infection controls in the hospitals stating that hospitals could be responsible for a lot of outbreaks and more should be done there instead of in the community.

Was refreshing to hear this line of questioning for a change.

Nope, meant exactly that. You can get on with your life and still be cautious. Many people have had it in the last few months and think they're immune from getting a different varient.

I'm not for one minute calling for restrictions or anything to be reintroduced, just people still need to be mindful that it hasn't gone away.

Two year into covid I witnessed the most insane scenario so far yesterday when I was starting to believe we were nearly finished with it.

Driving around a sharp bend in the road I had to skid to a stop as there was an old lady with a dog on a lead standing in the middle of the road. She had a mask held over her face with her hand (not looped around her ears). She had moved off the path because somebody was walking towards her and she felt more at risk from covid than an oncoming car on a blind corner. It is hard to quantify the phycological damage that has been done to some people, vary sad to see.

It would have been better if he came out calling for the re-introduction of restrictions.

Then the outrage here could be genuine.

I always thought the Irish Times had some of the more 'balanced' coverage on covid throughout the 2 years (albeit you usually had to dig around the business section to get more critical / sensible analysis).

However this is a rather unexpected read, and quite a pleasure to read after the last week of mild media hysterics!

It is indeed a good thing,largely because the "Party Line" on Covid-19 was becoming untenable due to the ordinary Citizen being now permitted to get out & about and see the reality.

The,almost two year fixation which the entire Irish Media displayed for "The Official Line" had to end sometime,as if it had'nt been addressed now,then it would have taken somebody brave enough to do a Marina Ovsyannikova on it....now THAT was bravery !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWgV0gtUIv0&ab_channel=ITVNews

The government have said it, the CMO have said it, doctors have said it. There is no need for further restrictions. Yet the loud minority are still shouting for more to be brought in.