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

Worldwide daily deaths are now at their lowest since the pandemic first kicked off in 2020.

Hi Goldengirl, I’ll have to disagree with you on that. The side effects of the vaccine should be discussed to keep confidence in the medical and pharmaceutical sector going forward. Now it’s left to the wild conspiracy theorists who gain more credibility stating all sorts of nonsense about 5G, etc.

I agree it’s a learning curve but there are plenty of videos out there of governments and health officials saying the vaccine stopped transmission at the start. Perhaps they were fed false information from vaccine company data - it should be investigated if so. Even this January 2022 as the children’s vaccine was being rolled out, Dr Colm Henry and Dr Karina Butler among others were claiming in interviews on RTÉ that it would ‘stop children contracting Covid’. This is blatantly untrue, it’s also false information and misleading. If the subject wasn’t so serious, yes give people a break. But it is.

I was in A&E and the ESU in UCHG over the weekend minding a relation. Absolute chaos in there. People on trolleys and chairs in every available corridor. A nurse told me that beds were like "hen's teeth". Horrendous conditions for patients and overworked healthcare staff. Depressing to see really.

I am not suggesting it is down to Covid. It just seems we are returning to 'normal service' which the government have been ignoring for decades.

Not true at all and being of this type of view places people quite firmly in the CT wheelhouse. People expressing opinions have been challenged on all sides. That's not a personal affront, it's a means by which we filter out the complete rubbish. Disagreeing with our approach is a right we all have but a claim of unfair debate suggests that people either couldn't make their case or there were serious flaws in their argument. Debate too allows that people who agreed with our approach get their opinions aired and respected.

TBH this post does more than hint you were far too concerned about what other people had to say and that you feel hard done by that more people didn't agree with you. If you are looking to settle accounts that's your prerogative but the healthier path is to forget all about it and get on with your life.

@Vachement wrote:

To what end though are we testing everyone going into hospitals? If we're swabbing for covid, then why not norovirus, why not influenza? Covid is not going away, so new testing regimes now would be functionally permanent. It's not like anything is going to change that will let us stop testing.

And I'm not in principle opposed to infection control measures in hospitals - obviously - but it needs to be based on what is proven work rather than expectations. That is, would screening everyone in and out of hospitals, result in a net benefit? On the face of it, it seems like a no-brainer. But there would be knock-on effects; increased levels of staff absences and reduced numbers of visitors. Both of which we know to be detrimental to individual patient outcomes. So even if increased levels of testing resulted in ls acquired illnesses (and we don't know for certain if it would), that alone is not good enough. We need to know whether patients as a whole benefit from it.

In terms of improved indoor air quality, you're not wrong. But everyone who has suggested it seems to fall short of defining or understanding the actual scale of it. Are we talking about retrofitting HVAC into every building in the country? If the building owner refuses or can't afford it, what then? Even if we had started in March 2020, the resources needed to run such a programme are far too constrained to have made a difference in two years. This kind of thing belongs in building regulations. Which, like fire safety, is a drip-feed thing which takes decades to become standard across the country.

Of course, what we do know is that the vast, vast majority of cases were acquired in household settings. How do we improve the air quality in homes? Building regulations. How long will that take to make a difference? Again, decades. There's also the environmental impact. We can't just start throwing air conditioning into every home in the country. Measures would have to be based on low-energy & passive systems. Which are even more expensive and harder to retrofit.

I see one of the companies that runs a few Gaeltacht colleges have cancelled their courses for the Summer again this year due to covid.

I suppose they'll have the paw out looking for money from the government to stay afloat aswell?

These people need a serious wake up call.

I agree we need to learn and know more, but my point was that the data so far shows worse effects from Covid than from the worldwide rollout of the vaccines .

You will argue to the contrary however. Can't change that .

You do accept that mandatory vaccines were not brought in nor were they for children ?

Nor was the Digital Covid cert made permanent .

These were other worries that you had that did not come to pass ...

Or maybe people have grown a pair and have stopped reporting that they have it.

I went to work for a week with it and nobody was any the worse for not knowing, time to move on.

Some of us don't have the handy cushion of public service sick pay.

what is the prevalence and impact of non Covid viral infections in hospitals? There seems to be a lot going round at the moment.

Not very much influenza , 1 needing ICU , only 7 in the whole Winter season .A lot of coughs alright but milder illness .

Small numbers even of norovirus comparing to other years . Nursing home outbreaks .

These are all on HSPC website , under infectious diseases surveillance .

Big job for her. She's been excellent during this. CMO, herself and ...?

Ah that was quitting Maynooth and well-flagged. NPHET just seconded people for the duration.

@Goldengirl wrote:

Sure. The actual danger Omicron presents is still very much up in the air. At the moment about two-thirds of ICU admission have "incidental" Covid, according to Varadkar. Which suggests that even at maximum saturation, the actual impact of covid infections is pretty small.

Most of the issues with staffing and control appear to focus around staff absences and patient isolation. I said it months back, but at some point we need to shift from "isolate covid patients to protect the vulnerable", to just "isolate the vulnerable to protect them".

The point is that covid is not going away. At some point we have to recognise that treating like a novel virus is unsustainable as you pump resources into mitigation efforts that do not properly reflect the real danger.

The fact is that Omicron in Ireland since the 1st January 2022 has a CFR of around 0.12% - at most. Which is at the lower end of the CFR that seasonal influenza typically has. It's considerably more infectious, sure. But it's simply not that dangerous any more.

Claire Byrne back in the shed again. Lol. She has become a bit of a parody at this stage.

https://twitter.com/Independent_ie/status/1511059789522124806