Reflection on the pandemic: questions about the authorities' response.

The government will simply say that every country took the same measures, and that they were necessary.

The government know they will never be able to bring restrictions back in.

For starters the lockdown didn't fail to stop the spread initially based on the data we know that numbers increased rapidly when restrictions were lifted (or ignored).

So why reply to a thread that's starting it's premise with strawman. Few posts in and the name calling and dogma had already started. It's just going to go around in circles.

If this was a serious thread it would be pointing out the contradictory measures taken like locking people at home while allowing people in from other countries. But it's not going down that route. It's going down the conspiracy route just general ranting.

I miss the lunatic Covid threads and posters.

This is nostalgic and quaint,carry on.

The population hasn't been infected with the same variant. Its disingenuous to just leave that out. Pretty much invalidates much of your post.

Covid hasn't "passed", it's still around.

It's impossible to reply to a load of vague statements with no context or data. You might have asked why do people always have soup on a monday.

Hindsight is 20:20 and I would have hated to be in the governments shoes throughout this but I believe it is important to ask questions to prepare for the future. I would have supported the governments stance for the first few months. However we do need an enquiry (doubt it will happen though) as to some of the huge decisions made and their consequences which have, are still being and have yet to be felt:

1. Nursing homes and why patients were transferred there (even though it happened worldwide we still need to know the basis for the decision at the time).
2. Summer 2020 they refused to relax restrictions (up to May 18th with a 3 week review period) even though case went down to single figures.
3. Internal travel restrictions and how they were implemented and penalties for same. Garda Checkpoints going to work. Some living near beaches with no-one still being reprimanded. `Closing schools and much of the economy while sending the police after people who sat on park benches – was the most draconian policy introduced in peacetime`.
4. Why were NPHETs figures not questioned continuously throughout. This is so important as so many lives depended on the decisions Covid or not.
5. The reticence in using Antigen testing (snake oil as was called by NPHETs Phillip Nolan).
6. Why was there such deference to NPHET all the time. Journalists and Government treated them like the Catholic Church of old and you were an antivaxxer etc. if you disagreed!
7. Why were such a constant fear narrative with so many doom mongering experts wheeled out all the time in media to give to same continuous narrative frightening some in the population and some of whom are still afraid!
8. Why was there no proper adult mature reflection or debate about Irelands response be it good, bad or indifferent?
9. Why was our response so tunnel visioned? Was there any cost benefit analysis performed into the physical, mental, social, economic consequences of Irelands response outside of Covid? Nothing else was considered if it wasn`t a Covid death and it didn`t matter for a long time. The new UK prime minister raised this in the UK in August https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-lockdown-files-rishi-sunak-on-what-we-werent-told and I suspect we were very similar.
10. Why was there such vilification of the unvaccinated especially at a time, when the vilification campaign began, that a high percentage of our population were vaccinated already?
11. What basis were the vaccine passports issued for if the vaccine companies themselves have not claimed that the vaccines fully prevent transmission even though they are effective at preventing hospitalisations and deaths due to Covid?
12. Why was there such a one sided narrative in national national media throughout?

I hope we never experience anything like this again. I have lost a lot of respect for some in government, some medical personnel, media personalities in the way they behaved throughout this with their endless scaremongering. I feel all sense of balance was lost and despite what some think here borderline infringed on civil rights at times in some instances. I said on a post previously that we would need some sort of majordistraction to snap us out of Covid here in Ireland. Unfortunately we got it in the form of Putin's invasion of Ukraine as

The vaccine rollout here was a success and I have no doubt COVID deaths were prevented by Irelands response to COVID in Ireland but the big question for me continues to be at what cost!

A good start would be why our Health Bureaucrats imposed the most severe restrictions in Europe for a virus that disproportionately affects the elderly despite us having one of the youngest populations and our sparse population spread...it was bonkers, it's the poor people who were frightened out of their wits by those very same bureaucrats I feel sorry for, you'll never get back those years!

Certainly won't change the mind of anyone only thinking of themselves.

There are a few people, in the minority I would think, that care about what happened (they would have disagreed with any and every angle of the response at the time anyway) and would not accept any "official" findings if they didn't suit their own personal narrative. These seem to be the only people what want reviews etc.

The rest of the population (vast majority) accept that decisions have had to be made at various times and with the benefit of hindsight a number of these decisions could have been better timed or made in the fist place. A review ain't gonna change that.

As such the vast majority of people want to move on.

Look the vaccines were a game changer here. The investment and time that went into them were unprecedented. They work but not not as good as we like or some company's claimed. They work against serious illness and death otherwise we would still be under restrictions no doubt.

Again we are entitled to question the response here overall as it definitely turned political both from government and NPHET and we were not alone either I think.

In time when saner heads prevail and we can calmly debate it but for now I suspect its still too soon.

I really don't think there's that much learning that could be achieved via an "enquiry" or otherwise. The groups that need to learn will learn and it is possible that the next event of similiar magnitude may be in completely different economic, social and scientific times.

I seriously doubt it. We are in a new situation now mass vaccinations, new vaxes etc. Maybe masks in certain places but thats no bad thing.

The antivaxxer line is such a weak and lazy response. The poster made some excellent points and has considered the subject. There is no need to be so black and white. Tear the post apart by all means...but people let themselves down time and again with the blinkered antivax response.

Fyi

Moving on is all well and good, but our Government is currently preparing plans for energy shortages, that involve restrictions on citizens.

We also have, what we are being told is a climate emergency.

We have seen how easy it is for Governments/Bureaucrats to condition the public, too many of us are prepared to hand over our civil liberties and not have the acumen to ask why.

Part of the problem was large portions of the state simply shutting down rather than making any sort of effort to at least keep things ticking over. For all its faults at least the UK response paid attention to the idea that people and businesses need to get on with things.