"Nobody cares about Covid anymore"

not being a surgeon no I never. And yes I wore a mask when it meant without doing so I wasn’t able to do normal things, such as; go to the shop, use a bus, go to work. You know, just like everyone else had to.

But that’s an irrelevance to the fact that they aid in reducing the spread of infection, what part of that changes because I didn’t wear a mask before it was not a choice?

I really do struggle to understand what point you’re making here. It’s like me saying that flu vaccines don’t prevent the flu, you arguing the obvious fact & me telling you I bet you never got one before heard they helped!!!

I still don’t wear one regularly, either, but again, to tell someone they don’t reduce the spread of infection is bollox. So I don’t.

Which may cause infection. That’s what masks do. Stop the spread of droplets and aerosols from our mouths and nose.

I never claimed that. You’re confusing me with another.

I previously reviewed and discussed the Irish death figures on the COVID forums. Don't have the figures to hand but I remember the vast majority of deaths were 70+ and had 3 or more Comorbidities.

But it's absolutely not like 90% of deaths were people struck down in their prime

That doesn't specify whether COVID was the only illness listed as an underlying cause.

I highly doubt with all the elderly and nursing home people dying that 90% died only due to COVID.

Personally, I just think we've moved to a stage where pragmatically getting on with life is the only thing any of us can do. There are certain precautions that should be taken to limit spread, but nothing on the scale of what was going on in 2020/21. A lot of background things could be done, particularly improved ventilation and filtration. Some of that simply hasn't been done and I think that's fairly inexcusable, particularly in densely packed venues and schools.

They're simple, pragmatic solutions that don't disrupt anyone at all - in most cases you wouldn't even be aware of them being in place, and they actually improve the air quality in buildings and busy venues, but they cost a few quid or they create a draught, so you can't be doing any of that. Some of the universities and some employers have done an excellent job on this, but they seem to largely be acting entirely on their own on some of the measures.

Just to give an example: my very elderly, very immune compromised relative was called for a 6th vaccine dose at her GP's surgery and when she showed up the waiting room was packed, there was no specific appointment, all the windows were closed, condensation dripping down the window panes, people coughing and spluttering, a few people wearing masks (the staff weren't). She walked out saying you could 'practically smell the viruses'. She ended up getting her vaccine in City West instead which was just vastly better organised, much safer and genuinely efficient and pleasant.

Stuff like that GP surgery scenario simply shouldn't be happening. It's genuinely very high risk and pointless. If we took some practical steps to eliminate situations like that it would make a lot of sense and it doesn't mean going to extremes with everyone needing to be running around with masks on in the supermarket or walking doing the street.

Same with public transport - if there's cold weather, closed windows and all of that - wearing a mask is probably pragmatic and sensible. If the ventilation can be dramatically improved then it also should be too. There's a lot could be done in that space.

I still think we are not being pragmatic at governance and policy making level and there are some people who are just pretending it's entirely gone away and there are others who are way too extreme on their level of caution (although most of those are online online). Neither of those positions is particularly helpful. The reality is in some pragmatic middle ground, which is where the vast majority of the public are. They're neither panicking nor are they freaking out about conspiracy theories, they're just trying to be sensible and get on with life.

I just find sometimes there's been a lack of sensible and pragmatic guidance and information available. The Department of Health / HSE advice has been either draconian or very patronising and it's often poorly communicated and even sometimes out of date and wrong (e.g. the lack of advice on ventilation). People can only do their best with whatever informations available and most of them are doing that and just getting on with life.

I just think there's a lot we can learn from what was done well and what was clearly an overreaction or policy failure in some other areas, both here in Ireland and what happened in peer countries in Europe and elsewhere. There's a lot to be learned and discussed and I would hope that fear of conspiracy theorists getting all freaked out about everything is not going to take away from being able to analyse, discuss and learn from all of that, because we need to be a lot more prepared for any future weird outbreak like this. It's clearly not beyond the realms of possibility and I think we (and I mean more than just in Ireland) have shown that we are not very good at either calculating risk or responding to a crisis in a sensible way.